Semlor

Hi Sweet people; If you have ever been to Sweden and visit some bakeries you probably have seen these sweet buns ( semlor)  in the bakery, in Sweden we call these for Semlor, they are so good but homemade is always better!

For a great Semlor recipe you need; a great recipe for the sweet buns, a great recipe for the almond paste and whipped cream.
The almond paste I make is so delicious you want to eat it without the buns. 
I use a lot of almonds and sugar, vanilla and heavy cream, to make this almond paste and if you love it less sweet you can use half the amount of sugar.

A great sweet bun, you get by mixing the dough on a →low for a while, so keep that in mind when you mix!

The heavy cream is lightly sweetened with sugar and vanilla and piped on top of the almond paste.

There is really no nice way of eating these Semlor, but how delicious they are!
I hope you try it one day soon.
And oh, in Sweden they use cardamom in the dough I don’t like it in my dough but is very typical in Sweden when they make buns,  so if you like it just add a teaspoon in the flour mixture. 

Semlor

Sweet buns;

• 8 cups (900 gram) all purpose flour
• 3/4 cups (200 gram)sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 3/4 cup (400 ml) milk
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoon dry active yeast or 50 gram fresh yeast
• 2/3 cup ( 150 gram) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
•  egg wash for the top

Almond Filling; 

• 1 1/2 cups (300) gram almonds 
• 2-3 cup (350 gram) powdered sugar 
• 3/4 cup ( 200 ml) heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean

Topping;

• 2 cups ( 500 ml) heavy cream
• 2-3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla powder or seeds from 1/2  vanilla bean

Directions; 

• Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicon baking matt.
• In a saucepan, add the milk and eggs, give it a whisk and warm it on low heat until it is 86F° (30 C°)
• Remove from the heat, make sure your milk-mixture is 86F° (30 C°)  add the fresh yeast or dry yeast, give it a whisk to make sure it is all dissolved.
• In the bowl, of a standing mixer, fitted with a dough hook attachment, add the all-purpose flour, sugar,  and salt give it a whisk
•  Pour in the milk-egg-yeast mixture.
• Mix on low speed for about 10-15 minutes.
• Then, add the diced butter to the dough mix, a few pieces at a time.
• Once the butter is completely incorporated into the dough, mix on medium speed for about 10 minutes more.
• Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel and let it rise for 45 to 60 minutes or until doubled in size.
• When the dough has risen, take the dough out of the mixing bowl and place it on a  lightly floured kitchen counter, work the dough for some minutes.
• Lightly flour your beautiful hands and divide the dough into 20 equal pieces.
• Shape each piece into a ball.
• Lay the buns on prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2″ apart, as they will rise quite a bit.
• Cover the buns with plastic wrap, and let rise for about 30-45 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350F°(180C°)
• Give your buns a light eggwash
• Bake in the middle of the oven until golden brown around edges, about 12-16 minutes.
• Cool completely.

Directions for the almond Filling;

• Place your almond in a food processor and process until coarsely ground, add it into a bowl.
• Add the powdered sugar, vanilla bean paste, and heavy cream and combine with a spatula until it forms a paste if it is to thick just add some more heavy cream.
• Take your completely cooled bun, slice it in two.
• Add about one large tablespoon of almond paste on top, use your spoon to spread it out on your bun.
• Whip up, heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy.
• Add about 2 tablespoons of the whipped cream on top of the almond paste and add the other half of the bun on top, drizzle with some powdered sugar on top, and you are done!
• Or place your whipped cream in a piping bag, fitted with a large nozzle and pipe your cream on top of the almond paste as I did.
• Enjoy I hope you enjoy this Swedish Semlor.

I hope you all have a wonderful day and a great start to the new week, sweet hugs from Manuela xoxo

Step by step instructions;