Today Sunday it is Shrovetide Sunday (Fastelavnssøndag) here in Denmark. What does it mean ? It is the peak day for eating 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.
This year I am baking Shrovetide buns, which are in the style of semla otherwise known as the Swedish version of Shrovetide bun. Here you bake the buns, where you afterwards empty the inner part of the bun and fill it up with a filling and top of with whipped cream. I have found this recipe in the weekly magazine "Hendes Verden" (issue 8/2021).
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
Shrovetide bun a la Semla style: 12 buns
- 500 g wheat flour
- 75 g sugar
- 150 g butter - melted
- 25 g fresh yeast
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon vanilla sugar
- 1 teaspoon cardamon
- 200 g milk
- egg wash for glazing
- 200 g bun crums
- 2 apples
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 30 g butter
- 350 g caramel sauce
- 2½ dl dairy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
- Weigh all the ingredients directly into the mixing bowl of the stand alone mixer. Keep salt & sugar away from the yeast.
- Place the bowl on the stand-alone mixer.
- Start knead the dough at speed 1 for 8 minutes.
- Afterwards increase the speed to 4, knead for 2 minutes. Check the consistency of the dough. If it is not OK, when knead it at speed 4 for another 2 minutes. Again check the consistency. If needed, knead again for 1 minute and when check consistency of the dough.
- Let the entire dough raise for approx. 30-40 minutes under a damp cloth.
- When you evaluate, that the dough has raise enough, divide the dough into smaller pieces with a weight of 80 g each.
- Place the bun pieces on the baking tray covered with baking parchment.
- Let the bun raise for second time for approx 45 minutes under a tea towel.
- Heat up the fan oven to 200'C.
- Bake the bun at 200'C for 15 minutes, turning the baking trays around after 8 minutes to get an even baking.
- Cold down the buns.
- Cut the top of the buns. Remove the inner part of the buns. Save the bread crumbs for use in the filling.
- Peel the apple and cut it into 1 x 1 cm squares.
- Turn the apple pieces around in the sugar.
- Melt the butter in a cooking pot.
- Add the apple pieces into the melted butter. Cook the apple pieces soft in the butter, before they are mashed.
- Add in the caramel sauce and the bread crumbs.
- Cook this for 2-3 minutes.
- Cool down this filling.
- Whip the dairy whipping cream and vanilla sugar together in whipped cream.
- Fill the apple-caramel filling into the buns, top on with whipped cream and place the top bun piece on top.
- Served together with coffee/tea.
.jpg)
