Why did my soufflé collapse?

A soufflé is hot air held in a net of egg white and a thickened base. The air expands, the mixture rises, and the outside sets into a shell. The moment it leaves the oven the air cools and contracts, so it sinks — always. Restaurants do not have a secret; they have short distances. What you can control is how high it rises, how evenly, and whether it stays up for the minute you need rather than falling in the oven.

What you'll need

• Straight-sided ramekins or a soufflé dish
• Soft butter and caster sugar or fine breadcrumbs
• A very clean, grease-free bowl for the whites

Step by step

1. Prepare the dish so the mixture can climb.Brush soft butter up the inside in vertical strokes from base to rim, then coat with caster sugar for a sweet soufflé or fine breadcrumbs or grated cheese for a savoury one. The vertical strokes matter: they give the mixture a ladder. Butter applied in circles produces a soufflé that rises lopsided.
2. Get the base right first.A soufflé base is a thick, well-flavoured, fairly stiff mixture — a thickened custard or a béchamel with egg yolks. It should be noticeably thicker than you would want to eat, because the whites will loosen it considerably.
3. Whip the whites to soft-to-medium peaks only.Stiff, dry whites cannot stretch as the air expands, so they tear and the soufflé collapses in the oven. Peaks that hold their shape but flop slightly at the tip are what you want. Absolutely no yolk or grease in the bowl.
4. Fold in three stages.Beat a quarter of the whites into the base to loosen it — you can be rough with this quarter. Then fold the rest in two additions, gently, stopping while a few streaks remain. See `fold-flour-into-cake-batter` for the motion.
5. Fill to the rim and run a thumb round the edge.Level the top with a palette knife and then run your thumb round the inside of the rim to make a shallow channel. That gap frees the edge from the dish and gives the characteristic straight-sided rise instead of a mushroom top.
6. Bake on a preheated tray in the lower half of the oven.Bottom heat drives the rise. A preheated baking sheet gives the base an immediate push. Around 190–200°C for individual ramekins.
7. Do not open the door.Not once, not to look. A blast of cold air at the wrong moment collapses a soufflé that would otherwise have been fine. Use the oven light.
8. Serve immediately.Have the plates, the spoons and the people ready before it comes out. Two minutes is a realistic window; five is not.

Tips

• A twice-baked soufflé is the answer for anyone who wants to serve soufflé to guests. It is baked, allowed to collapse, then reheated in cream — and it rises again. There is no timing pressure at all.
• A pinch of cream of tartar or a few drops of lemon juice in the whites makes the meringue more stable and more forgiving of a moment's over-whipping.
• Room-temperature whites whip to greater volume than cold ones. Separate them cold — the yolk holds together better — then let them warm up.
• Individual ramekins are far more reliable than one large dish, because they bake through before the structure tires.

Common mistakes

• Whipping the whites to stiff, dry peaks — It feels like more structure and it is the opposite. Dry whites cannot stretch as the air expands, so the network tears and the whole thing falls.
• Opening the oven to check on it — The rise depends on continuously expanding hot air. A cold draught at ten minutes ends it.

If it doesn't work