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Re: Panera bread egg-soufles

Roxanne Rieske <rokzane@comcast.net>
Mon, 03 Apr 2006 09:22:05 -0600
v106.n014.10
Lynne Daniels-Gould wrote:

>Has anyone tried the "egg souffles" from Panera Bread ?

Funny you should ask...I work for Panera (Denver, Colorado) as a 
baker :P. I usually end up making about 60 of these every night.

Although, the term "souffle" is a misnomer here. They are not made in 
any "souffle" style/technique that I know of! The batter is 
quiche-like (and I really wish they would all it quiche). Recipes are 
strictly confidential, but I can say that the dough is a french 
croissant dough richer than the typical American version; ours is 
made with European butter--i.e. higher butter fat content). You could 
just use your favorite quiche recipe for the batter (ours contains 
Romano and asiago cheese, spinach, bacon, red pepper, Tabasco sauce, 
artichoke hearts). The "souffles" are not actually baked in the paper 
molds (but I wish we could bake them in the molds because the 
dishwashers frequently run the pans through the dishwasher (they are 
not supposed to do this) which strips them and makes the "souffles" 
stick horribly), but we use specially designed "souffle" pans. If you 
can find a pecan roll mold, that will work fine, or even a 
Texas-sized muffin pan.

The dough is rolled to about 1/4 inch thick, cut into 3.5x 3.5 inch 
squares (of course, this step is done for us in a factory, and the 
squares come to us frozen) and then it is stretched by hand to 6x6 
inches and then fitted into the mold. Each piece of dough is then 
filled with about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of batter, and topped with a bit 
more asiago cheese before being folded over.

They are baked at 360 degrees in our rotating oven for about 26 
minutes with 20 seconds steam. You will need to bake at 400 degrees 
for about 20 minutes or so in a home oven (mist the top generously 
with water and then egg wash).

Roxanne