Cream the egg yolks and sugar and add the chocolate little by little.
Grind the lebkuchen, saturate with milk, and stir into the egg yolk mixture together with the lemon zest, orange zest, vanilla sugar, salt, cardamom, and ground nuts.
Begin beating the eggs, then beat to stiff peaks with granulated sugar.
Slowly fold into the batter.
Butter the ramekins and sprinkle them with granulated sugar.
Fill the ramekins about ¾ of the way full and bake in a water bath for about 25–30 minutes.
Remove the soufflés from the ramekins and serve right away.
The filling “nuc castanea,” which became the Spanish chestnut or Italian “marrone,” was known to the ancient Romans and traveled north with them from the Mediterranean to Hadrian’s Wall in England. As opposed to the equally filling field crops, the chestnut was not a result of agriculture, but rather came from the woods and pastures. The custom of planting edible chestnuts cultured from wild chestnuts instead of old, dead oak trees spread, especially in southern and central Europe. Not, however, to load up the markets of the Middle Ages with roasted chestnuts, but because they hoped to created an emergency replacement for grain with flour made from the chestnuts. In Italy, European chestnuts are still often called Albero del pane”—tree of bread.
Cream the butter with the confectioner’s sugar and then add the egg yolks.
Purée the bananas, mix with lemon juice, almonds, chocolate streusel, and cornstarch.
Mix into the egg yolk mixture.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks with the sugar and fold in.
Butter the ramekins and sprinkle them with sugar.
Fill the ramekins about ⅔ of the way full and bake in a water bath for about 20 minutes.
Remove the soufflés from the ramekin, garnish to taste, and serve right away.
Notes / Tips / Wine Advice:
Garnish Recommendation:
banana slices, chocolate shavings, and mango purée
Bananas, of All Things
Although the banana was only shipped from Asia to Europe in 1885, it is only of the oldest domesticated plants in the world. Alexander the Great met them during his Indian campaign, and in 500BCE, Gautama Buddha used the banana bush as a symbol for the inanity and worthlessness of worldly possession because it cannot fertilize itself and its flowers are sterile. Bananas owe their worldwide popularity to world famous variety star Josephine Baker, who—clothed only in a banana belt—was a singing propagandist for bananas in the 1920s. She coined that erotic image that the Chiquita company used in 1945 for a famous radio spot which went: “I’m Chiquita Banana and I’ve come to say/That bananas have to ripen in a certain way./Any way you want to eat them/It’s impossible to beat them.” The refrain offered good life advice to unenlightened banana consumers: ‘“But you must never put bananas/In the refrigerator/No-nono-no.”
Put both chocolates in a metal mixing bowl and warm over steam.
As soon as they are liquid, stir in the butter, remove from heat, and mix in the egg yolks.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks with the sugar and fold into the chocolate mixture.
Butter a ramekin and sprinkle with granulated sugar.
Fill the ramekin about 2/5 of the way full and bake in a water bath for about 25 minutes.
Remove the soufflé from the ramekin, garnish to taste, and serve right away.
Notes / Tips / Wine Advice:
Since the chocolate soufflé batter can be prepared days early and frozen, it is perfect for when you are expecting guests. In this case, you simply have to bake for 5 minutes longer.
