Swedish Finnish Semla Buns
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 30 minutes plus 1.5 hours proofing time
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Makes 6 buns
- 1 3/4 cups bread flour
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons instant dried yeast
- 1.5 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 30g/1oz. butter, cubed
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
-
egg wash to glaze
-
1 cup jam
- 400ml/14flozs. cream
- 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar
- Icing sugar to sprinkle
Step 1 - Make the tangzhong mixture first. Take 2 tablespoons of a cup of the total flour and add to a small saucepan. Whisk in the 1/4 cup water until smooth. Then heat to 65C/149F. Remove from heat, cool down to 45C/113F and then whisk in the milk, egg and honey.
Step 2 - In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook (this requires a lot of kneading so I don't recommend doing it by hand), mix the flour, yeast and cardamom. Add in the tangzhong mixture and mix to combine. Then start kneading on the lowest speed. Knead until it becomes a cohesive dough, then add the dots of butter. Knead until it becomes very stretchy and elastic and you can pull the dough apart without it breaking (the window pane effect).
Step 3 - Shape into a ball with a smooth surface, cover and place in a warm, draught free area. I put it in a bowl of hot water to help it along. Allow to rise to double in size for an hour. Punch down the dough and knead in the salt and then divide into six even portions. Make sure that the balls don't have any cracks on the surface or lines that is, keep rolling them until they are smooth on all sides.
Step 4 - Place in a warm area for the second proofing-around 20 minutes.
Step 5 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Brush the buns gently with egg wash and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool on a rack and then slice off the top and cut out a cavity.
Step 5 - Whip the cream with the vanilla sugar and place in a piping bag. Fill each bun with jam and then pipe whipped cream on top. Place the top on each bun and then sprinkle with icing sugar.