Salzburger Nockerl
A dessert that, by tradition, represents the three snowy hills around Salzburg and has long been a signature of the city's cafés. It is really a soufflé baked in a shallow dish rather than ramekins, so a soufflé's laws apply: bake it briefly at high heat and serve at once. The centre should stay moist and creamy, the top barely coloured. A few minutes too long in the oven and it turns into dry meringue.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Preparing the dish 5 min
- Meringue mixture 10 min
- Baking 12 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneHeat the oven and prepare the dish
Heat the oven to 220°C. Crush the raspberries with the sugar and spread them over the base of an oval ovenproof dish (about 30 cm long), then pour in the milk warmed with the butter and vanilla sugar. The milk steams in the oven, which keeps the base of the dessert moist and creamy.
Ingredients: 150 g raspberries · 2 tbsp sugar · 80 ml milk · 20 g butter · 1 tsp vanilla sugar
Fruit and milk in the base — it keeps the bottom moist and creamy.Whisk the whites stiff but glossy
Whisk the whites with a pinch of salt, adding the sugar a spoon at a time, to stiff, glossy peaks that hold. Do not overwhisk — dull, grainy foam cracks in the oven instead of rising.
Ingredients: 5 pcs egg whites · 3 pcs egg yolks · 60 g sugar · 20 g plain flour · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
Fold in the yolks and flour gently
Beat the yolks with the lemon zest and sieved flour and fold them into the foam with a few strokes of a spatula, no more. Streaks of yolk are fine — every extra stroke knocks out the air the whole dessert rests on.
Ingredients: 5 pcs egg whites · 3 pcs egg yolks · 60 g sugar · 20 g plain flour · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
A few strokes — streaks of yolk are fine.Pile up three peaks
Scoop the mixture with a wide spatula and pile three tall mounds in the dish, shaping peaks. Do not smooth them — uneven slopes brown to gold and give the characteristic mountain shape.
Ingredients: 5 pcs egg whites · 3 pcs egg yolks · 60 g sugar · 20 g plain flour · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
Three mounds, rough slopes — the mountains above the city.Bake only 10–12 minutes
Bake 10–12 minutes at 220°C, until the peaks are golden and the centre still trembles slightly. Do not open the oven for the first 8 minutes — a sudden drop in temperature will make the soufflé collapse.
Ingredients: 5 pcs egg whites · 3 pcs egg yolks · 60 g sugar · 20 g plain flour · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
Test the centre with a skewer
Push a skewer into the side of a mound: it should come out faintly moist, not wet. The centre of Salzburger Nockerl should be creamy like an underbaked soufflé. A dry skewer means it is already overbaked. A creamy centre means undercooked egg — do not serve it to pregnant women, young children or the elderly (for them, bake 3–4 minutes longer, until the skewer comes out dry).
Ingredients: 5 pcs egg whites · 3 pcs egg yolks · 60 g sugar · 20 g plain flour · 1 pcs lemon · 1 pinch salt
Dust with sugar at the table
Take out the dish and dust the peaks with icing sugar — the snow on the mountains. Do it only at the table, over the dish. Sugar added earlier dissolves on the hot, moist foam.
Ingredients: 2 tbsp icing sugar
Serve at once
Serve within a minute of leaving the oven, scooping with a large spoon together with the fruit beneath. It begins to sink immediately and within a few minutes is noticeably lower — the guests wait for it, not the other way round.
Ingredients: 150 g raspberries · 2 tbsp sugar · 80 ml milk · 20 g butter · 1 tsp vanilla sugar
Before you start
Whites at room temperature
Cold whites whisk more slowly and give less volume, and here volume is everything. Take the eggs out an hour ahead and whisk in a clean, dry bowl without a trace of fat.
Lingonberry is the Austrian classic
In Salzburg lingonberry preserve goes into the dish, its tartness balancing the sweet foam. Raspberries are milder and easier to find; redcurrants work much like lingonberries.
It cannot be made ahead
A dessert of one moment, like any soufflé. Prepare the dish and weigh the ingredients beforehand, and whisk the mixture only as the guests finish their main course. The whole thing then takes twenty minutes.
