Nigger balls ! Get your nigger balls !

During our two weeks in Merida, Venezuela, our hosts were always making pies in the evening…apple pies, lemon pies, etc.  But in the morning, the pies were gone.  Well after the first evening, I figured our host was a glutton.  By the second evening, we started asking questions.  Turns out, they were making them to sell on the streets after work.  They told us that they could make a pie for about 30 BsF and then sell it for 120 BsF.  And the best part is that they could sell a whole pie, slice by slice, in only 10 minutes.

So that got us thinking…  Maybe we could do likewise to earn a bit on money.  After all, Venezuela is one of the more expensive Andean countries.

So Pauline immediately started planning her pies.  But I thought a little differently.  We’re traveling all the time.  We don’t have an oven, and we don’t even have a pie form.  So what kind of dulce can I make that doesn’t need an oven.  I know !  Nigger balls !

Nigger balls, for all those who are now offended, is the name of a sweet Swedish bakverk (in Swedish, negerbollar), made with cacao, coconut, oats, sugar, and coffee.  The name was coined back in the time when Sweden was 100% pasty white…or roughly at least 30 years ago.  Over the past decade, there’s been controversy from time to time in Sweden about the name to the point of calling them cacao balls or coco balls or even chocolate balls (even though there’s no chocolate in them).

I digress.  Since we arrived in Venezuela, everyone’s been telling us that Venezuela makes the best cacao in the world.  And coconut palms are abundant everywhere.  Should be a cinch finding the ingredients.  Wrong !  Pure cacao is available anywhere in Europe or the States, but unheard of here.  They only sell it in chocolate form.  And in France you can buy a kilo of shredded coco for about a 1E50.  Here you pay at least 3E for about 50 grams.  If you can find it at all.  Well, just before giving up on my nigger balls, we found a little specialty shop in Merida selling raw materials directly to bakeries and pastry shops.

With the little bit we found there we started baking pies and rolling nigger balls.  We tested our products in a little town called El Caney, population 200 and all related.  Pauline’s pies disappeared within minutes (she sold four pies in three days, selling for 10 - 30 minutes per day).  I made three batches of nigger balls in three days and sold them almost as quickly.

And the strangest conversation ever uttered in those parts was heard in a tiny village in the heart of the Venezuelan Andes:
Carrying my tray full of nigger balls, I ask each person I pass, “How would you like to try one of my nigger balls ?”
The man on the street is intrigued.  “How much does one of your balls cost ?”
“One of my nigger balls costs only 5 Bolivares.”  That’s roughly 50 centimes or 40 cents.  A bargain.
“OK, I’ll take a pair of your nigger balls.”  All Venezuelans have a sweet tooth.  All of them except those with diabetes.
“Here’s go…” And the customer takes a bite.
“Ohh, your balls are rich and flavorful.”
“Well, thank you very much !”