Swedish Semlor buns are soft, enriched dough flavoured with cardamom, filled with almond paste and cream. Light as a feather and utterly delicious.
What Are Semlor Buns?
The merest hint of cardamom instantly triggers happy memories of my childhood. Smell is a powerful thing. My mother and grandmother always kept buns of different flavours in the freezer. Cakes too, ready for unannounced guests. Swedes love to chat over coffee with something sweet — commonly known as Fika!
When Are Semlor Eaten?
Semlor appear in Swedish bakeries shortly after Christmas. Traditionally, they are eaten on Shrove Tuesday, known in Sweden as Fat Tuesday. On this day, Swedes enthusiastically indulge in these irresistible cream buns. Some prefer semla served as a dessert, with hot milk poured over the top.
The Tangzhong Technique
I’ve incorporated tangzhong into nearly all of my enriched bread dough recipes. The result is soft, fluffy buns that stay fresh a little longer. So what is it? It’s a Japanese bread technique involving cooking a portion of flour and liquid into a paste. Once cooled, it’s added to the flour with the remaining ingredients. Simple as that.
Why Prove the Dough Overnight?
I firmly believe this recipe benefits from a slow overnight prove in the fridge. The dough becomes much easier to handle, as the gluten has time to relax fully. There’s no need to warm the milk before adding the yeast either.
Shaping and Filling Your Semlor
Shaping the dough into buns takes a little practice. Cup your hand and roll in a circular motion — you’ll soon create a neat ball. Once baked and cooled, you have two options: slice across the top or cut a triangular shape. Remove roughly a third of the crumb to use in the filling.
Making the Filling
The filling is simple. Combine the crumb with milk and leave it to stand for a few minutes. Grate in the almond paste and stir well. Add a little more milk until you have a smooth, pipeable mixture. Now you’re ready to fill the buns!
Swedish Semlor (Lent Buns)
Ingredients
Tangzhong
- 20 g strong white bread flour
- 60 g water
- 60 g whole milk
Dough
- 500 g strong white bread flour
- 1½ tbls freshly ground cardamom
- 70 g caster sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 50 g unsalted butter room temperature & cut into dice
- 235 ml whole milk straight from the fridge, no need to heat.
- 25 g fresh bakers yeast or 8g fast action dried yeast
- 1 large egg plus extra for glazing
Almond paste
- 200 g skinned almonds Roasted, optional
- 120 g icing sugar
- 1 tbls egg white
- 1 tsp water
Filling
- 200 g Almond paste
- 50-75 ml whole milk up to
- 550 ml double cream
- 2-3 tbls icing sugar to taste
Instructions
Almond Paste
- Place the skinned almonds in a food processor and pulse together until they come together into a paste – you may need to add a teaspoon of water. Tip in a bowl and add the egg white and icing sugar. Stir until you ave a smooth paste. Press into a sausage shape, wrap and place in the fridge until needed.
Tanghzong
- Place all three ingredients in a small saucepan and whisk together with a balloon whisk over a medium to high heat until the mixture thickens and bubbles. Remove from the heat, pour onto a plate and cover. Once cooled to room temperature, it's ready to use.
Dough
- Place the flour, sugar, cardamom and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, then add the cooled tangzhong.
- Sprinkle the yeast into the milk in a bowl and stir to dissolve (if using dried, just add it to the flour). Pour the milk into the flour and mix on a slow speed, then add the egg. Finally, add the butter and mix until you have a smooth, silky, elastic dough — approximately 10–12 minutes. Transfer to a lidded plastic container, seal and place in the fridge overnight to prove (up to 20 hours).
- When you're ready to bake the next day, knock back the dough and divide into 12 even pieces. Roll each piece in turn on a lightly floured work surface using your cupped hand until it forms a smooth bun. Place the buns on a baking tray lined with baking paper and leave to prove, covered, for a further 50–90 minutes depending on room temperature (the dough is cold, so it will take longer). To speed up the proving, place the buns in the oven, switched off with a bowl of freshly boiled water — don't cover them. They will take 30-40 minutes to prove this way. Meanwhile pre-heat the oven 190°C fan/Gas 6.
- Brush the buns with a little beaten egg. Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until golden and sounding hollow when the undersides are tapped. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
- Once the buns have cooled, hollow them out by cutting a triangle from the top or slicing it off, then scooping out a third of the insides and crumbling the bread. The almond paste will have firmed up in the fridge. Grate the almond paste into a bowl, then half of the milk and two thirds of the bun crumbs along with the icing sugar to make a smooth, you're looking for a pipeable paste — you may need to add more milk.
- Add 1-2 teaspoons of icing sugar and the vanilla extract to the cream and whip until the cream just holds its form.
- Fill the buns with the almond filling using a spoon or piping bag. Pipe or spoon the cream on top, replace the lids, dust with icing sugar and enjoy. Best enjoyed on the day of baking. Unfilled buns can be frozen.
Notes
A Few Final Tips
When whipping the cream, take care not to over-whisk — you want it to just hold its shape. Please use freshly ground cardamom; it makes all the difference. Fresh baker’s yeast is always my first choice, though I know it isn’t always easy to find. If using dried yeast, make sure you convert the quantity correctly for the amount of flour. There are several varieties — quick, fast-action and standard dried — which can be confusing! Now sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labour.
If you like this recipe, then you may want to try Swedish Vanilla Buns.
Thai Coconut Congee
Is it possible to use half the Bunn recipe for this and half for the vanilla buns?
Yes, absolutely you can.
I used this instead of my usual semlor recipe and they worked beautifully. We baked half the same day but after a slow rise The rest of the dough was baked the next day. Both were good and I shall be using this recipe again and exploring using a tanghzong. I agree freshly ground cardamon seeds are a must. Thank you for the recipe!
Thank you Anne, kind of you to take the time to comment. I think the tangzhong technique is fabulous. It’s my pleasure.
I bake semlor every year however this time I wanted to try the tangzhong method….the result was so good. Very light semlor and the recipe was so easy to follow with the dough rising overnight. I’ll use this method when baking buns of any sort from now on.
Glad you liked the recipe and the tangzhong method, I agree it warrants using in all yeasted enriched dough recipes.
I made these for the first time and they were absolutely incredible! My husband and I were giddy with how delicious and fun they are to eat. I want to save some unfilled buns in the freezer and wondered what the best method is to thaw and serve them?
So happy you like Semlor. Just thaw them naturally. If you have leftover roasted almond filling it keeps very well in the fridge for several weeks or you can make fresh. Then proceed and fill as per the recipe. Hope this helps.