Coffee soufflé

Separate five cold eggs, whites from yolks.

Butter every inch of the ramekins with upward brush strokes.

Coat the buttered ramekins with sugar, tipping the excess from one into the next.

Blend 21 g flour with three tablespoons of the milk in a saucepan.

Bring the rest of the milk and the coffee beans to a boil in a second pan, turn off the heat, cover and steep five minutes.

Strain the beans out and add the coffee milk and the sugar to the flour paste.

Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, then take off the heat.

Beat two minutes off the heat until cooled, then whisk in four egg yolks one at a time.

Whisk in the softened butter in two halves, scraping down the sides.

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Whip the room-temperature egg whites with a pinch of salt at medium speed to soft peaks.

Add the cream of tartar and a tablespoon of sugar, raise to high speed and whip to smooth, glossy stiff peaks; do not push past stiff peaks.

To warm cold eggs quickly, sit them in a bowl of warm water for five minutes.

Fold a little of the whipped whites into the base to slacken it, then fold in the rest, cutting to the bottom, flipping over and rotating; do not overmix.

Fill each ramekin to the top, flatten the surface, and run a thumb around the inner lip to free the mix from the mold.

Sprinkle a little sugar over each top.

Bake at 400F, then turn the oven down to 375F once the soufflés go in.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes; taken out seven and a half minutes early because they looked done.

Variation: the book says 30 minutes; the cook's own advice afterwards is to bake only 20.