Semla

Lift the cut-off lid of the bun, and you find an almond filling hidden beneath white whipped cream. The semla is a sweet made from a yeast-leavened bun and is popular in Sweden from winter into spring. Today the most common form is a lavish bun eaten by hand, but the older hetvägg, eaten in a deep dish of warm milk, also lives on. Neighboring countries also have celebratory sweets eaten before the fast. Their forms and customs differ: some are buns filled with jam, and others are choux pastries eaten on a Monday.

A yeast bun made from a starter dough and a main dough

When the dough is made in 2 stages, a starter dough of yeast, milk, flour and other ingredients is made first and left to rise. Butter, eggs, cardamom and other ingredients are then added, and the main dough is kneaded. The dough is divided into rounds and left to rise again, so the process differs from that of scones, which rise quickly with a leavening agent. The soft bun is filled with almonds, and whipped cream is added on top.

In Lisa Lemke’s recipe (ingredient proportions and method) published by Visit Sweden, the Swedish tourism board, the starter dough is kneaded by machine for about 5 minutes and left at room temperature for about 30 minutes to double in size. The main dough ingredients are added and kneaded for about 10 minutes. The dough is then divided into pieces of about 70 grams each, left to double in size again, and baked. The degree of rising, and not only the time, indicates when each stage is complete.

Almond pieces and white cream

The top of the round baked bun is cut off, the center is hollowed out slightly, and an almond filling is put in. Whipped cream is piped on top, the lid is put back, and the bun is dusted with powdered sugar. Beneath the cream visible from the outside lies a filling rich in almond flavor.

Fillings range from smooth pastes to versions with pieces left in. In one example, coarsely chopped roasted almonds with their skins on are added to almond paste, and the consistency is adjusted with milk; this gives a fine paste and the crunch of almond pieces at the same time. In hetvägg, which is set in warm milk, the bun absorbs even more liquid, so the bread holds more moisture than in a semla eaten by hand.

A bun of fine flour and “Fat Tuesday”

The name semla derives from the Latin simila, meaning fine wheat flour. It was not a cream-topped sweet like today’s from the beginning; the word originally referred to bread. The last 3 days before the fast formed a festive period of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and in Sweden the final Tuesday is called “Fat Tuesday,” fettisdagen. It was a day for eating whatever meat and fat were available before entering the period of abstinence before Easter. White wheat flour, sugar and whipped cream were not everyday ingredients in rural households, and this is also one of the factors that separate the milk buns of the past from today’s lavish individual bun. Today the semla has expanded into a seasonal product sold from around Christmas until Easter.

Hetvägg, eaten soaked in warm milk

Nordiska museet (the Nordic Museum) describes hetvägg, served in a deep dish of warm milk, as an 18th-century sweet of the upper classes. The name hetvägg comes from the German for “hot wedge.” At the time, it was flavored with caraway and eaten in a bowl of warm milk. There is also an anecdote that the Swedish king Adolf Fredrik died after eating too many of them on Shrove Tuesday in 1771. The museum explains that oysters, lobster, sauerkraut and other dishes were also on the table that evening, and that the king suffered an attack after the lavish meal.

In the hetvägg recipe of the dairy company Arla, the inside scooped out of the bun is mixed with milk, grated almond paste and almonds and returned to the hollow. Visit Sweden’s recipe does not specify returning the crumb, so fillings under the same name also differ. In Arla’s version, the bun is finished with its lid and powdered sugar before being placed in a deep dish, and warm milk is poured in when it is served. Cinnamon is sometimes sprinkled over the milk. Milk is thus used at different stages: kneaded into the dough, used to adjust the consistency of the filling, and poured into the dish.

From an almond filling to an added layer of cream

In the 19th century, buns filled with almond paste became widespread. Raisins or candied citrus were sometimes added to the buns placed in milk. The name “Fat Tuesday bun,” which spread in the mid-19th century in place of hetvägg, also preserves the link to the pre-fast table. The name semla became common around 1900.

The way cream was used also changed. In Hemmets kokbok of 1903, almonds are ground with sugar and combined with firmly whipped cream and the inside of the bun to make the filling. A 1905 cookbook from Idun also includes a method of mixing cream into the filling. The white cream was not a separate, thick layer from the beginning.

In Vardagsmat med helgdagsmak of 1939, a version appears in which cream is piped on top of the almonds and dusted with powdered sugar. Cream became widespread after the First World War, and from the 1930s through the mid-20th century, the form of bun, almonds and white whipped cream layered together became established. In Sweden, where wartime rationing continued until 1951, cookbooks of the 1950s list serving it with warm milk or cold milk, as well as with coffee or tea. It was a period in which a dish eaten with warm milk and a sweet for the coffee or tea table overlapped.

The semmelwrap, born in 2015 and rolled in a thin dough

The semmelwrap, launched in 2015 by Tössebageriet in Stockholm, is a sweet in which almond paste and cream are rolled in a thin wheat dough. The culinary expert Mia Öhrn also introduced this new creation on January 1, just before its launch. Instead of hollowing out a round bun, the filling is wrapped in a thin dough.

Even with the change from a round bun with its lid cut off to a thin dough rolled around the filling, the combination of rich almond and light whipped cream has been carried on.

Jam fans and almond fans in Finland

In Finland it is known as laskiaispulla. The recipe of the dairy company Valio fills a cardamom-flavored yeast bun with slices of almond paste or strawberry jam, and with whipped cream. Granular sugar or chopped almonds are scattered on top of the bun before baking, so the cut-off lid also keeps some crunch. Finland’s official country-information site also reports that preferences are divided between almond fans and strawberry jam fans. Before the fast, people go sledding and enjoy meals, and events still take place on Sunday and Tuesday today. The same festive bun comes with 2 different fillings.

Norway’s round buns eaten on a Sunday

In Norway, on Fastelavn Sunday, cardamom buns are filled with whipped cream and jam. In the method published by the food information organization MatPrat, jam and cream are layered without almonds. Although both are celebrations held just before the fast, the day on which the buns are served differs from Sweden’s Tuesday.

Iceland’s Monday sweets and a children’s game

Iceland’s “Bolludagur” is the Monday that precedes the Tuesday before Easter. The City of Reykjavík’s multilingual event guide explains that round buns, made from choux dough (in which water and butter are cooked) or from yeast dough, are filled with various creams and jam. Children make “bun wands” decorated with paper and other materials and, tapping their parents lightly, ask for buns. Buns with cream or jam filled into the hollow of choux pastry differ from the Swedish semla, a yeast bun filled with almonds, starting with how the dough is made. Although the calendar before the fast is similar, children’s games, the way the dough is leavened and the fillings vary from region to region.

Many ways of eating, with the lid or with utensils

There is more than one way to start eating, too. Visit Sweden describes removing the lid and scooping out the filling, eating the bun as it is with your hands, and using a fork or spoon. When the white cream is piled high, taking off the lid first makes it easier to combine bun, almond and cream a little at a time. The utensils and the way of eating also differ between a deep dish of warm milk and a single bun held in the hand.

Glossary