Swedish foodie secrets: How to find Sweden's best semla
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Loading... - Anna Russell
- 09 Mar 2022
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Semlor are traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday or Fettisdagen, as the last festive food before Lent, a traditional fasting period leading up to Easter. Fettisdagen falls on March 1st this year, so now is the time to indulge in one of the season’s best treats.
They are known as fastlagsbullar in southern Sweden, and – despite their origins – are now commonly available in bakeries from the end of the Christmas season to the start of Easter, rather than just on Shrove Tuesday.
A good semla is no more than the sum of its parts – the holy trinity of cardamom bun, whipped cream and almond paste. The ideal semla will take all of these individual parts into account, with each bite a perfect mix of cream, bun, and almond.
We asked semla-lovers on Twitter and in Malmö foodie group Malmöfoodisar on Facebook to tell us what you should look for in the ideal semla – here’s what they said.
The bun: ‘Absolutely not too dry’
Most of the people who got in touch were in agreement – a semla bun needs to have a noticeable cardamom flavour, without taking over. Rhiannon on Twitter said that “roughly ground cardamom in the bread” was important, with “a nice dusting of icing sugar on top of the bun”.
Joakim on Facebook said that, in his opinion the bun should be a “rather soft wheat bun with a light cardamom touch (the cardamom shouldn’t take over)”.
Charlotta, from the same Facebook group, said that the bun should be “fluffy with a noticeable cardamom flavour”, stating that she also enjoys “more historical semlor you can find further north where the inside of the bun is partly removed and mixed with the almond paste”.
Linnéa said on Facebook that the bun should be “soft and smooth, and absolutely not too dry”.
The cream: ‘High quality’
Semla cream should be “high quality whipped cream”, Rhiannon told us on Twitter, although on Facebook, people were split as to whether cream should include vanilla or not. My prefers her semlor to have “whipped cream with a bit of vanilla”, whereas Maria said that there should be “no jävla vanilla!” using a Swedish expletive that can be best translated into English as “bloody” or “damn”.
Cecilia said that there should be “enough fluffy cream so there’s a bit in every bite”, and Charlotta told us that the cream should be “quite lightly whipped (hand-whipped, if possible), absolutely not sweetened”.
Joakim likes the cream in his semla to be “lightly whipped with nothing extra added, so the better the cream the better the flavour”.
Linnéa told us that her ideal semla had “lots of cream (vegan if possible)” – although semlor can be heavy on the dairy, vegans can also enjoy the Lenten treat if the cream is oat- or soya-based. Read More…
