Semla
The Swedish bun for Shrove Tuesday, fettisdagen — though today semlor appear in Swedish bakeries soon after Christmas. It is a soft cardamom bun with its top cut off, filled with almond paste mixed with crumbs from its own centre and a tall swirl of whipped cream. The cardamom must be freshly ground — that is what separates a semla from an ordinary cream bun.
Your own work in that: 25 min.
- Dough 20 min
- Rising 90 min
- Baking 15 min
- Cooling 30 min
- Filling and cream 25 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneGrind the cardamom fresh
Shell the cardamom and grind the seeds coarsely in a mortar. Freshly ground cardamom is the whole identity of a semla. Ready-ground loses its oils within weeks and gives a bun with barely any scent.
Ingredients: 450 g plain flour · 220 ml milk · 80 g butter · 60 g sugar · 25 g fresh yeast · 1 pcs egg · 2 tsp cardamom · 1 tsp salt
Knead the dough with cardamom
Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk with the melted butter, add the sugar, egg, salt, cardamom and flour and knead 10 minutes, until smooth and coming away from the sides. It should be soft and slightly tacky. The butter and milk must be only lukewarm — hot, they would kill the yeast.
Ingredients: 450 g plain flour · 220 ml milk · 80 g butter · 60 g sugar · 25 g fresh yeast · 1 pcs egg · 2 tsp cardamom · 1 tsp salt
Fresh cardamom in the dough — that is the semla.Rise for an hour
Cover and leave somewhere warm for an hour, until doubled. Then divide into 12 balls of about 75 g, shape them smooth and space them on a tray. Rise another 30 minutes.
Ingredients: 450 g plain flour · 220 ml milk · 80 g butter · 60 g sugar · 25 g fresh yeast · 1 pcs egg · 2 tsp cardamom · 1 tsp salt
Glaze with egg and bake
Brush the buns with beaten egg and bake 12–15 minutes at 220°C, until golden. High heat and a short bake give a thin crust and soft crumb. Cool completely under a cloth.
Ingredients: 1 pcs egg for glazing
Cut off the lids and hollow the centres
Cut a lid 1.5 cm high off each bun — traditionally a triangle — and scoop out some of the crumb with a teaspoon, leaving a 1 cm wall. Keep the crumbs for the filling.
Ingredients: 450 g plain flour · 220 ml milk · 80 g butter · 60 g sugar · 25 g fresh yeast · 1 pcs egg · 2 tsp cardamom · 1 tsp salt
A lid and a hollowed centre — the crumbs go back in.Mix the marzipan with the crumbs
Grate the marzipan, add the bun crumbs and the milk and mash with a fork into a thick, moist paste. The crumbs bind the filling to the bun and keep the paste from being cloyingly sweet.
Ingredients: 200 g marzipan · 80 ml milk · 400 ml whipping cream (30–36%) · 30 g icing sugar
Fill the buns and add the cream
Spoon the paste into the hollowed buns heaped up, whip the cream stiff with a spoon of icing sugar and pipe a tall swirl through a wide nozzle. There should be a lot of cream — a semla is more cream than bun.
Ingredients: 200 g marzipan · 80 ml milk · 400 ml whipping cream (30–36%) · 30 g icing sugar
A tall swirl of cream — a semla is more cream than bun.Set the lids on and dust with sugar
Set the lid on the cream, dust thickly with icing sugar and serve at once. Many Swedes start by lifting off the lid and eating it with the cream; a semla can also be served in a bowl of hot milk — as hetvägg.
Ingredients: 200 g marzipan · 80 ml milk · 400 ml whipping cream (30–36%) · 30 g icing sugar
Before you start
Hetvägg, semla in milk
An older form of semla is the bun served in a bowl of hot milk, often with cinnamon — hetvägg; the name comes from a Low German term for a warm bun. The bun soaks up the milk and is eaten with a spoon. Whipped cream in a semla is a later addition.
Marzipan or mandelmassa
Swedes use mandelmassa, an almond paste higher in almonds and less sweet than marzipan. Ordinary marzipan works well, but mix in a handful of ground almonds to cut the sweetness.
Buns ahead
Baked, unfilled buns freeze beautifully. Thaw at room temperature and fill just before serving — a filled semla softens within an hour and the cream slumps.
