Skrovetide bun with caramel sauce

Today it is Shrovetide Sunday (Fastelavnssøndag) here in Denmark. What does it mean ? It means, that we will be eating buns with various types of filling. .

Shrovetide bun are connected with fasting, which starts 49 days before Easter. And when in the fast period you are not supposed to eat meat and wheat flour as well as not drink milk or alcohol. So before the fast started there was big parties, where you would indulge in these foods. Fastelavnssøndag (Shrovetide Sunday) and the following Monday were the last days, where you could eat meat. The following Tuesday was the last day of eating wheat flour, where wheat buns were baked and eaten. This White Tuesday is also known as Pandekagedagen (Pan Cake Day) again relating to the use of wheat flour in pan cakes.

The traditional Danish "fastelavns"/Shrovetide song is like this:

Fastelavn er mit navn                                             Shrovetide is my name

Boller vil jeg have                                                    Buns I would like to have

Hvis jeg ingen boller får                                          If I get no buns

Så laver jeg ballade                                                When I will make trouble

Boller op, boller ned                                               Buns up, buns down

Boller i min mave                                                   Buns in my tummy

Hvis jeg ingen boller får                                         If I get no buns

Så laver jeg ballade                                                When I will make trouble

This I have been baking these Shrovetide buns with caramel sauce using a recipe from the weekly magazine Søndag (issue 50/2016).

Shrovetide bun with caramel sauce: - 12 buns

• 10 g yeast
• 200 g full-fat milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cardamon
• 50 g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 500 g wheat flour
• 100 g soft butter
• 100-150 g caramel sauce
• 1 apple
• egg for glazing

1. Add milk, yeast, salt, cardamon, egg and sugar into the mixing bowl on the stand alone mixer.
2. Whip it together.
3. Afterwards add in the flour and butter in the mixing bowl. Knead the dough together on speed 2 for 5-8 minutes.
4. Let the dough raise either cold night over or warm for 1½ hour.
5. Divide the dough into 12 portions.
6. On the flatten bun dough a teaspoon full of caramel sauce is placed.
7. Fold the dough together around the filling - fold it close together
8. Place the bun up-side-down on the baking plate.
9. Other option is to make a hole in the middle of bun dough, where the caramel sauce is filled into. However, this did not work at all, during the baking the bun raised and the caramel sauce was flowing everywhere !!!
10. Raise the buns for another 30 minutes.
11. Slice the apple into thin slices, which boiling water is poured over.
12. Place one apple slice on top of the closed Shrovetide bun.
13. Glaze each bun with whipped egg.
14. Bake the buns at 200'C for 15-20 minutes.
15. Cold down the buns prior to serving.