Late Fettisday with Semla / Semlor

In honor of the swedish fast, also known as fettisdagen (fatty tuesday),which occurs on the first tuesday in february, swedes eat a bun filled with whipped cream and almond (something similar to marzipan but not as sweet). It is called semla, and Swedes eat them just before they start fasting for Easter.

Some eat them as hetvägg (hot wall) where the semla is placed in a bowl which is later filled with warm milk.

The proper way of eating it is by taking the lid off and scraping the whipped cream with it. Then, you can start eating the rest of the semla.

In recent years, the semla has been "developed" for lack of a better terms. Now, they come in different kinds of flavoured whipped cream, almond, sizes, adjusted for those with lactose and/or gluten. There are even variations of blueberry and vanilla whipped cream.

But the real semla is white bun with the top cut off. the inside of the bun is dug out and filled with almond. Then whipped cream is sprayed over. Finally the "hat" is placed on top and sprinkled with icing sugar.

After a heavy meal, we had this for dessert with homemade hot chocolat. We both got paltkoma (paltkoma is a swedish term for when you've eaten so much that you almost fall into a coma. Palt is a local dish from north of Sweden which is really heavy in itself).

We DID not make our own semla, BUT we have three links on how to make your own semla! Below are the links:

1. Lost in Stockholm: Homemade Swedish Semlor! Semlor is plural for Semla, at least that is how it is called in Swedish. Lost in Stockholm blog has pictures and detailed versions of this recipe! You will not want to leave this one out.
2. Swedish Freak also has his version of baking semla. Added to it is how he actually eats it! This bun is very huge, a lot of people eat it differently. Some with several big bites like a burger, as seen in this video. The asian background music might be a bit confusing in connection to the recipe but make no mistake! This is definitely a Swedish recipe!
3. Allrecipes definitely have their version!

If you live in Sweden, the easiest is to go to the nearest ICA and buy it from their bakery or Willy's and get semla or semlor sold there from Johanssons Bageri. Don't you just want to eat this already?