Basic Chokladbollar ingredients: Cocoa. Cacao.
Find the best Cocoa to make chokladbollar
There is a basic list of ingredients to make classic chokladbollar and I will go a little more in depth about each important basic ingredient.
Cocoa. Cacao.
You decide what you want to call it. It is probably the most important ingredient.
To get that rich chocolate color and flavor, you must get the best cocoa that you can find. I like to choose the darkest cocoa I can find because dark cocoa powder has a bit more depth in flavor. Slightly bitter, earthy notes, and sometimes hints of floral perfume notes. Biting into a chokladboll that is made with a darker cocoa counteracts the sweetness from the sugar.
I like chocolate desserts that have complexity and richness to the flavor than just a basic sweet note that attacks your mouth.
Earthy, coffee, sweet, bitter, hint of salt, and hint of nutty.
These are the flavors I desire in my classic chokladbollar recipe.
My favorite cocoa powder:
Van Houten Cacao powder
Origin: Amsterdam
This Dutch brand of cocoa powder is very dark and great for making chokladbollar, cakes, and hot cocoa drinks. While I was living in Brussels, I would make chokladbollar almost every week to bring to the office and discovered this brand. It was a basic box and placed next to a lot of different specialty cocoa powders. The Belgians are very serious about their chocolate! I did not have a large budget at the time, so I picked up the most basic cocoa powder I could find. Little did I know that it would become one of the brands that I would seek out. The chocolate balls I rolled in my tiny apartment kitchenette were some of the best chokladbollar I have ever made!
Dark, earthy, coffee, and a hint of creamy floral notes.
Fazer Cacao
Origin: Finland
You may find this staple cacao powder in every Scandinavian cupboard (hot cocoa winter nights are the cosiest!) so this is a common cocoa powder in Scandinavia. It is also a really good one for making chokladbollar because it is dark and pretty good quality for a basic cocoa powder. The chokladbollar that I have made using this cocoa powder have consistently had a rich dark chocolate flavour finish with just the right amount of sweetness. Unfortunately this cocoa powder is fairly hard to find outside of Scandinavia and may be sold in specialty Scandinavian food shops. I make chokladbollar with Fazer Cacao powder in Scandinavia because it is classic and traditional.
Dark, earthy, sweet, and a hint of coffee flavor.
