These traditional Danish marshmallow-y bites of heaven have been given a festive twist. They’re incredibly quick and easy to make and are the perfect little festive treat for Christmas time. These sweet treats consist of three parts, a creamy fluffy homemade marshmallow coated in rich dark chocolate on a soft gingerbread base.
Flødeboller are a popular Danish treat that come in all sorts of amazing flavour combinations but they’re loved all over the planet and many countries have their own version. For example, you may hear them being called whirls, whips, marshmallow puffs, chocolate kisses or even teacakes. Flødeboller translates literally into English as ‘cream buns’ and refers to a biscuit or marzipan cookie base topped with a dollop of an egg white and sugar syrup marshmallow which is then dipped or coated in chocolate.
How easy are these Flødeboller to make?
These Flødeboller are incredibly easy to make and look fabulous on the Christmas table. Starting off with the simple gingerbread biscuit bases, the quantity given is actually enough for you to make extra gingerbread biscuits! As the recipe is only for 6 Flødeboller, it’s quite difficult to create a recipe for just 6 small gingerbread bases, hence why you will have extra to make some lovely gingerbread people or snowflakes. If you didn’t want to do this, the alternative would be to buy some gingerbread, or biscuits of choice, that are round and fit to the base of the cones perfectly (approx. 5cm in diameter).
Now that the bases are done and cooling, it’s time to melt some rich dark chocolate and spoon it into the silicone moulds. This can be quite tricky, so it’s best to do a thick layer, allow to cool and set for several minutes before adding another layer. The chocolate coating shouldn’t be too thin, as you want to avoid them cracking or breaking when removing them from the moulds at the end.
Once the moulds are ready with a good coating of chocolate, you can pop them in the fridge whilst you begin with the most important and delicious part of the Flødeboller…the marshmallow filling! The marshmallow filling is made up of the usual ingredients, egg whites, sugar and Cream of Tartar. The method I use is incredibly easy and doesn’t involve thermometers, so it’s basically fail-proof! The egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar mixture is slowly whisked and warmed up in bowl over simmering water until a frothy and smooth texture forms. Then it’s whipped up to stiff marshmallow-y peaks and ta-da, you can pipe it into your chocolate moulds, pop the gingerbread base on top and seal it up with a little melted chocolate. Sprinkle your Flødeboller with a dusting of ground almonds or sugar and they’re ready to enjoy!
What equipment do I need for these Flødeboller?
- Silicone mould with 6 holes – I used the Soffice mould from Silkomarkt. It is possible to make the Flødeboller without a mould but they do work much better with one. A similar size and shaped silicone mould would work perfectly fine too, such as a semi-sphere mould
- Stand mixer or electric hand-held mixer
- Baking paper
- Flutted or round cookie-cutter slightly bigger than the base of the silicone moulds, approx. 5cm in diameter
- Piping bag and round piping tip
What ingredients do I need?
- Sugar – I use standard caster sugar and dark brown sugar
- Eggs – Medium free range eggs are best
- Cream of tartar – Cream of tartar is a staple ingredient for marshmallow, any can be used as long as the manufacturer states that it is gluten-free
- Butter – Unsalted and cold butter
- Gluten free flour – A gluten free flour blend such as Doves Farm Plain Flour or Schär Mix C for Cakes is perfect for this bread. I prefer a plain flour with no added baking powder or soda so that I can control the amount being added
- Ground almonds – Blanched or unblanched ground almonds to sprinkle on top
- Golden syrup – Golden syrup is a typically British product, a sweet sugar syrup similar to corn syrup. If you can’t find it in your area, try using another sweet treacle or molasses as an alternative
- Xanthan gum – Xanthan gum is essential for most gluten free recipes and there’s no exceptions here. Doves Farm is my preferred choice but you can use any
- Baking soda – Any will do, just check that it is definitely gluten free
- Chocolate – I use a rich creamy dark chocolate for this recipe and I usually buy one that I like to eat. There would be nothing worse than buying a cheap alternative and it not tasting great when you bite into the Flødeboller, so it’s best to splash out on your favourite one here! A milk chocolate or white chocolate can be used too, depending on your personal tastes
- Mixed spices – For this recipe you can use your own mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper and ginger or a pumpkin pie spice mix, all spice mix or mixed ground spice, depending on what is available in your area and your preferences
- Vanilla paste – Vanilla paste or extract can be used
Tips & Tricks
Chill the chocolate slightly before adding each layer of chocolate to the silicone moulds. Any silicone that is peaking out can then be recovered with the next layer of chocolate. Tipping the mould upside down while the chocolate is still setting, but not too runny, means that any excess chocolate can run down and strengthen the sides. Unless you want lots of chocolate in the tip, like I do, then you can just let the excess chocolate gather in the tip!
