Baking Blocks: Soufflé Pt. 1
Salzburger Nockerl
Baking Blocks is back! In the last series, we focused on pudding (starting with a plain vanilla base, then other flavors, pies, and trifles). Today, begins soufflés, kicking things off with a Salzburger Nockerl. The Baking Blocks series breaks down the steps of fundamental baking/pastry skills, so you have the tools to add flavors, customize and tailor the base to your tastes, and experiment with different iterations.
A Salzburger Nockerl is a simple soufflé made with whipped egg whites and sugar, folded in egg yolks, and a couple of dry ingredients. It is added to a baking dish over a sweet-tart jam or compote (lingonberry, cranberry, raspberry, etc.) and baked quickly in a hot oven (the compote can also be served on the side). Once baked, it gets rushed to the table (it is a very delicate soufflé), quite possibly with sides of crème anglaise or whipped cream, topped with powdered sugar, and dug into it quickly!
Salzburger Nockerl is the first recipe in the soufflé series, as it requires the fewest components. There is no need to make a custard base for stability or flavor. This soufflé is lifted by egg whites, allowing you to focus your attention on properly whipping them (details in the recipe) – a skill that is oh so important in pastry. Once you know the tips and tricks of whipping up egg whites, you can apply this technique to many other dishes (think chocolate tortes, sponge cakes, chiffon cakes, meringues, pavlovas, and pancakes).
All future soufflé recipes in this series will require a custard that 1. helps with stability, and 2. allows you to introduce flavor. But this recipe does not require custard, and it is lovely in spite of it! Despite the gentle flavor in the Salzburger Nockerl souffle, the texture is heavenly, supremely light, bouncy, and marshmallowy (unlike its custard-based cousins).
If you would like to add some flavor to this soufflé, you can add a tiny bit of an extract or essence, or switch up the fruit in the compote. Enjoy!
Makes 1 medium-sized soufflé in a 20 oz gratin dish
(This is a lovely amount for 2 people to share, or for a lighter dessert between 3 people, each person getting ~1 mound)
Soufflé:
Butter + sugar for the gratin dish
50g white sugar blended or superfine
105g egg whites (from 3 large eggs)
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp white vinegar
35g egg yolks (from 2 large eggs)
5g vanilla extract (or another extract/essence that suits your tastes - i.e. almond, pandan, orange blossom, rose, etc.)
6g cornstarch
6g flour (or cornstarch if GF)
Compote:
150g berries (choose from: raspberries, blackberries, red currants, sour cherries, cranberries, or lingonberries + I highly recommend using frozen fruit if it’s out of season; it’s also more affordable and better for the environment)
25g white sugar (30g if using lingonberries)
5g lemon juice optional
5g liqueur of choice or vanilla extract optional
Tools:
1 20 oz oval oven-safe gratin dish (this is the dish I use) – you could also bake the soufflé in a larger dish, but it won’t have the same effect
Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
You can find ingredient information and tips for conversions on my conversion cheat-sheet page. If you have any further questions, please feel free to leave a comment!
Preheat + Compote!
Preheat your oven to 400f and place an oven rack on the lowest rung, leaving ample room for the mounds of soufflé. Then take a baking sheet lined with parchment, and place it on the lower rack. Fill a small baking tray or cake pan (8x8 or 9x9) with 2 cups of water and place it at the very bottom of your oven. This will add steam, leading to a more evenly cooked soufflé.
Place your (frozen) fruit into a saucepan along with the sugar and optional lemon juice. Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook the fruit down, being sure to give it a bit of a mash every once in a while. Cook until the fruit has thickened (you want little to none remaining juice) and the mixture looks glossy, about 5-7 minutes (likely less time for cranberries). Remove from the heat and add in your optional liqueur or vanilla extract. Set your compote aside while you prepare the soufflé dish.
Soufflé!
Take your oven-safe gratin dish and rub the sides with a small amount of butter (you just want a thin layer) and dust some sugar on top of it (this will give the soufflé something to cling to). Pour your prepared compote into the bottom of the dish and set aside.
Grab the sugar for the soufflé and blend it in a blender or spice grinder until superfine (skip this step if you are already using superfine sugar). In a large mixing bowl, add your egg whites. Keep the yolks in their shell for now. Set the egg whites aside. Grab a small/medium-sized bowl, weigh out your egg yolks, and set them aside.
In the large bowl with the egg whites, add your salt and vinegar, and then grab your hand mixer (or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment – I prefer a hand mixer though). Mix the egg whites on the lowest level for 30 seconds. Then, go up a level and mix for an additional 30 seconds. Then up another level for another 30 seconds of mixing.
At this point, the egg whitess should be very frothy. Add in ~1/5th of the sugar and slowly increase the speed of your hand mixer. Keep adding 1/5th until you’ve added all the sugar. Slowly increasing the speed like this leads to a more stable egg white. Stable = your soufflé will be stronger when you fold in your egg yolks and flour.
Once you are done adding all of your sugar, you should be on the highest setting of your hand mixer, and you should have stiff peaks (you will need to mix the last 1/5th of sugar for a bit longer). The egg whites are properly whipped when they are shiny, have tiny and uniform air bubbles, and there is a sudden shift in texture. The mixture should seem thicker/stiffer, and when you lift the beaters out, it should hold a tall peak and not slump over immediately (curving just at the tip). Once you’ve noticed all of these indicators, your egg whites are done. Do not continue, or you risk over-whipping them. When over-whipped, the mixture will lose its shine, and become cottage cheese-like. Please refer to the video above for a visual of properly whipped whites!
Grab your egg yolks and add your extract of choice (remember to choose only one, either vanilla or something else; you don’t want more than 5g of liquid). Whisk together to loosen and thin out the egg yolks. Pour the egg yolks into the egg whites, and fold to combine with a soft spatula (or just whisk gently to combine). Then, grab a small sifter and sift in your cornstarch and flour. Fold again until just combined, as you want to retain as much air in the egg whites as possible.
Grab your prepared baking dish and a soft spatula. Create 3 large mountains of soufflé by carefully plopping the mixture into piles (3 is the classic way to bake this, but I have also seen videos of it piled high into a singular mountain). To get evenly peaked ‘mountains,’ you can place the mixture on a kitchen scale and scoop out about 55g per mountain peak before plopping them down. There will be a little extra – I like to add it to the middle mountain for extra height.
Bake + Serve!
Quickly move the soufflé to the baking sheet on the lowest oven rack and shut the door. Lower the temperature to 375f and bake for 15 minutes without opening the oven door. Be patient!
While you wait, you can wash your dishes and gather your plates and spoons. Set the table and–if you’d like–put out some crème anglaise or whipped cream for serving. Place some powdered sugar in a sifter.
Once the 15 minutes are up, the soufflé will be done. Remove it from the oven, give it a quick dusting of powdered sugar (to resemble soft, snow-capped mountains), and serve it immediately. Dig in and enjoy!