Robuchon’s three-ingredient chocolate soufflé. No flour, no starch, no egg yolks — just chocolate folded into a Swiss meringue, which is what lets it rise so tall.

Ingredients

   
  softened butter, for ramekins
150g dark chocolate
300g egg whites
120g granulated sugar (plus more for ramekins)
1.5g cream of tartar (optional, ~⅛ tsp)

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F, convection fan off.

  2. Generously butter four 6oz (180ml) ramekins, brushing in vertical strokes to help the rise. Coat with sugar: pour sugar into one ramekin, tap and rotate to coat the sides and lip, then pour the excess into the next. Coat all four.

  3. Melt the chocolate in a shallow bowl set over a pot with a little simmering water, stirring until smooth.

  4. Make a Swiss meringue: combine egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in a stand mixer bowl. Set it over the steaming pot and whisk until the mixture reaches 130°F (the whites will be partly whipped). Move to the stand mixer and whip on high to soft peaks.

  5. Fold half the meringue into the melted chocolate to combine, then fold in the rest gently.

  6. Fill the ramekins to just shy of the top. Knock on the counter to level.

  7. Bake 16 minutes. Serve immediately.

Analysis

Total batter weight: 572g

Component Amount %
Structure solids (cocoa solids) 39g 6.8%
Fat (cocoa butter) 63g 11.0%
Sugar (added + chocolate) 165g 28.8%
Liquid (egg white water) 257g 44.9%
Egg white/protein 48g 8.4%

Risen entirely by egg-white foam — no flour, no yolks, no starch. Structure comes only from the chocolate’s cocoa solids (~7%) and the set egg-white protein; the lift is pure whipped meringue. That’s why the Swiss-meringue stability matters so much here — there’s nothing else holding it up. Egg white at ~8% is the highest protein of any recipe on the site, and the total absence of yolk fat keeps it light despite the chocolate.

Notes

  • Swiss meringue is the trick: heating the whites and sugar to 130°F unwinds the proteins just enough to whip into a more stable meringue, so it rises tall without any starch or flour to prop it up.
  • Cream of tartar is optional insurance — at 0.5% of the egg-white weight it makes the meringue much harder to overwhip.
  • Fold in two additions for a reason: cocoa butter knocks stabilizing proteins off the meringue’s air bubbles, but as the chocolate cools during folding the cocoa butter firms up and does less damage on the second addition.
  • Make-ahead: fill the ramekins and freeze before baking. To bake from frozen, drop to 300°F and bake 32 minutes. They lose ~30% of the height and aren’t as perfectly shaped, but still very good.
  • Use a good dark chocolate — with only three ingredients it’s the entire flavor. 60–70% is a good range.
  • Serve the second they come out; soufflés start deflating immediately.