Make the buns

Melt the butter and mix with the milk. Add salt, cardamom, sugar and egg. Add the flour mixed with the yeast and mix with a stand mixer. Let raise for 30 minutes.

On a table, kneed the dough thoroughly. Divide into 32 pieces and form round buns. Place on oven tray and let raise at least another 30 minutes.

Whisk the egg and brush on top of the buns. Bake for 5-7 minutes in 250°C. Let cool under a towel.

Make the almond paste
Put sugar and ground almond in a food processor. Cut the top off the semla buns and make a hole in the bun (1-1.5 cm deep). Save the tops for later as a lid for your Semla. Put the bread pieces you remove in the bowl with the sugar and almond. Heat the milk and add to the other ingredients. Mix all to a smooth paste. Put the paste in the hole you made in the buns.

Assemble your Semla
Whip the cream and put on your buns. Put the lid on top and powder with icing sugar.

The buns can be frozen, but without the almond and cream.

This is one of Sweden’s most popular buns. Literally everyone eat them before lent. Historically you could only eat them for Fat Tuesday, which is why they are also called Fat Tuesday Buns. Then they were eaten every Tuesday from Fat Tuesday until Easter. But these days they are sold from New Year until Easter and come in many variations.