Semla

Ingredients

Buns

• 600 gplain flour
• 250 mlmilk
• 100 gbutter, softened
• 80 gsugar
• 1egg
• 12 ginstant yeast
• 1 tspsalt
• 2 tspfreshly ground cardamom

Almond filling

• 200 galmond paste, or 150 g ground almonds with 100 g icing sugar
• the scooped-out bun crumb
• about 100 ml milk
• a few drops of almond extract, optional

Cream

• 400 mldouble cream
• 1 tbspicing sugar
• 1 tspvanilla

To finish

• icing sugar

To serve

• as they are, or in a bowl of warm milk as hetvägg

Directions

1. Crush the pods, pick out the black seeds and grind them in a mortar. Warm the milk to blood heat and mix it with the yeast. Add the flour, sugar, salt, egg and cardamom and mix to a dough.
2. Add the butter after the gluten has begun to form, not at the start. Butter added early coats the flour and the dough never develops properly. Knead for 10 minutes until it is smooth, glossy and elastic. Prove for about an hour until doubled. Divide into 12 pieces and roll each into a tight smooth ball.
3. Roll them tight, cupping the dough under your palm on the work surface, which builds surface tension and gives a round bun rather than a flat one. Set them on lined trays, well apart, and prove 40 minutes. Brush with beaten egg and bake at 220°C (430°F) for 10 to 12 minutes. They should be golden and just cooked, and an overbaked semla is dry and no filling will save it.
4. Cool them completely on a rack. Now cut a lid off each bun, slicing at an angle about a third of the way down. Scoop out most of the crumb from the base with a fork or your fingers, leaving the walls intact.
5. Leave a good wall of at least a centimetre, because a bun scooped too thin collapses under the cream. Now mix that scooped crumb with the almond paste and enough milk to make a thick, spreadable paste.
6. Add the milk gradually until it is soft but still holds its shape. Spoon the almond mixture back into the hollowed buns, filling them generously. Whip the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla to firm peaks.
7. Whip it properly firm. Soft cream slumps out of the sides within minutes and the semla has to hold its shape on a plate. Sit the lid on top at an angle and dust the whole thing with icing sugar. Assemble them as close to eating as possible, because the bun softens under the cream within a couple of hours.
8. Serve them as they are, with coffee. For hetvägg, the older way, put a semla in a bowl and pour hot milk with cinnamon around it, and eat it with a spoon.

Technique

• Fettisdagen, Shrove Tuesday, is the traditional day and is still the peak of the season.
• The Finnish laskiaispulla is the same bun, usually filled with jam rather than almond paste.
• Swedish bakeries compete over them and the season now starts absurdly early.

Substitutions

• Marzipan in place of almond paste, though it is sweeter.
• Ground almonds with icing sugar and a little milk, made from scratch.

Variations

• Hetvägg, served in hot milk.
• The Finnish laskiaispulla, with raspberry jam.
• The semmelwrap and other modern bakery inventions, which Swedes argue about.

History

A cardamom-spiced wheat bun, its top sliced off and filled with almond paste and whipped cream, traditionally eaten in Sweden on or around Fat Tuesday, the day before the start of the Christian fasting period of Lent, reflecting the bun’s origin as a rich, indulgent food meant to be enjoyed before a period of dietary restriction began. Its almond paste filling, sometimes made by mixing crumbled bread from the bun’s own scooped-out interior with ground almonds and sugar, developed as the dessert’s defining feature over centuries of Swedish baking tradition, and King Adolf Frederick of Sweden is popularly, though perhaps apocryphally, said to have died in 1771 after eating an excessive number of semlor in one sitting, alongside a very large meal. Semlor are now sold for weeks before Fat Tuesday rather than strictly on that single day.

Frequently asked questions

What is Semla?

Semla is a dessert from Sweden: cardamom bun stuffed with almond paste, whipped cream; Lent. A cardamom-spiced wheat bun, its top sliced off and filled with almond paste and whipped cream, traditionally eaten in Sweden on or around Fat Tuesday, the day before the start of the Christian fasting period of Lent, reflecting the bun’s origin as a rich, indulgent food meant to be enjoyed before a period of dietary restriction began. Its almond paste filling, sometimes made by mixing crumbled bread from the bun’s own scooped-out interior with ground almonds and sugar, developed as the dessert’s defining feature over centuries of Swedish baking tradition, and King Adolf Frederick of Sweden is popularly, though perhaps apocryphally, said to have died in 1771 after eating an excessive number of semlor in one sitting, alongside a very large meal. Semlor are now sold for weeks before Fat Tuesday rather than strictly on that single day.

How long does Semla take to make?

Semla takes 40 min plus 2 hr rising of preparation and 12 min of cooking. The recipe makes 12 buns. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Semla?

Yes, within limits. Marzipan in place of almond paste, though it is sweeter. Ground almonds with icing sugar and a little milk, made from scratch.

What is the most important thing to get right in Semla?

Add the butter after the gluten has begun to form, not at the start. Butter added early coats the flour and the dough never develops properly. Knead for 10 minutes until it is smooth, glossy and elastic. Prove for about an hour until doubled. Divide into 12 pieces and roll each into a tight smooth ball.