Sweden - Semlor

Typically eaten around Easter time these Cardamom buns are filled with a soft almond paste and finished off with a tall piping of lightly whipped vanilla cream. Delicious.

Ingredients - makes 10 buns

Tangzhong:

20g strong flour 

60ml whole milk

25ml water

Dough:

180ml whole milk

10g dried yeast

35g sugar

420g strong flour

1 tsp freshly ground cardamom

7g salt

1 egg

1 egg yolk

45g unsalted butter, softened

1 egg, for egg wash 

Almond filling:

300g ground almonds

140g icing sugar

2 tsp freshly ground cardamom

1 tsp vanilla extract

5-10 tbsp whole milk 

Cream:

600ml double cream

60g icing sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract 

Icing sugar, to dust 

Method

Place all the ingredients for the Tangzhong into a saucepan. Whisk together over medium heat, until it becomes a thick paste. Cook for 1 minute before taking off the heat & leaving to cool.

For the dough, heat the milk until warm. Add the yeast & sugar, mix and leave to one side for 15 minutes until bubbly.

Place the Tangzhong, flour, cardamom, salt, egg & yolk into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Pour in the yeast mixture & mix on medium speed for 5 minutes until you have a smooth dough. Gradually add in the butter in small pieces until all the butter has been worked in. Knead for 3-5 minutes until it is slapping in the bowl and completely smooth & elastic. Place into an oiled bowl, cover & leave somewhere warm for 1 hour (or until doubled in size.)

Once the dough has risen, knock it back & turn out onto a floured worktop. Portion & shape into 10 balls at approx 80g. Place onto two lined baking trays a few inches apart. Cover loosely & leave for another 45 minutes to 1 hour until doubled in size. Preheat your oven to 180C. Brush the tops of each bun with egg wash before baking for 15-20 minutes, or until golden. 

Filling: place all ingredients into a blender & blend until you have a semi-smooth paste. Keep adding in the milk a tbsp at a time until it's a pipeable consistancy but not too thin. 

Cream: whisk all ingredients together until you have medium-stiff peaks. 

Assembly: cut the tops off of the buns & scoop out a bit of the middle bottom piece. Fill with almond filling before piping a large mound of cream on top. Top with the bun top & dust liberally with icing sugar.