Banana Soufflé

When life gives you bananas, make soufflés, right? I think that’s how the saying goes. Oh well, either way. These Banana Soufflés are light and fluffy (and require good timing).

The hardest part is whisking the egg whites until they get some nice, soft peaks. You can do it though, just throw some extra elbow grease into it.

Ingredients:

• 2 firm, ripe bananas (mashed)
• 1 TBSP unsalted butter, melted
• 5 TBSP sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 3 egg whites
• Juice of 1/2 a lime
• Pinch of salt

Caution! Serve immediately or these soufflés will shrivel quickly.

1. Preheat the oven to 400°.
2. Brush four 1-cup ramekins with melted butter. Add 2 tablespoons of the sugar to one of the ramekins and rotate it to coat with sugar. Tap the excess sugar into another ramekin. Repeat until all the ramekins are coated with sugar.
3. In a food processor, puree the bananas with lime juice, egg yolk and 2 tablespoons of the sugar until smooth. Scrape the mixture into a large bowl.
4. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. (This is the hardest part!)
5. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar and beat until firm and glossy. Using a rubber spatula, beat one-fourth of the beaten whites into the banana mixture, then gently fold in the remaining whites.
6. Spoon the soufflé mixture into the prepared ramekins and tap them lightly on a countertop.
7. Transfer the soufflés to a baking sheet and bake in the center of the oven for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown and risen. Do not open the oven until they are finished!

Once you pull these Banana Soufflés from the oven, they will start to shrivel up pretty quickly. Mine rose a little more than indicated in the pictures.

These Banana Soufflés are actually fairly healthy. Each only contains about 1 TBSP of sugar so you could do a lot worse. If you get it right, the soufflés should be light, airy and fluffy.