The Start of the Semla

Pancakes, king cakes, paczki, doughnuts, semlor.... Each country has their own tradition when it comes to Shrove Tuesday. That's the day before Ash Wednesday. And once Wednesday hits, you have 40 days of fasting before Easter.

Fasting ain't easy when you have goodies hanging out in your house calling out your name, so people all around the world came up with ingenious ways of getting rid of anything that could prove tempting before starting that long fast. Out with the eggs, the sugar, the milk, the butter! Any rich foods needed to go and go quickly. Throwing them away would work, but why throw out all these precious goods when you could stuff yourself silly with them instead? And that's just what happened. Different countries came up with fat-laden, rich tasting foods on Tuesday and consumed until they popped before Wednesday, thus creating traditional Shrove Tuesday foods in the process. In Sweden, that brought about the birth of the Semla.

Basic breakdown of a semla: 

• Wheat bun - Made with a whole lotta sugar, flour, butter, milk, and eggs.
• Almond paste - Even more sugar and eggs, and almonds of course. The heart of a semla. It makes or breaks the pastry.
• Cardamom - An imported Asian spice. Common in Indian cooking and Swedish baking.
• Whipped Cream - More fat, for good measure. And why, not? You might as well take it all the way.
• Powdered Sugar - A sprinkle on top to make it even more irresistible. As if it needed to be!

Total damage: around 550-650 super tasty calories

If you're in the US and you pick up a copy of the March issue of Martha Stewart's Living, you'll find a two page KitchenAid ad on the inside cover. The scrumptious picture of a person baking semlor shown there is from photographer Anna Huerta. I took the magazine out on February 12th (Fat Tuesday this year) and showed the ad to everyone I met. I asked them to identify the pastry on the page. I asked co-workers, shop assistants, a few bakeries, and people walking on the street. Most people ventured a guess, although no one got it right. Cream puffs were the consensus and why not? That's the frame of reference most Americans have for such a concoction. Close, yet far. I asked KitchenAid for a little info, however they couldn't ID the pastries in the ad either, "Unfortunately, we do not have the information you are requesting regarding the pastry. Usually information regarding the food is referenced at the bottom of the KitchenAid advertisement.", according to the representative I contacted.

So the average American doesn't know about semlor, but there is one business in New York City working to change that. FIKA, a Swedish cafe in the city, serves these mouth watering pastries daily when they are in season. Take a look at this video from Nordstjernan:

Time for a semla, FIKA style from Nordstjernan on Vimeo.