Sometimes, by adding more flour or eggs or something, I’ve altered a basic soufflé recipe and made something stronger and denser, that will not rise as much, but won’t deflate at all when cooled. I think there was a name for this sort of egg-cheese-flour dish, but I can’t remember it. Something like a cheese vonce, or some word like that I heard in passing? I tried the Wikipedia entry for soufflé, thinking it would list similar dishes, and I’d then be able to track down a proper foolproof recipe. But the Wikipedia entry was apparently written by a grammar school kid, and doesn’t really go in depth like other Wikipedia food articles.
You mean a cake?
No. Not quite a sponge cake. The Wikipedia article is a copy of some random online site, and it too thinks that all souffles are desserts. I’m looking for a egg yolk, cheese, and flour base, that’s airy because it contains lots of beaten egg whites, but still dense enough to hold it’s shape as it cools. Unless that is really called, “just a sponge cake where you mixed up the sugar bowl for the grated cheese.” In which case, my bad.
Quiche?
Well, maybe a quiche is made with beaten whites to lighten it. I think I saw Jamie Oliver do that once on his ‘At Home’ show. But I’m looking for something midway in texture between a lighter quiche and a souffle. But, we’re doing better as we go on, adding similar dishes. Maybe someone else will be able to help …
See, other Wikipedia cooking articles do this. They describe a food, and mention similar foods, maybe from different nationalities with slightly different methods. Example: crepes are French haute cuise for – thin pancake. Other countries make similar but with different methods, or thicker but not as thick as a pancake. And so on. So maybe Polish, or Yiddish or Russian or Mideastern or Mediterranean cuisine has tradition of slightly denser souffle.
Strata? Probably not, since that uses bread, but since we called that “fake cheese souffle” growing up, it was the first thing to come to mind.
Seems fair, maybe some chef makes a strata-like dish, by building a dense batter first, instead of using bread. At least, we’re filling in the list or continuum of light egg and flour and cheese dishes from quiche to souffle.
Popovers? Dutch babies?
I suppose popovers, Yorkshire pudding, and Dutch Babies are at the very dry end of the continuum. 'Tho I had to look up Dutch Baby on Wikipedia. What an ugly picture. Food should never have a slight green tint in a photo – unless the food is actually green.
A Dutch Baby is very like the Finnish pannukakku, as my mother always made them. It puffs up gloriously in the oven, and then collapses when it comes out, and has a very custard-like consistency when it cools. Can be sweet, or entirely unsweet. Traditionally served with strawberry preserves and whipped cream, but my family always ate it with maple syrup.
No reason not to add savory ingrediants or sides, if you prefer. In Finland, a denser version was served with split pea soup in the University cafeterias on Thursdays, but that is something entirely different.