Risboller – Puffed Rice Balls

As a child I was always so excited when my family would spend Christmas with my Norwegian Aunt Hege, because she made the best Christmas cookies. And she’s so much fun and I love her, of course. But also her Christmas cookies are amazing. And my second favorite cookies she made were chocolate risboller. My number one favorite were her lemon sandnøtter.

In fact I loved her Norwegianrisboller so much that I remember as a kid asking my mom for Hege’s risboller recipe so that I could make them myself.

And so of course when I moved to Norway risboller were given a spot in my seven cookies for Christmas (Norwegians traditionally make seven types of Christmas cookies). The recipe I usually use includes raw egg, which is quite common in Norwegian dessert recipes, but since it’s not safe to eat raw egg in many countries, this year I made my risboller without egg. And they were still delicious.

You can find all of my Scandinavian Christmas recipes here.

Tips

Risboller are super easy to make and don’t require any baking. You simply melt the fat in a saucepan and then combine it with the rest of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

This recipe uses Delfia fat, which is coconut fat, but you can use coconut oil instead. I’ve also seen some people use shortening instead of Delfia fat.

I used half dark chocolate and half milk chocolate for these, but if you want sweeter risboller, use all milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate. I actually usually make these with only milk chocolate, but I thought this time I could make the more traditional version of risboller with a mix of dark and milk chocolate.

You can also add a tiny bit of ginger, cinnamon, or even chilli pepper to these if you want a hint of spice.

Add the puffed rice slowly, as you may need a bit less or more than called for. If you add too much rice these can become dry, but if there isn’t enough rice the chocolate will melt off of them.

Be sure not to touch these after you’ve dropped them onto the baking sheet, until they’ve fully hardened. Gently shape them with two spoons and then leave them to cool. You can put them in the fridge to harden more quickly.

The most difficult part of making risboller is definitely waiting for them to fully harden. I always want to eat them immediately!

I stored most of these in my freezer, as they defrost pretty quickly.

You can switch the recipe from US measurements to metric by clicking from “US Customary” to “Metric” under Ingredients.