#swedish semlor

[clatterbane]

Very late brunch of champions here today: Mr. C stopped by and picked up a couple of seasonal GF semlor from the same bakery again. (Systrar & Bröder here in town.) One each, and he just decided to get them both the same to simplify things since there were plenty of GF ones out today.

I did see another place pretty highly recommended and wanted to try theirs too, but they're wanting advance notice a day or two in advance of pickup. Not today, then!

The cream came out a little flattened on on one side, but these fared surprisingly well considering that the bakery just set them straight down inside that paper sack. 😒 Maybe they were out of boxes or something, I don't know. No bakery paper under them or anything, even--just straight into the bag.

The Bag of Shame. Didn't hurt the taste, at least!

I decided to just start out by chopping that thing in half, because those are NOT small sweet rolls.

At least the size of a large grapefruit. They are definitely not skinching on the amount of semla you're getting.

It always looks like an awful lot of bread in proportion to the cream, and especially the layer of almond paste lurking under it. But, once again the proportions balanced out better than I would have thought by looking. Nice note of cardamom in the roll, which is not too sweet. Set off pretty nicely by the much sweeter almond and whipped cream.

My blood sugar may or may not thank me, but I probably will finish off the rest of that shortly. May be a good thing I just got another insulin refill the other day! 😊

[desdasiwrites]

It's fettisdagen (Shrove Tuesday) and I'll tell you all about it before I go out and treat myself to a tasty semla.

So what is a semla? It's a sweet roll eaten in northern Europe. For a while it was just a plain bun served in a bowl of warm milk. Perhaps not that appetizing... People ate the semla and other food to prepare for Lent, a fasting period of 40 days before Easter.

Swedes love their semlor (plural of semla) and will eat about 6 million today alone! It's tradition to eat them on Shrove Tuesday, which is today, but the treat will be sold or baked at home for a few weeks and when it's over we will have eaten about 40 million semlor.

Today's traditional semla is a cardamom-flavoured bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream. But there are a lot of versions. Vanilla or chocolate filling, cinnamon bun-semla, semmelwrap etc.

Here's a few of the more creative ones:

May I suggest a donut semla? Or would you prefer a licorice one?

Princess semlor, based on the traditional swedish cake

And who can forget the Nachosemla?

Maybe you'd like a drink inspired by the semla and there are many options. Semla latte, semmel milkshake and even semmel shots. Hmm.. I think it's time for fika.

[pavlovianfuckery]

I even cooked today, yay for me

this is kalops, beef cooked with carrots, onion and seasoned with allspice. I think traditionally it's more of a stew but this is how my family has always made it so 🙃 some people have pickled beets or lingonberry jam with it but we opted for currant jelly today. it's not pretty but oh well

[i-love-books-because-reasons]

Semlor: The Dessert That Killed A King

[bradshawsbitch]

god Christmas has barely died and my local ICA is already selling semlor

[biiitchpork]

SHROVE TUESDAY THE SWEDISH SEMLOR

[bluesmokescribe]

GUYS, I realized something.

1. In episode three, the treat Penelope buys is a semlor.

2. I have a recipe for that! I can make it! (And I did! Pics below)

3. Wait....semlor is a Swedish ECLAIR.

[andiatas]

12 Feb. 1771 - Adolf Fredrik died at 60 at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. In the paper the next day, one could read: “His Majesty’s death has occurred from indigestion of lent bun, sauerkraut, meat with turnips, lobster, caviar and champagne wine.”

It’s described how he started experiencing stomach pain and dizziness before ultimately passing away. Nowadays, it’s believed he had a stroke which led to his death, but back then, his appetite got blamed for the king’s death and still today, he’s known as the king who died after eating too many lent buns (Swedish: semlor).

Count Johan Gabriel Oxenstierna, who became a courtier in 1774, wrote that Shrove Tuesday should be banned and that “[the lent bun should be] driven into exile from Sweden, since it committed a royal murder.”

Photo: Sara Friberg, The Royal Court of Sweden

[petterwass]

With languages having so many strange rules and nonsensical grammar, it is nice when you find a area in which a language has decided to be eminently logical and clear.

In Swedish, you grandparents are your farfar, farmor, morfar, and mormor. Literally fatherfather, fathermother, motherfather, and mothermother.

