Fika — A Swedish Tradition

September 9, 2015

Post by Michelle Sterling of Avery & Augustine

In honor of Swedish designer Lotta Jansdotter’s new collection for Nod, we’re having fika today! It’s a traditional coffee break people usually take at least once a day in Sweden. It’s a chance to relax, chat and catch up a friend or colleague. Fika also involves some treat or sweet along with your coffee, like kannelbullar (cinnamon rolls), semlor (cardamom buns filled with cream) or äppelkaka (Swedish apple cake).

Fika: A Swedish Tradition

Our fika today consists of chokladbollar with babyccinos. Here is a recipe for chokladbollar, also known as Swedish chocolate balls, reprinted with permission from Fika: The Art of The Swedish Coffee Break by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall.

Chokladbollar (Chocolate Balls)

Makes 20 to 25 balls

Ingredients

2 cups (7 ounces, 198 grams) rolled oats
½ cup (4 ounces, 113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ cup (1.75 ounces, 50 grams) natural cane sugar
¼ cup (.75 ounce, 21 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
About ½ cup (1.5 ounces, 42 grams) shredded coconut

How to Make

In a food processor, pulse the oats into a coarse meal. You want just a little bit of texture, so don’t grind them all the way. If you don’t have a food processor, use the smallest oats you can find, as they are better for the final texture of the chocolate balls.
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the cocoa powder and vanilla and cream together until well blended; then add the oats and the salt. Using your hands, mix all of the ingredients together.
Roll the mixture into small balls, about a tablespoon for each one. Roll each ball in the shredded coconut until fully coated.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator, or in the freezer for longer periods.

For the babyccino, I melted a square of dark chocolate in the bottom of a cup in the microwave, poured warm milk over that and then topped it with foamed milk (I used this electric frother to foam the milk). Instead of melted chocolate, you can pour a little ganache or nutella into the bottom of the cup (or use all milk with no chocolate). To finish off the babyccino, I dusted cocoa powder over a latte stencil to create a design in the foam. If you don’t have latte stencils, sprinkling some cocoa powder or chocolate sprinkles on the foam would also make it pretty special. It’s the little things that get kids excited! For another reference on how to make a babyccino, head over to this post.

Fika is usually about being social and having good conversation, but sometimes we like to do a little reading aloud during our fika. Do yourself a favor and take a few moments to fika in the morning or afternoon. Make it a habit and you’ll be glad you did.

Thank you to The Land of Nod for sending the rug for this post. Many thanks to Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall for providing the chokladbollar recipe from their lovely book about fika.

You can see Michelle’s work and read about her two young children and their first forays in cooking, art and everything in between at Avery and Augustine.