Daring Bakers - Avocado & Granny Smith Soufflé

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Ruth from Makey-Cakey was our March 2013 Daring Bakers’ challenge host. She encouraged us all to get experimental in the kitchen and sneak some hidden veggies into our baking, with surprising and delicious results!

A failed chocolate zucchini cake:
too moist, didn't rise, ...
the only thing kind of
positive about it was the taste.

The blogchecking lines should also have said "disastrous" results because many of my attempts at baking with veggies ended up in utter failure.  Ok, utter failure might be an exaggeration, but still none of the cakes I tried,  worked out in the end whether I stuck to the recipe or took some liberties with it.  I am however a stubborn woman and I will not hang my head in despair and give up.  I have set my mind on this parsnip and white chocolate cake, so I will tweak the recipe yet again and have a third try next weekend, even if it will be too late for the challenge post.

If cakes and me are no longer BFFs since the beginning of this challenge, I haven't completely lost my baking skills though (Thank God!).  So, in the end, despite the numerous failed cakes, I do have a success story to share : a delicious Avocado and Granny Smith Soufflé, that rounded off a nice Sunday meal with the family.

I found this recipe in the book : Les insolites de Julie by Julie Andrieu.  I have been watching Julie on TV for a couple of years already  in this great programme called "Fourchette & sac à dos" (Fork & Backpack), where she travels around the world, cooks dishes with the locals while offering us a glimpse of those exotic and faraway countries.  But somehow, until 2 weeks ago, I was oblivious to the fact that she had a few cookbooks published in her name.  As soon as I found out, I went to my favourite Cook Shop Alice Délice and found two of her books that I have been studying in detail ever since I got my hands on them : Julie cuisine le Monde chez vous and the aforementioned Les insolites de Julie.  You can expect some new posts in the coming weeks, as I cook my way through her recipes. :o)

Back to the soufflé. I know that technically avocado is a fruit an not a vegetable, but as it fell into the "unusual combinations in sweet desserts" category,  it met the Daring Bakers Hidden Veggies Challenge. Until now I only had avocado either in guacamole or in salad with shrimp, so using it in a sweet dessert was definitely a novelty for me.

Ingredients (for 4 servings) :

* 1 ripe avocado
* 1 granny smith apple
* 2 Tbsp olive oil
* 1 Tbsp ornage juice
* 1 lime
* 4 Tbsp of sugar cane syrup (I used agave syrup instead)
* 5 cl rum
* 1 tsp grated gringer
* 80g egg whites (± 2/3 egg whites)
* 20g butter
* 20g butter
* Cinnamon
* Icing sugar

Preparation :

Preheat the oven to 190°C.

Peal the apple, wash the lime, grate its zest and press out half of its juice.

Blend together the avocado flesh with half the apple, 1 Tbsp of olive oil, the orange and lime juice, the lime zest, the ginger and 2 Tbsp of (sugar cane) syrup.

Dice the remaining half of the apple, sauté on high fire in the remaining Tbsp of olive oil.  Deglaze with rum and add 1 TBsp of (sugar cane) syrup.

Whisk the eggwhites to stiff peaks, sweeting them with 1 Tbsp of syrup.

Fold the avocado and apple preparations delicately into the eggwhites.

Butter and sugar 4 ramekinds and pour the preparation into it.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Serve hot, sprinkled with cinnamon and icing sugar.

Dare to bake with hidden veggies.  Challenge accepted!