Ingredients

• 1 Tablespoon plus 1 1/2 tsp. sugar (you can use granulated or powdered sugar- whatever you have at hand )
• 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
• 2 large eggs, separated (make sure the eggs are at room temperature)
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• A pinch of Salt
• 1 ounce, good quality 70% chocolate, finely chopped
• Softened butter and  sugar(preferably granulated sugar but powdered will do just fine) for coating the bowl (don’t skimp on the butter while coating the bowl)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F with the rack in the center of the oven for even heating. (Make sure you do this so by the time you are ready to bake so oven is evenly heated.)
2. In a small bowl mix together 1 Tablespoon of the sugar with 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch, then whisk in 2 egg yolks until the mixture is pale yellow and slightly frothy. Set it aside. (Wash your whisk/hand mixer immediately, so it’s all clean to use on the egg whites. This is important because egg whites will not form stiff peaks if they come in contact with the yolks which contain fat)
3. Now you’ll need to melt the dark chocolate. To melt the chocolate, boil water in a pan, put another glass bowl on top to create a double boiler (this is to make sure that the chocolate doesn’t come into the direct contact with heat source and gets burnt). Add the chopped pieces of chocolate and 1 1/2 tablespoon of butter to the glass bowl, mix them to make sure there are no solid chocolate pieces left.
4. Once the chocolate is melted, slowly add the molten hot chocolate to the egg yolk mixture while slightly whisking the mixture. Make sure to lick your fingers/spatula clean.
5. Coat the baking dishes  (ramekins, stoneware or any other oven safe dish you are planning on using) generously with softened butter. Brush the butter vertically around the sides of the bowl, as well on the edges, so that the soufflé will rise along the lines. Then Coat the pan with nicely with granulated or powdered sugar. Keep aside.
6. Take a large bowl, whisk the 2 egg whites, until they start foaming. Slowly add a pinch of salt and 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar while you continue to whisk. Don’t add all the sugar at once. Add a little, whisk for sometime and add some more, whisk again. This may take a while and I recommend using an electric hand mixer for this. The egg whites need to form white stiff foam peaks, so if you turn the bowl over your head, nothing falls down. They should be opaque white-glossy and hold a shape but don’t over whisk as that can cause them to break down.
7. At this point drop everything, grab your phone and take a picture of the egg whites bowl turned over your head and instagram it.
8. Gently fold the chocolate-eggyolk mixture into the foamy egg white mixture. Don’t be aggressive while mixing as it will cause the eggwhites to lose all the air that has been whisked in to make it foamy and make the soufflé soft and spongy.
9. Gently spoon the soufflé into the butter-sugar coated bowls to the brim. This is to make sure that when we bake it the soufflé rises above the bowl. At this point you can cover the bowls with cling wrap and refrigerate it for up to 1-1.5 hours, if you plan to have it post dinner since it takes only 15 minutes to bake in a pre-heated oven. Otherwise you can proceed – put the bowls in preheated oven. Bake the soufflé anywhere from 15 minutes-20 minutes, depending on the size of the baking dish. Souffle is ready once it has risen and the top is set.
10. Dust it with confectioners sugar, take a picture or two if you must, and serve immediately, with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or as is. If you wait for too long like I did and spend too much time taking pictures, you’ll end up with slightly deflated souffles by the time you get around to eating them.