Chestnut Souffléd Pudding

Pouding soufflé aux marrons (chestnut souffléd pudding) teaches the difference between a purée that merely looks thick and one dry enough to carry air. The one true thing to know before touching the pan is this: water is the enemy. A wet chestnut purée swallows the whipped whites, and the pudding sags before it reaches the table.

The source formula assumed two pounds of peeled chestnuts, extra hands to force them through a sieve, a fierce range, and enough molds for a dining room. Here it is reduced exactly by half to six individual puddings. A wide, heavy saucepan supplies the same fierce evaporation, and an ordinary roasting tin becomes the bain-marie. The brigade quantity is scaffolding and can go. Sieving, drying the purée hard, adding the yolks in sequence, and folding the whites are the dish, so they stay.

When it works, the pudding rises modestly and unmolds with a soft chestnut-brown surface, a close but airy crumb, and enough vanilla to round the chestnuts without covering them. Watch the purée rather than the clock: it must gather around the spoon and leave the pan floor clean before the yolks go anywhere near it.