February is Semlor month in Sweden

Inside semlor: almond filling and whipped cream, mmm :-)

In Scandinavia, people traditionally eat Semlor on or before Mardi Gras but nowadays enjoy them during the whole month of February. Semlor are a pastry composed of a sweet cardamom-spiced wheat bun filled with almond paste and topped with whipped cream. 
The top of the bun is cut off, the inside of the bun scooped out, mixed with milk, sugar, and almonds, and then put back inside the bun. Whipped cream is added on top of the filled bun, then the lid is put back on and decorated with powdersugar. Semlor look like cream puffs but are so much more. And they are so good!

Semlor are perfect as a "snack" (although not a light one) in the afternoon with tea or coffee, as dessert after a light meal, or even as breakfast the day after you've baked them. I mean, they're delicious any time of the day :-)
Above is a picture of the Semlor I made last week and I will post shortly the recipe so you can try and bake them yourself. Homemade Semlor do take some time to bake, but like most desserts, taste so much better than the ones you find in stores. So here is the recipte and try them yourself!


Semlor Recipe (for about 40 pieces)

For the bread dough:
150 g margarin or butter
5 dl milk
50 g yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 dl sugar
1 teaspoon cardamom
1.4 - 1.5 l flour

Melt the fat in a kettle and add the milk; warm it up to 37C. Break down the yeast into small crumbs and dissolve it with a bit of the fat+milk. Then add the rest of it, salt, sugar, and cardamom. Add flour progressively while mixing and finish working the dough by hand until it just does not stick anymore. Put the dough in a bowl, cover it with a cloth (it should not touch the dough) and let it leaven at least 30 min (I leave it for 60 min).
Work the dough again and divide it up into 40 small buns. Let them rise again 30 min. Bake them approximately 10 min at 225-250C.

For the filling:
inside of the buns
2 dl sugar
2 dl ground almonds
2-2.5 dl milk
whipping cream

 
When the buns are cooled down, cut off the top and remove the inside of the buns. In a bowl, break up the inside of the buns into small crumbs and mix with the sugar and almonds. Then add the milk and mix to have a nice consistent almond paste. Fill up the empty buns with the almond paste, add some whipped cream, put the top of the buns back on, and decorate with some powder sugar...

... and enjoy !!!