Egg puffs and soup pearls
Introduction A bowl of soup pearls'''Egg puffs''' and '''soup pearls''' are choux-pastry pellets, resembling chickpea seeds, that are popular in Central Europe. They are typically used to garnish soups, but can be also used to decorate other kinds of food, including desserts, or eaten alone as snacks. '''Egg puffs''' are baked, whereas '''soup pearls''' are deep-fried.
Names Soup pearls are generally known in German as ''Backerbse'' (literally, "baked peas") or ''Mehlerbse'' ("flour peas"). In Swiss German, they are referred to as ''Suppenperle'', or "soup pearls" (hence the English name), while in the Vorarlberg region in western Austria, they are called ''Hochzeitsperle'', or "wedding pearls". They also used to be called ''Hochzitbolla'' in Austria. Another typically Austrian name for these pellets is ''Bufferl'', whose Upper Swabian equivalent is ''Bopfrlâ''. "Egg puffs" is an English calque translation of the German ''Eierschöberl''. In Polish, these are known as ''groszek ptysiowy'', or "puff peas".
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