Fiber Fool

With high temperatures barely breaking zero we decided to hibernate for most of the weekend. When Sunday morning was not only frigid but also getting dusted with the ultra fine snow that you can only get when the tempertures are in the single digits it seemed a great day for baking and sharing the food and fun with friends. So, we called up some of our frequent fika attendees and were on for a mid-afternoon of good conversation, coffe, tea, and good food from our kitchen.

I always considered DH to be the baker. I am more of cook. But, I have to say that this Fika thing is going to turn me into a baker yet. Growing up we rarely did anything with yeast. In fact we didn’t bake too often. If we did it was cookies or on occassion quick bread. We never did cinnamon or caramel rolls that didn’t come out of the freezer. We never baked our own bread (well, until we got a breadmaker). It seems that most of the traditional baked goods that I have recipes for use a slightly sweetened yeast dough that is fairly light in structure. This was no different for the Semlor I chose to make on Sunday.

Semla (plural) is also referred to as Fat Tuesday Buns or Lenten Buns here. They are a slightly sweetened bun laced with a touch of cardamom that is slightly hallowed out, filled with almond paste and whipped cream, the top replaced and dusted with powdered sugar. It is often served in a bowl with warm milk. It was a pastry that was commonly eaten before the fast of lent began, hence the name. I have read that it is available in bakeries and cafes in Sweden from around the New Year through Easter. It seems many feel semlor should not be enjoyed until February. Since I hadn’t made it before and I am still not overly convident in my yeast dough making it seemed like just the thing to make on Sunday. I knew I wanted to make it before Fat Tuesday. The bowls of warm milk sounded very fitting on such a cold and snowy day too.

Making semla was really quite easy. I used the recipe in The Swedish Table (as usual), but added 1/8 t of cardamom (fresh from the pods). Next time I think I’ll up it to 1/4 t as you had to really search for the cardamom to really taste it much. None of my recipes for semlor included cardamom in the dough, but according to an article at The Local (Swedish news in English) that is one of the prerequisites set out by the Semla Academy in Gothenburg. Plus, many blog posts on semla also described the buns as being cardamom flavored. We also opted for mixing the almond paste with some of the bun crumbs and a bit of milk. Many people I know dislike marzipan so I thought taming the almond paste a bit might be welcomed. Plus, I needed 4 oz of paste, but the brand we could get came in a 7 oz tube so I just cut it in half and made up the volume. I wouldn’t be afraid of using it undiluted, but it tasted fine as we made it.

I think we could have easily enjoyed the semla without the milk on Sunday, however, the buns seemed to stale pretty easily so I think the warm milk would be required for serving any leftovers. We did decide it made for a nice breakfast on a cold morning. *grin* I have also read that the buns freeze quite well before hallowing out so we may give that a try next time.

If you’d like to try making semla it is really quite easy (if you buy the almond paste as I did anyway). I’ve seen several recipes on the Internet and they all seem to be about the same. You can google for one, or the recipes at A Cat in the Kitchen are good. The semlor recipe is here.