While aunts and uncles are farbror, faster, morbror, and moster. Fatherbrother, father(sis)ter, motherbrother, and mother(sis)ter.

This makes it very easy even for a small child to know exactly where in the lineage a relative falls.

This is very important to know how many semlor and kanelbullar must be paid in blood price when one is inevitably slain in the latte-induced dynastic blood feuds that plague modern Sweden.

[clatterbane]

Being the way I am, before I realized that a cake was called for? I was already planning to put together some cinnamon rolls out of that sweet roll mix that I picked up on sale to make semlor for the rather sedate Swedish answer to Mardi Gras, and then totally failed to do so. Have the butter already set out to soften and everything.

Another reason I welcomed the idea of an extra simple to throw together cake, BTW, which wouldn't require more mixer running. Especially since I was going to make that after Mr. C has gone to bed. Our stand mixer motor is powerful but NOT quiet, and the neighbors probably wouldn't much appreciate that in the middle of the night either.

But, then it also occured to me that we've got a package of almond paste that didn't get used for the planned semlor either. And I bet that could also be good incorporated into cinnamon rolls, right? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yes, this is apparently an established thing here. And I can probably still use the same amount of butter that I already set out, just basically sub some almond paste in for the sugar in the filling. Recipes I'm seeing are mixed on whether to add some extra starch or breadcrumbs, but I guess we'll see how the consistency looks after it's mixed up.

The linked recipe is also handy, in calling for sprinkling flaked almonds on top of the rolls instead of the pearl sugar that's normally standard on cinnamon rolls here. We don't have pearl sugar, and I don't like the texture. (Which is kinda why I never bought any.) OTOH, we do have an open bag of flaked almonds, everybody here enjoys those, and that also neatly sidesteps the whole glaze vs. crunchy sugar bits cultural divide. 😅

[malienessan]

Guess what? It’s Fat Tuesday today!

This is a semla, and that’s what a majority of the Swedes eat today, on Fettisdagen (Fat Tuesday). It’s a sweat bun with cardamom, filled with mandelmassa (ground almonds and sugar), and topped with sweet whipped cream.

Remember when Link had one? But one that had been tampered with, unfortunately.

If you have a Swedish bakery close by, see if they have semlor today, I can highly recommend it 🤌

[f-rg-tmigej]

The semla – a Swedish delicacy "The semla – a small, wheat flour bun, flavoured with cardamom and filled with almond paste and whipped cream – has become something of a carb-packed icon in Sweden.

The traditions of semla are rooted in fettisdag (Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday) when the buns were eaten at a last celebratory feast before the Christian fasting period of Lent. At first, a semla was simply a bun, eaten soaked in hot milk (known as hetvägg).

At some point Swedes grew tired of the strict observance of Lent, added cream and almond paste to the mix and started eating semla every Tuesday between Shrove Tuesday and Easter.

Today, no such reservations exist and semlor (the plural of semla) usually appear in bakery windows as near after Christmas as is deemed decent – and sometimes even before. This is followed by a collective, nationwide moan about how it gets earlier every year. Shortly thereafter people begin to eat the things like the world will end tomorrow. But, increasingly, not just any semla will do. Every year, at around the same time that the bakeries fill with semlor, the Swedish newspapers start to fill with semla taste tests. Panels of ‘experts’ dissect and inspect tables full of semlor to find the best in town." - Source

[medium-cat]

first attempt at swedish...anything actually! semlor!! not sure how i made it this far without them bc they're heavenly like fr

[pernillemagda]

What did P say in Z's storie? Can't tell if it's danish or swedish.

She says "Danish fastelavnsboller" Then pointing at the Swedish version "that's just vanilla and whipped cream"

I don't know the english word for fastelavnsbolle, but that is what they are eating and it's the same as Swedish "semlor"

[fixionaria]

Semlor Semla These Swedish cardamom buns are typically served on Fat Tuesday and are filled with whipped cream and marzipan. They are happily consumed whenever they can be found today. We adore that they are just the right size and not overly sweet.

[the-kingdom-of-sweden]

Uh we have a king Erik XIV died from a stroke which according to the legend was because he hate too many semlor ( apparently it’s called “Swedish eclair” or “lent buns” in English) Semlor is a Swedish dessert and many eat it on shrove Monday (explainination for non Swedes)