Spiced Pumpkin Soufflé with Molasses Bourbon
- By Amy Dong
- Updated Jul. 18, 2023
Here’s how you can make fluffy, light, and airy soufflé desserts. This recipe features favorite flavors of fall: pumpkin, spices, and bourbon.
How to make soufflé desserts
At this time of year, all our favorite pumpkin desserts are on the brain. Many of us are dreaming about what we’ll be baking up, whether it’s for a dinner party or a casual date night. Most of my classic favorites are undoubtedly rich, with pumpkin cheesecake topping my list (more on that soon!) To balance out all those classic yet dense offerings, we were instantly intrigued with the idea of a lighter pumpkin dessert.
Hello, Pumpkin Souffé. Its a fall flavored keeper. This spiced pumpkin soufflé is heavenly, reaching up and away as it puffs beautifully in your oven. The result is an airy, fluffy, light dessert that is immensely satisfying. Your sweet tooth will be absolutely fulfilled, without feeling stuffed. Even if you’ve just finished off a full meal, you’ll happily polish off this lively treat.
If you have guests coming over, they will definitely be impressed when you pull these pillowy desserts out of the oven.
Use Ramekins for soufflé
The Pumpkin Soufflé will likely deflate as it cools, but it doesn’t change the yum-factor in any way. Mine actually rose comically high while baking in the oven, so I took them out. They shrunk upon cooling and still tasted delicious, but my extra large ramekins could have used an extra minute or so. If you have 6-ounce ramekins, you won’t have to play with the bake time much. To ensure a nice big puff for presentation, serve these immediately out of the oven.
Don’t skip the Molasses Bourbon sauce
The molasses bourbon sauce is a must-do with this recipe. Keep leftover Molasses Bourbon sauce on the table, because someone just might want a second drizzle. Your guests will be wowed. The earthy pumpkin and spice flavors complement each other perfectly. Make this easy Molasses Bourbon sauce for an unbelievably impressive finale. This decadent sauce was born to go hand in hand with its soufflé partner. The soufflé just wouldn’t be the same without the sauce; it’s scrumptious together.
Prep Ahead
The bourbon sauce can be prepared several hours in advance. Reheat when ready to serve. The soufflé itself is best served straight out of the oven, but you can prepare the majority of the batter ahead of time: Pumpkin mixture (without egg whites) can be made 1 day ahead and chilled. Soufflés can be assembled 1 hour before baking and kept in freezer. If you do this, bake time may need to be slightly increased.
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Spiced Pumpkin Soufflé with Molasses Bourbon
Ingredients
Pumpkin Souffle:
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 TB cornstarch
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground allspice
- ⅛ tsp ground cloves
- ¾ cup white sugar, plus 1 TB, divided
- ¾ cup canned pure pumpkin
- 10 large egg whites
- ¼ tsp fine salt
Molasses Bourbon Sauce*:
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 TB salted butter
- 1 TB pure molasses
- 3 TB water
- 2 TB Bourbon
Instructions
Make the Molasses Bourbon Sauce (can be done ahead of time):
- Stir all sauce ingredients, except for Bourbon, in a heavy small saucepan. Cook on medium, stirring frequently, until sauce bubbles. Turn heat down to simmer. Simmer about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add Bourbon, continuing to stir. About 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool at room temp. Sauce will thicken upon standing. If desired, warm up sauce a bit before serving.
Make the Souffle:
- Whisk together the milk, cornstarch, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and 1 TB sugar in a small, heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil at medium heat, whisking. Lower heat to simmer. Whisk on simmer another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl. Whisk in pumpkin and let cool to room temp.
- Preheat oven to 400F. Put rack on lower third. Butter ramekins and coat with granulated sugar, shaking off excess. Place prepared ramekins in a large shallow baking pan.
- Beat egg whites with salt in a large bowl, using electric mixer. Beat until soft peaks. Add remaining 3/4 cup sugar a little at a time, beating. Beat until stiff and glossy peaks.
- Very gently fold one third of egg whites into cooled pumpkin mixture. Fold in remaining whites very gently but thoroughly. Divide mixture among ramekins, mounding if needed.
- Bake soufflé until puffed and golden brown. About 18-20 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired. Serve immediately with sauce.