Day Four - At Sea And Returning Home

Did You Know? - A soufflé is a light, fluffy, baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a savoury main dish or sweetened as a dessert . The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler which means "to blow up" or more loosely "puff up" — an apt description of what happens to this combination of custard and egg whites.

Every soufflé is made from two basic components:

1. a French crème pâtissière base/flavoured cream sauce or purée
2. egg whites beaten to a soft peak meringue

The base provides the flavour and the whites provide the "lift". Foods commonly used for the base in a soufflé include jam , fruits, berries, chocolate , banana and lemon (the last three are used for desserts, often with a good deal of sugar ).

When it comes out of the oven, a soufflé should be puffed up and fluffy, and will generally fall after 5 or 10 minutes (as risen dough does).

Soufflés can be made in containers of all shapes and sizes but it is traditional to make soufflé in ramekins . These containers vary greatly in size, but are typically glazed white, flat-bottomed, round porcelain containers with unglazed bottoms and fluted exterior borders.

There are a number of variations on the soufflé theme. One is an ice cream soufflé, which combines a soufflé with ice cream and either a fruit or a hot sauce.