“The Wish Tree” by Kyo Maclear and Chris Turnham

I have been in love with this book ever since it came this last year.  It is about a little boy who wants to find the magical wish tree so that he can make a very special wish.  Along the way he makes a lot of woodland friends by lending a helping hand and in the end gets to make his wish.  I even made a tutorial for little sparkling winter trees inspired by the wish tree in the book  in a Beyond the Book post that you can check out here.

Click here to purchase “The Wish Tree”  *affiliate link

I was so happy with the end result and am still in love with them.  However, another one of my favorite scenes in this book is at the end where they all sit down together for a winter picnic and one of the items on the menu is hazelnut soufflé.  When I encountered this scene for the first time I instantly knew I wanted to make a hazelnut soufflé recipe inspired by it.  One that would bring the magic of winter picnics and wishes along with it.

I have been working on and perfecting this recipe ever since then and it is finally ready to share! This soufflé rises like a champ, has a crispy top and sides, frothy middle, and a lava center.  Plus it is fairly simple as far as soufflés go.  It is an absolute dream.  The timing is actually quite perfect because my kiddos and I are feeling quite tired of winter and have spring fever pretty strong.  (Anyone else?)  So, this recipe brought a little joy in our home and is the perfect way to send off winter properly, even if we have a few weeks of it left.

 

If you are new to baking soufflés, here are a couple of beginner tips to help you out:

• Separate your egg whites ands yolks when they are cold to help prevent your yolks from breaking when you separate them (egg yolk spilled into your whites will affect how they stiffen later). Then  let them sit until room temperature after they are separated before using them in your recipe.  This helps with the consistency when they are whipped.
• Try not to over mix your egg whites.  If your peaks are too stiff they are also a lot dryer.  The ideal stage for your egg whites in this recipe is right when they reach soft peaks.
• When you are mixing in your egg whites you want to fold them in very carefully to preserve the air bubbles and only mix until the white streaks barely disappear.  (Again to preserve as many air bubbles as possible so your soufflés rise well.)Try not to open your oven until you are confident they are done.  Opening your oven door creates a drop in the temperature which can cause your rising soufflés to fall.
• Souffles wait for no one, they start deflating almost immediately when they are done so serve as soon as possible.

Don’t be too intimidated by soufflés.  If I can learn to do them then, trust me, so can you! Even if they don’t turn out perfect the first time or two it is almost guaranteed that they will still taste amazing.

If you give this Beyond the Book activity a try I’d love to hear how it goes! Share it on Instagram using hashtag #beyondthebook (I’m on Instagram as @book.nerd.mommy) or even just comment here with your thoughts. It would make my day! Or to simply save for later pin the image below.