Shrovetide bun with cherry and marzipan

Today is THE DAY as it is Shrovetide Sunday (Fastelavnssøndag) here in Denmark. What does it mean ? So today you will have the peak time for consuming Shrovetide buns, until you can not stand the sight of these very rich and fatty buns for another year.

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

Other suggestions for Shrovetide buns couls as well be Shrovetide bun with liquorice touch (only for native Danes) or Shrovetide bun with raspberry and marzipan (both for Danes and other nationalities)

Shrovetide buns with cherry and marzipan: - 12 buns

• 200 g milk
• 25 g yeast - in small lumps
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon cardamon
• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 100 g dairy whipping cream - 35-40% fat
• 100 g butter - melted and cooled down
• 500 g wheat flour
• 50 g sugar

Filling

• 100 g marzipan - roughly grated
• 60 tablespoons of Amarena cherries
• icing sugar

1. Melt the butter in a cooking pot. Pour in the milk to cold down the butter, so the yeast can be mixed in. 
2. Add this liquid into a mixing bowl, agitate slowly, while a dry-mix of sugar, salt, vanilla sugar and cardamon is added in as well for 1 minute on speed 1.
3. Pour in the dairy cream together into the liquid phase.
4. Afterwards add in the wheat flour, knead for 10 minutes on speed 2.
5. Place the bun dough in air-tight container, while it raise in warm surroundings for 2 hours.
6. Weigh the bun dough in a size 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.
7. Heat up the oven to 210'C.
8. Make a smaller hole in the upper part of the bun. Squeeze in the mixture of marzipan and chopped Amarena cherries into the hole.
9. Glaze the buns with milk.
10. Bake the buns in the upper part of the oven at 210'C for 15 minutes.
11. Cool down the buns, before decorating them with white glazing around the marzipan filling.
12. Enjoy.