Christmas is around the corner and it feel like I’m spendning all my time in the kitchen, making goodies for our traditional Christmas smorgosbord. But I don’t mind it at all, I love cooking and baking. One of the first thing I make each yule season is Swedish ice chocolate. It’s a chocolatey sweet that melts in your mouth, wich is what gives the ice chocolate it’s name. It keeps really long in the fridge so it’s one of those things I make well in advance and usually end up making several batches of beacuse we keep finishing them long before Christmas Eve. You can use any color chocolate you want, my personal favourite is white cocolate but I try to make at least three different flavours each year.
Jump to RecipeThe ingredients in Swedish ice chocolate
Swedish Ice Chocolate have been around since the wartime and popular both in Sweden and Norway. The UK has a very smiliar sweet called icy cups and you can also find versions of it in Germany. It was invented to bring the taste of chocolate when ingredients was rationed and back then it was made with codonut butter and cocoa powder. Luckily chocolate is no longer rationed and today this beloved sweet is more commonly used with real chocolate and coconut butter. Since it’s still only two ingredients it’s really easy to make as long as you get the right ingredients.
Coconut butter
Coconut butter is essential and the ingredient that makes the ice chocolate melt in your mouth. It’s a coconut based fat that, unlike coconut oil, stays solid even in room temperature. If you have a hard time finding it you can substitute it for cocoa butter. It will give you a slightly different, more luxioious taste but the texture will be the same. And can I tell you a secret? I awlays change 50% of the coconut fat to cocoa butter and everyone says my ice chocolate is the best.
Chocolate
Whilst this traditional sweet once was made with cocoa powder to keep it affordable and accessible during wartime, nothing says you have to opt for cocoa or cheap chocolate now. The truth is that the better the chocolate you use, the tatsier your ice chocolate will be. I prefer to use Valrhona wich is probably the best chocolate you can find in Europe. But all chocolate works as long as it’s acutally real chocolate that can be melted.
Items needed to make Swedish ice chocolate
Glass bowl or pitcher
Making Swedish ice chocolate is very easy and you only need a few items to make it, the first being a heath proof bowl or pitcher as uou’ll be melting the coconut butter and chodolate either in the microwave or a double boiler. I prefer using a pitcher as it’s pitcher handy when it’s time to pour the batter into foil forms.
Spatula
To avoid burning the batter you’ll need to heat it in turns, scraping down the side and mixing in between. A spatula is the perfect tool for this as it helps you really get into the sides of the bowl or pitcher but if you don’t have oen a spoon will rok just fine.
Aluminum foil form
Swedish ice chocolate is made in aluminum foil forms that holds the chocolate. They can be found in the baking section of every Swedish super market or ordered online if you live elsewhere. You should be able to make them in silicone molds and wrap in foil wrappers if you can’t find foil forms.
How to make Swedish ice chocolate
Making Swedish ice chocolate is super easy! You simply put coconut butter in a heath proof bowl or pitcher and heat it for about 60 seconds at a time, scraping the sides and mixing in between turns. When it’s all melted you stir in the chocolate and make sure it melts before pouring the batter into aluminum foil forms and let it set in the fride. Or do as us Swedes do and but them outside until solid to save space in the fridge.
30
minutes40
minutesIngredients
150 grams coconut butter
300 grams chocolate
Directions
- Finely chop coconut butter and chocolate. Put coconut butter into a heath proof bowl or pitcher.
- Melt the coconut butter either in a double boiler or in 60 second intervals in the microwave. Scrape the sides and mix between turns.
- Stir in the chocolate and make sure it melts completely.
- Pour the batter into aluminum foil forms and let set in the fridge or outside if it’s colder than 5’C/40’F.
Notes
- If you store the Swedish ice chocolate in an air tight container in the fridge it will keep for up to two months. That is unless you eat it all before that, they’re addictive.
