Gordon Ramsay’s chocolate soufflé uses 150g of dark chocolate melted into a milk and cornflour base with egg yolks, then folded with whisked egg whites and baked for just 6 minutes. The recipe comes from The F Word, where a young home cook demonstrates it on camera and Ramsay tastes the result and calls it “absolutely delicious.”
This isn’t from one of Ramsay’s cookbooks, and I want to be upfront about that. The video doesn’t give an exact weight for the chocolate either, so I tested it at home with 150g of 70% dark chocolate to 200ml of milk, which gives you a base thick and intense enough that you actually taste chocolate, not just sweet egg. She says in the video “don’t skimp on it, it needs to be about 60 to 70 percent cocoa content because you need to taste the chocolate in this,” and 150g delivers on that.
What makes this version simpler than most chocolate soufflé recipes is the base. No pastry cream, no ganache, just milk thickened with cornflour until it reaches what she describes as “a really yogurty texture,” then the chocolate and egg yolks go straight in. The whole thing comes together faster than Ramsay’s raspberry soufflé because there’s one less component to make and cool.
Gordon Ramsay Chocolate Soufflé
Course: DessertCuisine: French, BritishDifficulty: Medium4
soufflés20
minutes6
minutes420
kcal30
minutesFrom The F Word, where a home cook teaches the recipe to Ramsay and he calls the result absolutely delicious. A simpler base than his other soufflé recipes: milk thickened with cornflour, dark chocolate melted in, egg yolks stirred through, whites folded on top. Six minutes in the oven.
Ingredients
200ml whole milk
20g cornflour
150g dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa), chopped
4 large eggs, separated
150g caster sugar
Softened butter for the ramekins
Grated dark chocolate for lining
Directions
- Make the base: Mix the cornflour into the milk in a saucepan and cook over a medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens to a yogurty texture. Take off the heat and add the chopped chocolate, stirring until melted and smooth.
- Add the yolks: Let the chocolate mixture cool for a few minutes. It’s really important that the chocolate is a little bit cooler otherwise what you get is scrambled eggs. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time.
- Prep the ramekins: Brush four ramekins with softened butter and dust the insides with grated dark chocolate, tipping the excess from one into the next.
- Whip the whites: Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F)/160°C fan/Gas 4. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until foamy, then slowly add the sugar while whisking. This is what breathes life into the chocolate mix, so don’t overwork it. Whisk to stiff, glossy peaks.
- Fold: Stir a third of the whites into the chocolate base to loosen it, then gently fold in the rest, keeping as much air as possible.
- Fill and clean: Spoon into the ramekins to the top. Clean the rim of any drips, because otherwise your soufflé won’t rise evenly.
- Bake: Bake for 6 minutes until risen with a set top and a soft centre. Serve immediately.
FAQs
Why cool the chocolate before adding the yolks?
Egg yolks scramble at around 70°C, and melted chocolate sitting in a hot milk base is well above that. If you stir the yolks into a mixture that’s too hot, you get grainy lumps of cooked egg that no amount of whisking will fix.
She’s specific about this in the video: “it’s really important that the chocolate is a little bit cooler otherwise what you get is this horrible scramble from the eggs.” Give it 3–4 minutes off the heat, or until you can touch the side of the pan without pulling away.
Why only 6 minutes?
This base is thinner than Ramsay’s other soufflé recipes. His passion fruit soufflé and raspberry version both use a thick crème pâtissière that needs 10–12 minutes to set. This one uses cornflour-thickened milk, which is lighter, so it cooks through faster.
At 6 minutes the top should be set and risen but the centre should still be soft and almost molten. If you leave it 8–9 minutes it sets all the way through and you lose that contrast between crisp outside and chocolate pudding inside.
How is this different from Ramsay’s chocolate fondant?
A fondant is melted chocolate and butter with whole eggs, baked until the outside sets and the centre stays liquid. There’s no whisked egg whites, no rise, no air. It’s dense and rich, designed to pour out when you cut into it. Ramsay publishes his chocolate fondant recipe in Bread Street Kitchen and Fast Food.
This soufflé uses whisked whites folded into a chocolate base, so it rises tall above the ramekin with a light, airy texture. The centre is soft but not liquid. They look similar on a plate but the technique and texture are completely different.
