Mozartkugel

Mozartkugel is a round praline of pistachio marzipan and nougat cream dipped in dark chocolate. It is Salzburg's confection, named for the city's most famous composer and first made there in 1890, decades before it became a byword for the whole city's souvenir trade.

What it really is

A ball of pistachio-green marzipan sits at the centre, wrapped in a softer layer of nougat cream, and the whole thing is dipped by hand in tempered dark chocolate until it sets into a thin, snap-clean shell. The two centres are deliberately different textures — the marzipan firm enough to hold its shape, the nougat soft enough to give against it — so a single bite meets resistance and then does not.

The genuine article is hand-dipped, not moulded. A machine-made version sold in bulk foil trays uses the same basic filling but a thicker, more uniform shell; the handmade original has a visible, slightly irregular chocolate coat that machine dipping does not produce.

How it is served

• Individually wrapped in foil, one or a few to a box.
• At room temperature, never chilled hard enough to dull the chocolate's snap.
• Alongside coffee, as a small sweet rather than a plated dessert.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag dairy from the chocolate and almonds and pistachios from the marzipan and nougat.
• Say if it is genuinely hand-dipped in Salzburg, since the name is widely used on cheaper factory versions with a similar but not identical filling.
• It is naturally vegetarian; note plainly that it is not vegan given the dairy chocolate.