Wednesday 21 February 2018

Swedish Semlor [Again!]

Last year I made Semlor Buns - a Lenten tradition in Sweden. After Liz had a blood donor session last Tuesday, she treated herself to a visit to Scandikitchen in London, and bought a semla [I now know that semla = singular, semlor = plural]
Scandikitchen has gone a bit wild this year, and has tried some variations on the traditional [here]
I made some last Saturday - I used wholemeal bread flour, as I didn't have any white bread flour to hand. For the custard filling I used a carton of vanilla sauce from IKEA. They were sweet,creamy, and fragrant with the perfume of the crushed cardamom seeds.
Here they are, just out of the oven, and then filled.
I used Brontë Aurell's recipe again [here] which she says will make 15 small buns. I weighed the dough very diligently to make 16 [so I could freeze a dozen] and I used only 2/3rds of the amount of filling and cream suggested.
It was very pleasant to sit down with Bob and enjoy a moment of fika, and hygge! I am rationing our consumption of these little treats - they can be dangerous...
King Adolf Frederik of Sweden died of digestion problems on February 12, 1771 after consuming a meal consisting of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring and champagne, which was topped off by fourteen helpings of semlor, the king's favorite dessert!
I am thinking of contacting IKEA - we were in the Southampton branch on the morning of Shrove Tuesday, and I really hoped they would have these Shrove Tuesday buns in the restaurant. Maybe if I suggested it to them, they might serve them next year?

5 comments:

  1. They sound and look delicious!

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  2. I’m writing this in a moment of fika. Good concept.

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  3. These look fantastic. Delicious and very professional.

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  4. They look delicious. Are they a little like cream puffs?

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  5. Yes, very similar, but the cardamom spice and grated marzipan give an extra depth of flavour

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