Scandinavian Chocolate Buns (Sjokoladeboller)

I was in Røros this week with my dog Alfie, and wow, what a beautiful winter wonderland Røros is. I loved walking through the snow covered streets and peering into all the shop windows. But since I had Alfie with me, I couldn’t actually go into any of them, which was definitely a little frustrating when I passed several of Røros’s bakeries.

Instead of taking another walk without Alfie (rude!) I decided to bring the bakery to my apartment, which luckily had quite a well equipped kitchen with measuring cups and a large mixing bowl. And I knew exactly what I wanted to bake: Norwegian chocolate buns!

Sjokoladeboller are classic Norwegian cardamom buns with pieces of chocolate inside. I always loved baking these when I worked in a supermarket bakery because often a couple of pieces of chocolate would fall off the buns during baking, and I would eat them.

But now I enjoy making these chocolate buns because they’re so tasty! And they’re much quicker to make than more complicated Norwegian buns like skoleboller and solskinnsboller.

After heating the milk, butter, and sugar, be sure to let it fully cool to lukewarm before adding the yeast. I always use fresh yeast for these, but you can use dry yeast as well, just be sure to follow the instructions on the packet, as you may need to proof the yeast.

You can use ground cardamom for this recipe, but if you have a mortar and pestal I highly recommend grinding cardamom seeds instead, as freshly ground seeds are much more flavorful. I wouldn’t bother unless it really made a difference, but it really does.

I like to use milk chocolate for my sjokoladeboller, but you can also use dark chocolate if you prefer. I’ve seen both here in Norway. And of course you could also use chocolate chips instead.

The chocolate can be a bit tricky to incorporate into the dough, but if you keep kneading eventually you can get the chocolate distributed nicely.

The buns will grow quite a bit during the second rise and in the oven, so be sure to leave plenty of space between each on the baking sheet. I also try to lay the buns with the seam down so that they are nice and round, though that’s simply for aesthetics.

The chocolate buns taste equally good straight from the oven when the chocolate is still melted and after they’ve cooled and the chocolate hardens again. But they only keep for a few days (in an airtight container), so freeze any you don’t think you’ll eat within a few days.