Chocolate Souffle

Surprisingly, I've made very few sweet recipes this month. So I'll finish off with this chocolate souffle. After experimenting a bit with a few different recipes and combining what, to me, is the best of all of them ...things like preserving high quality taste and texture, but not having an extra egg yolk left over or having TOO many steps. I also adjusted the size -- this recipe makes just 2-3 servings, though you can easily double it (or more) as needed).

Ingredients
softened butter & granulated white sugar - as needed to grease & dust ramekins
2 oz dark chocolate
1 T butter
1 T flour
¼ C milk
pinch salt
¼ tsp instant coffee
2 eggs, separated
pinch cream of tartar
2 T sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 375°F.

Coat 2 large (8-oz) ramekins (or 3 5-oz ramekins) with softened butter, all the way up the sides. Put a tablespoon sugar in each ramekin, tilting and rotating them to coat all sides; tap out excess sugar. Place ramekins on a baking sheet.

In a small sauce pan, melt butter over low heat. Sprinkle in flour, whisking to combine; continue stirring as mixture thickens to form a roux. Whisk in milk until mixture is smooth and thickens (2-3 minutes). Remove from heat.

Chop chocolate into small pieces. Gently stir into thickened milk; let sit to melt chocolate.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, combine egg whites and cream of tartar, whipping until very frothy. Add 1 tablespoon sugar, continue whipping until opaque. Add remaining sugar, continue whipping to soft peaks.

Stir chocolate mixture -- chocolate should be fully melted. Stir in egg yolks, salt and instant coffee.

Gently stir about one third of egg whites into chocolate mixture until completely incorporated. Fold in another third. Finally, gently fold in final third...just until fully combined.

Divide evenly amoung ramekins. Bake 18-28 minutes until souffles have risen beyond the ramekin rims and are set in the centers.

Best served immediately...souffles do fall and settle (though they are still delicious even after they've cooled!) -- mine had already fallen sightly even before I coud take a photo.