I can't say that I know any Swedish people personally (much as I'd love to!), however, it does appear that from all accounts they have a serious sweet tooth! If you just have a quick glance at the wikipedia page then you'll notice that the list of sweet dishes listed there is about double the size of the savoury dishes. So, taking that into account it was difficult to decide which sweet dishes to cook for Sweden. I had it narrowed to about eight ones that I wanted to try - but I really couldn't justify cooking (and eating!) that many sweets!
When I read about Chokladdbolls, I immediately knew I wanted to give them a try. They were simple and easy to make, but who doesn't love balls of chocolate? I love chocolate truffles of all kinds (check out all my other chocolate truffle posts here) so it was a no brainer to try this new type. So I firmly put them on the list and then kept reading. THEN I found something else.... Arraksbolls! Balls made of cake crumbs flavoured with arak (a Lebanese aniseed spirit). Now I couldn't decide! I loved the sound of both!
Then I came to an exciting realisation - I didn't have to choose between them!
Chokladdbolls + Arraksbolls = Chokladdarraksbolls.
Easy as that!
Now comes the confession! I had a bit of a look around for some arak so that I could make these, but sadly none of the bottle shops anywhere near me stocked it :( They stocked Ouzo and Raki - but not Arak!
I happened to have half a bottle of Raki sitting in the cupboard from a Turkish dinner party I hosted quite a while ago, which I was very happy to use up. Raki, Ouzo and Arak are all essentially the same thing from different countries (I'm sure there will be some Lebanese, Greeks and Turks which will dispute this and I'd love to hear from you what the actual differences are!). Raki is Turkish, Ouzo is Greek and Arak is Lebanese - all are aniseed spirits.
So, on a technical note - these are actually Chokladdrakibolls. But lets not split hairs! I'm sure you can make these with any aniseed spirit that you can find - so give it a go!
Ingredients
(Adapted from The Vegan Swedes)
100g Nuttelex (or other dairy free margarine)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 1/4 cups quick cooking oats
100g dark chocolate, melted in a double boiler (or a metal bowl over a simmering pot of water)
3 tbsp arak (or raki...)
Chocolate sprinkles, to roll (you can also use dessicated coconut)
To Make
1. Measure the Nuttelex, vanilla, sugar and oats into a bowl. Mix together.
2. Melt the chocolate and add.
3. Add the Arak (Raki) and stir well.
4. Using your hands, roll out walnut sized balls and roll them in the chocolate sprinkles. Continue until all the mixture is gone - should make 25-30 balls.
5. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour before eating (these are perfect made the night before and left to chill in the fridge over night).
Makes 25-30 balls.
This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Sweden!
Check out my other Swedish recipe posts:
Looks very tasty :) Thanks for trying my recipe, hope youll find more inspiration of the blogg http//www.theveganswedes.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete//Emma @The Vegan Swedes
These look delicious. I feel like one of these right now!
ReplyDelete