The rage over 1950s and 1960s style is still going strong. Midcentury architecture is back. Midcentury furniture is back. Midcentury fashions are back. So why not some midcentury food?
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you chocolate mousse.
Chocolate mousse has been gracing American tables at least since 1896. But it truly came to prominence around 1950, when a recipe for it – using canned chocolate syrup – appeared in the best-selling first edition of “Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book.”
For a couple of decades after that, fashionable dinner parties were more likely than not to end with a dish of chocolate mousse. It was part of the swinging ’60s and the stylish ’70s. And then, relatively quickly, chocolate mousse almost completely disappeared from American tables. Perhaps too many people made it with canned chocolate syrup.
The time has come to resurrect the popularity of this once beloved dessert. It’s light and decadent and melts seductively on your tongue. It’s not too sweet, it’s not too fancy.