This dramatic soufflé, the Austrian cousin to French iles flottantes (“floating islands”), is a fluffy concoction shaped into three peaked mounds—said to represent three of the mountains that surround Salzburg: the Mönchsberg, the Kapuzinerberg, and, depending on to whom you talk, the Rainberg or the Gaisberg—all resting atop cranberry jam. Like a floating island, or the “Ziggy Pig” that Napoleon eats in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the Salzburg is a spectacle—half of the fun happens when it appears at the table and onlookers’ mouths drop.
I was able to wrangle this recipe from the Bärenwirt Tavern, which is tucked away on a cobblestone street in Salzburg. Similar to Savoie Cake or a Kugelhopf, the feature that made this dessert a specialty in the Alps is the use of eggs, which was extravagant for a dish that predates advanced mountain transportation techniques.
Note: Vanilla sugar, a very common ingredient in European baking, can sometimes be found alongside superfine white sugar at specialty grocery stores. Or you can make your own by scraping and stirring the seeds from a vanilla bean into a jar of granulated sugar and letting it infuse for a few days. If you don’t have a few days, simply stir the seeds from one vanilla bean into the amount of superfine sugar you need for the recipe.
Alpine Cooking, by Meredith Erickson is out now
Salzburger Nockerl
Serves 8
Ingredients
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
6 eggs, separated, plus 4 egg whites
1/2 cup (100g) superfine sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
Recipe Preparation
Preheat the oven to 370°F (190°C). Generously grease the inside of an oval baking dish with the butter and then sprinkle evenly with the granulated sugar.
Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, on medium speed, beat all the egg whites until foamy and starting to gain in volume, about 3 minutes. Increase the speed to medium-high, gradually sprinkle in the superfine sugar, and continue to work air into the egg whites, until thick and glossy and doubled in volume, about another 3 minutes. Shortly before the end, sprinkle in the vanilla sugar and salt and incorporate.
