Dreaming of white chocolate
Make a sweet treat for your Valentines with heart-shaped skumboller with homemade marshmallow meringue and white chocolate
Photo: Sara Johannessen / MatPrat
These charming confections are a Valentine’s Day twist on skumboller: a heart-shaped pepperkake cookie base with marshmallow meringue filling, then enrobed in white chocolate and dusted with raspberry powder.
CHRISTY OLSEN FIELD
Taste of Norway Editor
The Norwegian American
From pavlova to pikekysser, I adore meringue of all kinds. I love how many variations of meringue I find in Norwegian desserts. My newest meringue love is skumboller, a confection with a cookie base and marshmallow meringue filling with a thin chocolate shell. These marshmallow-filled desserts go by many names across Northern Europe, but they are perhaps best known in Denmark, where they are called flødeboller.
In Norway, they are often called skumboller (foam buns, as a nod to the meringue filling) and kokosboller (when dusted with dried coconut), with plenty of opportunity for seasonal variations. I’m already planning on a fun recipe for the holiday season, so stay tuned!
This Valentine’s Day twist on skumboller features a heart-shaped pepperkake (gingerbread) cookie base topped with a dreamy marshmallow meringue, then enrobed in white chocolate and dusted with raspberry powder. The resulting confection is luscious and decadent, and surprisingly easy to make for the Valentines in your life.
This recipe starts with pepperkaker that are already made. If you need a recipe, I recommend the pepperkaker recipe from last year’s Christmas Cookie Extravaganza (norwegianamerican.com/cookie-extravaganza-pepperkaker). You can also use store-bought pepperkaker. They won’t be heart-shaped, but it will make it easier.
The marshmallow meringue is made of Italian meringue, which is made with a hot sugar syrup that is poured into the egg whites as they are whipped in a mixer. This was the first time that I have made Italian meringue, but it’s actually pretty simple with a fantastic result. The syrup heats up the egg whites to achieve pasteurization, so the meringue doesn’t need to be baked. It’s just like marshmallow but stabilized with egg whites instead of gelatin.
The marshmallow meringue is piped onto each cookie with a piping bag or a zip-top bag (just snip off a corner with a pair of scissors). Then a white chocolate glaze is made with coconut oil, which helps the chocolate turn into a thin shell at room temperature, to encase the marshmallow meringue.
The finishing touch is raspberry powder, which is made of freeze-dried raspberries, which can be found in the dried fruit section of the grocery store or online. They crush into powder with gentle pressure, and provide a nice acidic brightness to the sweet chocolate coating. The freeze-dried raspberries are worth seeking out for this recipe!
These heart-shaped skumboller are quite sweet, with a welcome counterpoint of warming spices from the pepperkake base. My taste testing crew enjoyed these skumboller very much, with my 6-year-old re-naming them “Super Duper Snick-Snacks” and requested the recipe so he can make them for his future kids. I hope you enjoy them, too!
What are your favorite Valentine’s Day treats? I would love to hear from you! Write to me at food@na-weekly.com.
Marshmallow Meringue-Filled Hearts with Gingerbread and White Chocolate
Skumboller med pepperkaker og hvit sjokolade
Adapted from MatPrat
24 heart-shaped pepperkaker (or use store-bought gingerbread thins)
Marshmallow meringue
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup water
4 egg whites, room temperature
½ tsp. cream of tartar or lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
White chocolate glaze
1 bag (11 oz) white chocolate chips
4 tbsps. coconut oil
Pinch of salt
1-2 tbsps. freeze-dried raspberries
Specialty tools: instant-read thermometer or candy thermometer, stand mixer, piping bag or gallon-size zipper bag
1. In a small saucepan, gently whisk together water and sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook until the mixture reaches 240°F on an instant-read or candy thermometer.
2. Meanwhile, whip the egg whites and cream of tartar (or lemon juice) at medium speed until soft peaks form. The head of the mixer should form gentle peaks in the egg whites that very slowly collapse back into themselves.
3. With the mixer running, gentle pour in the hot sugar syrup into the egg whites in a thin stream. Once it’s added, turn up the mixer to high and whip to stiff peaks that hold their shape, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and salt, and mix on low for a couple seconds until combined.
4. Scrape the meringue into a piping bag or gallon-sized zip-top bag and pipe the mixture into a heart shape into each cookie. Let the cookies sit for about an hour at room temperature so the meringue can solidify a bit.
5. Next, prepare the white chocolate glaze: In a microwave-safe bowl, combine white chocolate chips, coconut oil, and a pinch of salt. Microwave in 30-second increments, stirring each time, until the mixture is completely melted and smooth.
6. You can dunk each cookie in the white chocolate sauce, but I had better success with placing the cookies on a wire rack, and drizzling 1 tbsp. of the white chocolate sauce for each cookie.
7. Crush a couple freeze-dried raspberries (easy to do with your fingers), and sprinkle over the white chocolate. Let the chocolate solidify—and enjoy!
This article originally appeared in the Feb. 12, 2021, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.
