Semla on Fat Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Semla buns were originally eaten because tradition dictated that this was the only food allowed during the fast. Fat Tuesday is always the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which is the first day of lent.

Most newspapers publish tests of different Semla buns at this time of the year, to let those who don't bake their own know where the best ones can be bought. It is estimated that around 42 million Semla buns are sold in Sweden each year! Some eat theirs in a bowl of warm milk, just as it comes or with a cup of coffee.

Gothenburg has a huge number of coffee shops where you can enjoy a genuine Semla.

Or why not bake your own Semla buns?

The buns

50 g fresh yeast (1 packet)
175 g butter
500 ml whole milk
140g caster sugar
3 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp salt
900g-1000g of plain bread flour (ideally with high protein content)

Filling
200 g almond paste (50% almond, 50% sugar – less can also be used if you cannot get hold of this good quality stuff)

200 ml 'marsan' or a good quality crème patisserie (ready bought is fine)
300 ml whipping cream
1 egg, for brushing, Icing sugar, to dust

How to make them:

 Melt the butter and leave to cool.

Warm the milk to between 37-42 degrees Celsius (optimal degrees when using fresh yeast). Add the yeast and milk into a bowl and mix until yeast has dissolved. Add the melted butter.

Add sugar, salt, cardamom to the mixture, then start to work in the flour. As with all yeast baking: never add the flour all at once. Add and mix until you have a firm, but sticky, dough. If you add too much flour, the buns will be dry and they will not rise properly.

Once you reach a firm but still sticky consistency, keep kneading/mixing for about 10 minutes (ideally with a mixer, dough hook attached, for best result), then leave the dough to rest until doubled in size (30 minutes).

Once the dough has risen, add enough flour to give you a workable smooth dough, then cut into 20 equal sized pieces and roll to smooth into buns. Please on a baking tray, cover with a damp tea-towel and let rise for at least a further 30 minutes, ideally longer. Again, they should double in size.

Brush the buns with egg, and then bake in a hot oven (210-220 degrees) for about 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and onto a baking rack. Cover the buns with a tea towel to prevent them from drying out while they cool down.

To assemble the Semla buns:

Cut the top off the bun, about 2 cm from the top. Reserve the lids. Hollow out about 1/3 of the bun and place the "inside bits" into a bowl. To this bowl, add 200g gram of almond paste a and a good 200 ml a good ready-made high quality crème patisserie. Mix really well into a paste then fill each of the Semla holes with the mixture.

Whip the cream to a firm consistency then pipe it all around the top – and place the "lid" gently back on the cake. Dust with icing sugar. Serve. Close your eyes, enjoy, and do not think about calories.