Baking Semlor for Fat Tuesday

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SemlaWhat’s Fat Tuesday?

Its the day you eat semlor.

Why do you eat semlor?

Because it is Fat Tuesday!

Today is Fat Tuesday. Last Fat Tuesday I promised I would attempted at making some semlor.

Luckily I got a semlor recipe from a friend in Norrland. After you make them, you definitely won’t wonder why they make them for the day you are supposed to fatten up!

We got all of the ingredients together, and everything was relatively fine to find in the States.

Semlor IngredientsEverything except Baker’s Ammonia! We went to 3 stores, and nobody had even heard of it. You can purchase Baker’s Ammonia online, but we didn’t have time. Baking power is a great substitute.

Next we melted the butter and added the milk. Don’t heat it too hot, if it is you will kill the yeast when you add it. Just make sure it is luke warm. Butter and Milk Add the yeast to a bowl, and add a bit of the milk/butter mixture. Yeast mixture Then add the rest of the bun mixture. That is flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder (or baker’s ammonia), and salt. Ingredients mixedMix it well…

Mixed well

And knead… with a smile, cause you are making semlor! Knead with a smile After you knead it just a bit until it is smooth (I didn’t do it for too long), you let it sit under a towel for 30 minutes. It’ll look something like that. Remove it from the bowl, put it on a kneading board and knead it again. When smooth, break it up into hand size pieces.

semlor balls

Flatten out the ball and fold it over multiple times. According to my brother, this puts air into the dough, similar to the taffy making process.

Folding semlor

Through them on a baking pan (we sprayed it with PAM before). Cover with a towel and again leave for 30 minutes to rise.

Semlor rising

You can then preheat the over and make the mixture for inside.

Open up the can of almond extract (love getting pre-made stuff!). It will be really hard. No worries, just add some water (about 2 tsp) and throw it in the microwave covered. Heat on low for 3 minutes, and it because very soft.

Almond paste

Mix it with equal amounts of whip cream. We whipped the cream before, but it melted, and so now I’m wondering if that was what we were supposed to do. Oh well, turned out well!

Almond extract mixture

You can also whip some cream at this point for the top.

When the 30 minutes is up on the buns, throw them in the oven for 8 minutes.

Semlor in the oven

 

Once cooled, chopped of the top and save.

Cutting off the top

Then remove the middle. Eat or discard.

middle gone

Now is the fun part. Fill with the almond paste mixture…

Fill up the semla

Top with whipped cream…

Semla whipped cream

Put on the little hat…

Semlor hat

And add powdered sugar on top. You know, because it isn’t sugary enough as it is.

Finished semla

Yummy! Now I wish I had a picture of eating one. But I had to test out the first one, and ate it extremely quickly. It was so much sugar I just couldn’t take another bite! I definitely understand why these are for Fat Tuesday!

4 thoughts on “Baking Semlor for Fat Tuesday”

  1. I was looking for a good recipe for semlor and I’m glad I found this! I’m a Swede living in the states and always have a problem with finding the right ingredients. Also, I really enjoy your website and blog, and now I’m even more excited about finally moving back this May! Keep it up!

    Reply
    • Thanks for the encouragement Evelina! I will definitely keep it up, the semlor were a big hit. Took them to a networking group, none of them ever heard of semlor before, but all of them loved it! A huge success 🙂

      Reply
    • Thanks for the note! How much do you add and when? I would love to try it for next time. This was a Norrlander recipe, so not surprised it is a bit different in Stockholm 🙂

      Reply

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