Here comes the famous Swedish fettisdagen;
like kanelbullensdag, kladdkakansdag, Lussekatt; this
day is associated with special sweet pastry ‘semla’.Semla is
the main attraction of this day and can be seen everywhere from
offices to local bakeries. If you haven’t tried it yet, then
this is the best day totake a step towards Swedish food culture, but
beware it is not all healthy and yes you will get fat. As the
name suggests, 'Fat day' will get you fat but don't worry
it would be just few grams. This year it’s today, 5th of March,
but it could occur on any Tuesday between 3rd of February and 9th
March depending on when Easter Sunday is.
The traditions of semla are
rooted in fettisdag (Shrove Tuesday, or
Fat Tuesday) when the buns were eaten at a last celebratory feast before the
Christian fasting period of Lent. The old story behind this day was at that regular bread had been eaten
even in ancient times and around 1500 century Swedes started to scoop out the
bread and filled it with cream. In the middle of 1800 they started using almond
paste and the bread turned into a bun. At the end of 1800 they started to cut
off the top and put the paste inside the bun. It was not until 1930´s that they
started eating the bun with whipped cream. It waseaten together with hot milk
and used to be called ’Hetvägg’ (Hot wall). When the cafés started
serving the cream bun together with coffee and today it isequally popular to
eat the cream-bun with milk or coffee .
What is a Semla?
A small, wheat flour bun, flavored with cardamom and filled with almond
paste and whipped cream.
Recipe for making Semla:
For: 10 servings
Total time: ca. 90 min
Ingredients: 100 g butter, 1 cup
milk, 25 g yeast, 2 eggs, 1 dl sugar, 3 cups flour, 1 tsp cardamom, 0.5 tsp
salt
Fillings: 1 cup
whipping cream (0.6 cup whipped cream/pers), 100 g almond paste (10 g/pers),
3-5 tbsp milk (ca 0.5 tbsp/per)
Directions:
Buns
- Crumble
the yeast in to a bowl.
- Melt the
butter and pour over the milk. Make sure the mixture is 37 degree
centigrade.
- Stir the
mixture into the bowl with the yeast.
- Add 1
egg, sugar, salt, cardamom and flour .
- Process
the dough for at least 10 min.
- Let it
rest for 30-40 min.
- Knead
dough on a lightly floured surface. Divide into ca 10 equal pieces
and form the pieces into rounds.
- Let it
rest for 30-40 min.
- Brush
the rolls with 1 beaten egg.
- Bake for
about 8-10 min at 225 degrees F.
- Let the buns cool.
Filling
- Cut off
the top of the bun.
- Scoop
out some of the bun.
- Mix it
with almond paste and milk.
- Fill up
the bun again with the mixture.
- Whip the
cream and pipe it on to the bun.
- Put on
the top and sprinkle it with icing sugar.
