Fastelavnsboller / Shrovetide buns in Spring colours

Today it is Shrovetide Sunday (Fastelavnssøndag) here in Denmark. What does it mean ?

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 here 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.

Another funny thing is, that I noticed the very first advertisements for buying Shrovetide buns in the local news paper right New Year. There is 6-8 weeks from New Year to Shrovetide, but it has been possible to fill your stomach with Shrovetide buns from the bakers in many last weeks. Here is an interesting article about Shrovetide Buns (in Danish).

However, the taste of Shrovetide buns from the bakers are nothing compared to your own home-made buns, where you can adjust the filling to your personal taste preference.

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 year I have decided to try out this suggestion for Shrodetide buns using a a very fat rich bun recipe combined with pistachio mass as filling.

Shrodetide buns in Spring colours: - 20 buns

• 250 g water
• 250 g dairy whipping cream, 30-38% fat
• 20 g yeast
• 2 eggs
• 15 g salt
• 50 g sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
• 850 g wheat flour
• 50 g butter - diced into smaller squares
• 200 g pistachio marzipan
• icing sugar + water

1. Pour dairy cream and water in the mixing bowl of the stand-alone mixer. Dissolve the yeast into the yeast into this liquid by stir with a spoon.
2. Weigh salt, sugar, vanilla sugar and eggs into the liquid.
3. Knead these ingredients together on the mixer at speed 2 for 1 minute.
4. Add in the flour into the mixing bowl.
5. Knead the dough together for 2 minutes at speed 2 followed by kneading it at speed 4 for 6 minutes.
6. Add in the butter squares. Knead the butter into the dough at speed 4 for 2 minutes.
7. After kneading let the dough stand warn for 2 hours with the tea towel covering the mixing bowl.
8. Divide the dough into bun portion of 80 g. Place the buns on baking trays covered with baking paper. Cover the buns with tea towels, and let the dough raise for another 1 hour.
9. Heat up the fan oven to 200'C.
10. Make a smaller hole in the upper part of the bun. Squeeze in the pistachio marzipan into the hole.
11. Bake the buns in the fan oven at 200'C for 12-15 minutes.
12. Cool down the buns, before decorating them with white glazing around the pistachio marzipan.
13. Enjoy