A delightfully delicious dessert is observed each year on February 28th as it is National Chocolate Souffle Day.
The word souffle is the past participle of the French verb souffler, which means “to blow up” or more loosely “puff up” which describes a souffle perfectly. A souffle is a lightly baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites that are combined with other ingredients to make the dish either a savory main dish or a sweet dessert.
- Supposedly, the first recipe for soufflé appeared in Vincent La Chapelle’s Le Cuisinier Moderne (1742).
- The word soufflé first appeared in English in Louis Ude’s The French Cook, 1813, and by 1845 was so commonly accepted that in Eliza Acton’s Modern Cookery(1845) a recipe for soufflé was included as just another recipe.
- Due to soufflés’ tendency to collapse quickly upon removal from the oven, the media frequently depicts the dessert in sitcoms, cartoons, children’s programs and movies as a source of humor.
- Another kind of dish entirely is soufflé potatoes, which are puffed-up sautéed potato slices, traditionally served with a Chateaubriand steak.
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