Last Day of Gluttony

In Catholic times, "the Fat Tuesday" was the last day before the forty days of fasting until Easter started.

The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer for Easter through prayer, doing penance, repentance of sins, almsgiving, and self-denial. As the name suggests, one would eat ravenously - preferably seven meals a day - to stand firmly prepared for the 40-day fast. The traditions around the calorie-rich feast day remained even after the rules of fasting disappeared with the Protestant Reformation.

Since it was the last chance before the fast to eat milk, eggs, and white wheat flour, perhaps a dessert in the form of a fixed bun was on the menu.

That is why we Swedes to this day, in one of the most secular countries in the World, stuff ourselves with the delicacies in the picture. There are variations of semlor (sehm-lohr is plural, sehm-la is singular) throughout Scandinavia and in Sweden they go by several different names: 'semlor' in the north, 'fastlagsbullar' in the south, and 'hetvägg' if they are eaten with warm milk and sprinkled with cinnamon.

Here's a recipe for fastlagsbullar in English that I found on the thelocal.se (url). 

It's Fat Tuesday

Millions upon millions of these buns are eaten in Sweden today, which used to be the traditional day when they were first served. Nowadays you can buy them immediately after Christmas.

Every decent employer in the country has treated their employees to these buns during the afternoon coffee-break. The employees then go home and eat some with their families also.

I usually manage one of these a year, but I have friends who really love them and could eat one or two every day of the year.

For a recipe in English on how to make these delicacies, which in Swedish are called fastlagsbullar, fettisdagsbullar or semlor (depending on where you live in the country and the dialect of Swedish you speak), please visit SwedishFood.com: Lent buns.

The recipes never tell you how to eat these monstrosities. There are about nine million correct ways to do it. The only wrong way is to eat it like you would eat a hamburger, that is a definite no-no and would leave you with cream, almond paste and sugar all over your face.

I eat it like this:
1. First I take off the lid and scoop up a little of the cream on it and nibble away that part of the lid. I continue to do this until about half of the cream and all of the lid is finished.
2. Then I take a small spoon and gently caress of a bit of the cream and the almond paste that is in the center until I only have a shallow layer of cream and almond paste left.
3. At this point I have two alternatives on how to proceed depending on my mood and the company, either
  a) I take the bun in my hand and eat the bun and the rest of the cream and almond paste or
  b) I use a spoon to hack my way through the bun/cream/almond paste until it's all finished.

Delicacy of the Day

This is what millions of Swedes have been eating today. Well, actually some untraditional bakers started making them right after Christmas and some likewise untraditional consumers have been stuffing themselves with them since that time too...

We call them "fastlagsbullar" or "semlor" (further north). They were traditionally eaten before the forty days of fasting prior to Easter started.

I only eat one of them a year and only on this day!

The recipe below for the delicacy comes from this website Hovkonditorn. Passion for food and baking. This is the traditional version of the buns.

Dough
5 dl milk
50 g yeast / 2 bags dried yeast
2 dl sugar
½ tbsp ground cardamom
2 tsp salt
1 ägg
200 g butter, melted
15 dl flour

Filling
almond paste / jam
whipped cream

Heat milk to 37C. Stir in yeast, melted butter, sugar, salt, and ground cardamom. Add flour into mixture until dough is firm and pulls away from the side of your bowl. Cover the dough in the mixing bowl with a clean towel and let rise until doubled, about an hour. Punch down the dough, then remove from bowl. On a floured base, knead dough lightly until smooth and shiny. Shape into round balls and let rise another 20 min. Brush with egg and bake in 225 degree oven about 10 minutes. Fill buns with almond paste or jam and whipped cream.

You can easily make your own almond paste; equal parts almond flour and powdered sugar whipped with an electric mixer, add a splash of water at a time to a good consistency.