Herbed Manchego Cheese Soufflé with Onion Pear Jam

Earlier today I shared with you the recipe of a spicy Onion Pear Jam and as a teaser for what was about to follow, I shared a photograph of my herbed Manchego cheese soufflé topped with the spicy Jam. I had planned to post the souffle sooner... but then life happened and I had to wait till everything fell into place and I was free to jot down the recipe.. 

So here's the recipe of the cheese soufflé for you... I adapted it from Dorie's recipe of Muenster cheese soufflé. A few weeks back I had tried out her recipe for French Fridays with Dorie and found it a little bland for my taste. Recounting the experience I tweaked the recipe this time to add more flavors and guess what.... this time it turned out great. The soufflé tasted delicious with the added herbs and spicy jam and this time both husband and I loved it. 

Cheese Souffle # French Fridays with Dorie

They say 'third time's a charm.' Probably that is why it took me a three trials to get the souffles right. After the first two trials I had given up but all the FFwD posts kept nagging me to try one more time.... and look I got it right this time :) 

I almost followed Dorie's instructions... just that I used Swiss Cheese and not Muenster for that is all I had in hand. Also I whipped up two third of the recipe. Since I did not have a lot of time to cool the bechamel before adding in the egg whites,  I simply let the bechamel sauce rest while I was beating the egg whites and soon after folded in the egg whites. The souffles rose in 17-18 minutes. I let it stay in the oven for another couple of minutes and then took it out. 

The tops had browned nicely and the souffles was light, fluffy and cotton soft. Though my husband really liked it and was more than happy to eat off most of the toddlers portion, like my toddler I did not enjoy it too much. I found it a bit bland and after a while slightly boring. I blame the Swiss Cheese for it and plan to try this recipe again with a tastier variety of cheese. Also since the souffle was an impulsive inclusion for dinner i had not prepared the recommended tomato pepper salad to go with it. I guess the souffle would have tasted less flat had I accompanied it with a perky salad. Anyway the texture was impressive and I plan to make it again soon with better cheese and a salad by the side and probably serve for lunch.

As a member of french friday's with Dorie I am not supposed to post the recipe on the blog. However you can find this particular recipe here. For more delicious recipes order your copies of Around the French Table from Amazon or from The Book Depository and join us as we cook our way through the book.