The Flødebolle Phenomenon
By Carol L. Schroeder, co-author of Eat Smart in Denmark, for The Danish Pioneer Newspaper –
Canadians may know them as Whippets, and Americans often compare them to Mallomars. But neither of these treats is really the same as a Danish flødebolle. Denmark is in fact the country where the flødebolle originated in the early 1800s, and today approximately 800 million of these chocolate-coated treats are produced there every year.
Thanks to the innovative creations by high-end chocolatiers, the lowly flødebolle is now also found as a gourmet treat with a variety of fillings ranging from licorice (of course) to banana. Even the coating now comes in options such as white chocolate or licorice (the Danes just can’t get enough of that, can they?).
Flødeboller were originally filled with cream, as the name “cream ball” implies. The use of eggs whites made industrial production possible, as well as a longer shelf life without refrigeration. The whipped egg white and sugar filling in Danish flødeboller today is softer than the marshmallow used in Mallomars and similar cookies, and the flødebolle is traditionally also taller (i.e. it has more filling).
Blide Kys (Photo courtesy of Carol Schroeder)
The Royal Twins ice cream cone, with two flødeboller, in honor of Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine. (Photo courtesy of Carol Schoeder)
The construction of a traditional flødebolle is quite simple: a thin cookie base is topped with the sweet whipped egg white concoction, then coated with a thin chocolate shell. At the flødebolle stand in Tivoli visitors can watch as the “naked” white peaks of the flødeboller make their way through the coating machine, immerging chocolate-covered.
Until recently many of these flødeboller might have been destined for the top of an old-fashioned ice cream cone, or to be brought as a class treat by a birthday child. Some even get used in a party game in which a flødebollemaskin catapults one into the air whenever a child successfully hits the target with a ball.
But the fancier flødeboller, such as the ones made by Summerbird, with a marzipan disk base, Polynesian vanilla in the filling, and a Grand Cru chocolate coating, are not to be wasted on the young.
On our recent trip to Denmark to celebrate the debut of our culinary guide entitled Eat Smart in Denmark we were treated to a Summerbird flødebolle as part of the Copenhagen Food Tour. I must admit that I was not much of a fan before this (although I’ve always enjoyed the very Danish touch of adding a flødebolle to an “old-fashioned” ice cream cone). But Summerbird’s airy filling, tasty marzipan base and delicious dark chocolate coating made me a convert.
Creating flødeboller (Photo courtesy of Carol Schroeder)
Almost finished (Photo courtesy of Carol Schroeder)
Denmark does a robust export business in flødeboller made by commercial manufacturers such as Samba – but if you decide to take a package home as a souvenir, be forewarned. The pressure of the creamy filling inside the hard chocolate shell has been known to cause them to explode inside a suitcase, which creates a tasty but not very pretty mess.
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Carol and Katrina Schroeder are the co-authors of “Eat Smart in Denmark”. (Photo courtesy of Carol Schroeder)
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