Dark chocolate is melted and used to cover bossche bol cakes.
Like sweets, the Dutch dessert known as bossche bol, or “ball,” has a simple yet delicious effect. A thin layer of dough is filled with a little whipped cream and then dipped in a layer of dark chocolate. The extreme sweetness of whipped cream tempers the bitterness of dark chocolate, and vice versa, in a package that’s really just a baseball-sized version of sour cream or profiterole.
Many point to the Dutch town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, south of Amsterdam, as the heart of bossche bol.
Many point to the Dutch town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, south of Amsterdam, as the heart of bossche bol. In that city, commonly known as Den Bosch, several bakeries declared the product as their specialty. Some believe that a version of this dessert has been made there for over a century, starting out as a flan filled with whipped cream or cream and covered, not with dark chocolate, but with a layer of cocoa. This version lives on as moorkop.
Both the giant balls and the smaller bossche bols, about the size of golf balls, can be found in many Dutch bakeries and cafes.
Some bakeries, from The Hague to the center of Den Bosch, claim to have given it their own flair a few decades later, dipping the balls of whipped cream in a generous layer of dark chocolate. It is not clear which baker made this first. After the delicacy began to be sold in other regions, bakers throughout Europe began to call it by its current name.
The preparation of the bossche bowl takes time, but few ingredients. Puff pastry balls with cream, rich in eggs and butter, are baked and filled with fresh whipped cream. The cream is placed in a hole that is made in the upper part of the ball. Then, as the cakes cool, the melted dark chocolate is mixed with a little more cream and poured over the cakes, either completely submerging the balls or tossing them over them in imperfect strokes. The treats are then left to cool on a rack or in the refrigerator, at least until the chocolate has had a chance to harden firmly.
A larger version of bossche bol is reuzenbol, which expands to the size of a baseball or more. These giant balls and the even smaller golf ball-sized bol bossche can be found in many Dutch bakeries and cafes. They are also available in milk chocolate and white chocolate versions. A cup of hot coffee usually accompanies this dessert to help the digestive system absorb the shock. A fork and knife didn’t hurt either.