If you don’t have the silicone mould shape that I used, you can use a similar shaped mould or for example, a semi-sphere silicone mould. Anything domed that you can fill with marshmallow should work, just be sure to calculate the size of the diameter at the base so that you can bake the correct sized biscuits. If you don’t have a mould that would be suitable, try doing it the old-fashioned way, piping the marshmallow onto the biscuit bases, chilling well and then dipping or coating them in chocolate to finish.
Chocolate Gingerbread Marshmallow Flødeboller
Little bites of chocolate-coated marshmallow on a gingerbread biscuit base. Perfect for the festive season!
Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Bake Time: 10 minutes
Chilling Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings: 6
Difficulty: easy
Author: Sarah
Ingredients
For the gingerbread:
□ 175g gluten free plain flour blend
□ 100g brown sugar
□ 65g unsalted butter, cold
□ 1 large egg, cold
□ 2 tablespoons (30g) Golden Syrup
□ 1/4 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
□ 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
□ 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
□ 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
□ 1/4 teaspoon cloves
□ 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
□ 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
□ 1/4 teaspoon salt
□ 1/4 teaspoon vanilla paste
For the marshmallow filling:
□ 2 egg whites, from large eggs
□ 100g caster sugar
□ 1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
For the chocolate coating:
□ 350g dark chocolate
Instructions
- Start by making the gingerbread biscuit bases. Preheat the oven to 160°C Fan and line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Combine the flour, Xanthan Gum, salt and spices in a bowl and whisk until combined.
- Add the cubed cold butter and rub in with fingers until a crumby texture forms.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and golden syrup before adding to the mixture.
- Using a stand mixer with the dough handle attached or a wooden spoon, bring the mixture together until a smooth shiny dough forms. if the dough is sticky, don’t be tempted to add more flour as this will only dry out the dough more.
- Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour. This helps the dough to set, making it easier to roll out in the next stage, so don’t skip this part.
- Once chilled place the dough between two sheets of non-stick baking paper.
- Roll the dough out to a 5mm thickness.
- Cut out the 6 biscuits using the round fluted cookie cutter and place on the baking tray at 1 inch intervals to allow for a slight spread. Gather the cut-offs into a new dough ball, and chill again in the fridge. You will have plenty of excess to use for gingerbread later.
- Bake on the middle shelf for 8-10 minutes. The cookies will still be pale in colour but starting to turn golden around the edges. For extra crunchy gingerbread, leave the biscuits in for around 12 minutes.
- Set the gingerbread aside to cool whilst preparing the rest of the Flødeboller.
- Next, melt 300g of chocolate in a bowl over simmering hot water.
- Use a spoon to carefully spoon the chocolate into the moulds and cover the sides. Allow the chocolate to cool and set slightly before adding more layers of chocolate in batches in order to make sure that all of the silicone mould is covered. See my section on Tips&Tricks for more help with this.
- Allow the chocolate to set in the fridge whilst preparing the marshmallow filling.
- For the marshmallow filling, combine the egg whites, sugar and Cream of Tartar in a bowl and whisk well.
- Set the bowl over a pan of simmering hot water, and whisk continuously until a frothy texture forms. The mixture should be smooth and the sugar should have dissolved completely. You can test this by rubbing a small amount of the mixture between finger and thumb to feel for any grains. Be careful as the mixture will be extremely hot! The whole process will take around 4-5 minutes.
- Once you have the correct texture, pour the mixture straight into the stand-mixer, or use an electric handheld whisk, and whisk on the highest setting for around 8-10 minutes, until stiff white peaks of marshmallow fluff form.
- Transfer the marshmallow into a piping bag fitted with a round piping tip, and pipe the filling into each of the chocolate moulds right up to the base.
- Add the gingerbread base to the bottom and set aside whilst preparing the chocolate seal.
- Melt the remaining 50g chocolate as previously, and use a small amount of chocolate to create a seal around the gingerbread biscuit and the base of the chocolate cone.
- Allow to set in the fridge completely before popping out of the moulds and sprinkling with ground almonds.
Tried this recipe? Let me know what you think!
