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semlor swedish lenten buns with cream and icing sugar on top

Semlor - Swedish lenten buns

Recipe for semlor
Semlor is plural for a semla. A Swedish lenten bun with a filling of marzipan and almonds in a soft cardamom bun. They can be bought in most Scandinavian bakeries from January until fat Tuesday, but you can easily make them yourself.
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Rising 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 15 minutes
Course Cake
Cuisine Swedish
Servings 12 pieces
Calories 488 kcal

Ingredients
  

Buns:

  • 25 g fresh yeast
  • 2 dl whole milk
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cardamom
  • 60 g sugar
  • 450 g all-purpose
  • 100 g butter soft
  • 1 egg for brushing

Filling:

  • 150 g marzipan
  • 75 g almonds
  • 1 dl milk
  • 2 tbsp icing sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean
  • 5 dl whipping cream
  • Icing sugar

Instructions
 

Buns:

  • Warm the milk until it is about 37 degrees Celcius, and dissolve the yeast in the warm milk.
  • Add eggs, salt, sugar, and cardamom, and then the flour a little at a time. Knead the dough well, use the mixer. When the dough is smooth, add soft butter in cubes, and knead into the dough. Knead the dough until it releases the bowl, it takes about 15 minutes on the mixer.
  • Let the dough rise for 30 minutes in the bowl.
  • Form into buns of about 75 grams of dough and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
    semlor ready to rise on baking sheet
  • Let the buns rise to double size for about 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius normal heat.
    raised semlor ready for the oven
  • Brush the buns with beaten egg, and bake them for 12-14 minutes until golden and baked through.
  • Place them on a rack when they come out of the oven so they can cool down a bit before moving on.
    ready-baked semlor on a rack

Filling:

  • Once the buns have cooled down a bit, cut off the top. You need to cut about ⅓ off so that ⅔ of the bun becomes the bottom.
  • Hollow out the bottom so that there is room for the filling. The crumbs you take out are put in a bowl along with grated marzipan, chopped almonds, icing sugar, grains from the vanilla bean, and milk. The filling is stirred together, or run on a food processor to a smooth mass. Add a little extra milk if it is too dry.
    hollowing out the bottom of a semla
  • The almond / marzipan cream is filled back into the bottom of the buns.
    almond / marzipan cream filled in a semla
  • Whip the cream to whipped cream, put it in a piping bag, and pipe it on top of the buns with the filling.
  • Cut the top of the bun as a triangle, place it on top of the whipped cream and finally sprinkle with icing sugar.
  • Serve immediately or refrigerate until serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 488kcal
Keyword Nordic pastry, Scandinavian pastry, semla, semla recipes, semla sweden, semlor buns, swedish pastry
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