This year I made my first Semla. The semla is a small, wheat flour bun, flavoured with cardamom and filled with almond paste and whipped cream – has become something of a carb-packed icon in Sweden. 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. At first, a semla was simply a bun, eaten soaked in hot milk (known as hetvägg).
Semla recipe
About 15 large or 25 small buns
Buns
100 g butter
300 ml milk, 3%
50 g fresh yeast (for sweet dough)
1 tsp crushed cardamom or the grated peel of 1 orange
½ tsp salt
85 g sugar
about 500–550 g plain flour
1 beaten egg for brushing
Filling
200 g marzipan
bun centres
100 ml milk
300 ml whipping cream
Decoration
Icing sugar for dusting
Preparation
1. Melt the butter and add the milk. Heat to 37°C.
2. Crumble the yeast in a bowl and add the cardamom or the orange peel.
3. Add the milky liquid and stir until the yeast has melted. Stir in the salt, the sugar and most of the flour, but save a little flour for later.
4. Work the dough in a food processor/dough mixer for about 15 minutes.
5. Let it rise to twice its size in the bowl, about 40 minutes.
6. Place the dough on a floured pastry board and cut into pieces. Roll into buns and place on oven paper or greased baking sheet. Let the buns rise to twice their size, about one hour.
7. Brush the buns with egg. Bake in the lower part of the oven, at 225°C for around 8–10 minutes for large buns and 250°C for 5–7 minutes for small. Leave to cool on wire racks.
8. Cut off the bun tops. Scoop out the centre of each bun (about 2 tsp) and crumble in a bowl.
9. Rough grate the marzipan and mix it with the crumbs and milk into a creamy mass.
10. Fill the hollow buns with this mixture.
11. Whip the cream and squirt or spoon it over the filling. Place the top on the bun and dust with icing sugar.
12. Serve alone with coffee or in the form of a hetvägg in a deep bowl with warm milk and ground cinnamon.
Source: Sweden Culture
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