Fat tuesday buns (semlor)

February could be one of my favourite months of the year. Mainly because you get to eat these wonderful treats for breakfast, lunch and dinner (or at least every Tuesday). Originally they were supposed to be eaten before lent, but in Sweden it has become more of a pastry-holiday than a religious celebration.

I’d say these buns deserve some celebration, they’re delicious!

For the buns you need:

• 500ml milk
• 150g butter
• 2 tsp dried yeast
• 2 tsp cardamom
• 150 ml sugar
• 1-1.2 litre flour
• 1 egg

Baking instructions are the same as in this recipe.

This is how you do it:

1. Start by putting the yeast into a large bowl, then melt the butter in a pot, add the milk and heat it up to 37°C (the perfect temperature for the yeast to grow). If you don’t have a thermometer you can measure the heat with your finger tip. If it feels neither warm nor cold, it should be 37°C like your body temperature. If the milk + butter is too warm, let it cool down in a water bath.

2. Add the milk + butter to the yeast and whisk/stir until the yeast is dissolved.

3. Add sugar, salt and cardamom. Stir so that the sugar dissolves and the spice gets evenly distributed.

4. Add the flour little by little. Start off with a whisk and swith to a wooden spoon about half way through, when the dough starts getting heavy and sticky. Try to lift the dough up with the spoon and then slap it down in the bowl again to get a lot of air into it. Add flour until the dough feels smooth like a bum and do the last kneading with your hands.

5. Cover the bowl with a cloth and let the dough rise for about an hour. If it has risen properly, you should be able to poke it loosely with your finger and see the dough rise up again.

6. Roll round balls of dough, put them on a baking tray and let rise under a cloth for another good 20 min before brushing them with a stirred egg.

7. Bake in the oven at 200°C for about 12min (take them out when they look golden.

For filling & decoration

• whipping cream
• almond paste (if you can’t find any then crushed amaretti-bisquits with a spoon of cream might do the trick).
• finish by sprinkling some icing sugar on top through a sieve.

Follow the steps in the pictures below:

 

 

1. Cut off a “lid” and add a layer of almond paste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Add a spoonfull of whipped cream and close the “lid”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Sieve icing sugar on top.

 

 

 

 

 

4. Serve and devour!