Lemon Yogurt Soufflé (sugar-free)

Sometimes I think it would be useful for someone to start a content aggregate site which only includes trusted recipes from sites that actually test the recipes and have positive feedback from people who successfully duplicate their results (not just rave about the pretty food pictures). A great many recipes out there are mere eye candy for attention and the resulting food is pretty crappy. In other words, the food looks good, but the texture or taste is really disappointing.

There are more recipes for sugar-free, low-carb or low-fat foods that disappoint than any other type of recipe. It's easy to fail when it comes to such things since sugar, fat, and flour are integral parts of many successful dishes. One of the reasons I blog about these types of things (besides the fact that it helps me keep track of what I have tried) is that it allows me to say, "this is a good recipe" or "this is a bad recipe".

I tend to give sites two chances when it comes to "bad recipes". If I try them and the result is poor, I leave a comment and ask if I made an error and that perhaps contributed to the poor result. If the comment is published, then I will give the site's author's recipes another try. If the comment isn't published, I will never try that author's recipes again since they clearly can't be trusted not only to be honest about the results of their cooking experiments, but they also won't allow anyone to say the recipe may not turn out well for those who have actually tried it. They'll publish a hundred comments about how good the food looks in the picture, but not one dissenting opinion about how the results were disappointing for a particular person. For the record, no one who I have left a comment with saying I tried the recipe and it failed has ever published my comment, even when I am polite and ask for advice on where I may have gone wrong. They just delete it in moderation.

One site which I absolutely trust when it comes to healthy variations on recipes is Eating Well, Living Thin. The mistress of this site had bariatric surgery and is maintaining her weight, at least in part, by modifying old favorites so that they are lower calorie and healthier. I've tried several of her recipes, and they have always turned out well. This lemon yogurt soufflé recipe from her site was my latest attempt at one of her recipes, and it turned out very well. I did change it a little based on a desire to cut back the recipe a bit, and because I only had 3 ramekins. Here is the recipe with my (small) modifications. The original recipe is a little better nutritionally than mine, and mine is more lemony and uses regular yogurt instead of Greek.

Lemon Yogurt Soufflé

• 1/2 cup of strained plain, low-fat yogurt*
• 2 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
• 4 tbsp. granular Splenda (or just use white sugar if you want)
• 1.5 tbsp. flour
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• pinch of salt
• pinch of cream of tartar

In a large bowl, whisk the yogurt, egg yolks, 3 tbsp. Splenda (or sugar), flour, vanilla, lemon juice and salt until smooth.

Spray 3 ramekins with cooking spray (or grease them manually). Dust them with Splenda (or sugar) and set them aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar and 1 tbsp. Splenda (or sugar) until stiff peaks form. If you aren't familiar with the best way to beat egg whites, you might want to read the instructions in the original recipe but I was taught to first beat the whites at a relatively low speed until foamy, add the cream of tartar and sugar (or sweetener, in this case) and then beat at a higher speed until the peaks stand up straight.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F./190 degrees C.

Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the lemon-yogurt-egg-yolk mixture. Be careful not to stir in or you'll lose all of the air from the egg whites. I use the "cutting" method to fold in egg whites. To do this, spoon in about 1/4 of the egg white mixture and cut through the center of the yogurt mixture with a large spoon. Fold over half of the mixture. Cut through and fold over the other half. Slowly add in the egg whites by quarters repeating the folding in this manner until there are no pockets of egg white.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared ramekins, place on a baking sheet, and bake for about 15 minutes until the tops are a golden brown. Serve warm. These are about 100 calories each, which is incredibly low considering the size and quality of the dish.

The soufflés will start to fall after about 40 minutes, but Linda (the person who originally posted this recipe) warns readers about that. She said it becomes like cheesecake after it falls. As of this posting, I haven't tried it cold after it has fallen.

My husband and I both really liked this a lot, though I made it this first time with only 1 tsp. lemon juice and we both thought it'd suit our tastes better with more lemon (hence the reason that I put "2 tsp." in the recipe above as that is what I'll use next time). The texture was really good, as was the flavor. Also, frankly, this was a little sweet for my tastes, but my husband thought it was quite fine as is so it's probably just me (and I have no plans to alter the sweetness levels the next time). We'll definitely be having this again!

Update: The next day, this was even better. It was like a sponge cake with a bit of a baked cheesecake feel. Also, it seemed less sweet (maybe because the granular Splenda on the outside was absorbed and not hitting my tongue directly). This was truly amazing as a low calorie treat.

*Strained Yogurt Instructions:

To make thick, creamy strained yogurt, buy regular plain, low-fat (unsweetened) yogurt. Take a coffee filter and affix it with rubber bands to the mouth of a glass or bowl which is the right size for your particular filters. The coffee filter should be suspended above the glass and there should be at least an inch (2.5 cm.) below it. Spoon the plain yogurt into the filter until just full. Cover with plastic wrap or a lid and allow the whey to drain for at least 24 hours. There should be very thick yogurt the consistency of sour cream in the filter. Most yogurt will be reduced in size by 40-50% using this procedure.

If it seems too watery after 24 hours, drain the whey from the bottom of the glass or bowl, rinse it out, affix a new coffee filter to the top of it, and transfer the strained yogurt into a new filter. When you strain it twice, it gets even thicker, though usually straining it once is enough.

by Shari (Orchid64)