Leilas Semlor

18 buns

1 dough
1 tablespoon cardamom
3dl milk
50g fresh yeast
1�dl sugar
� teaspoon salt
150g soft butter
1 egg
11-12dl plain flour

Filling
400g almond paste
1 dash of milk
8dl whipped cream
1 egg for brushing
Icing sugar

Almond paste (500g)

250g almonds
2�dl sugar

1 batch of dough
1. Heat the milk and cardamom in a sauce pan until it's finger-warm (37degrees).

2. Crumb the yeast in a bowl and resolve it with the milk, sugar, salt, butter and
egg. Make sure the butter is soft, not hot nor solid. If the butter is too warm the
yeast will die, and if it is not warm enough it will not resolve in the mixture.

3. Add flour, a little bit at a time, and work it together to a flexible dough.

4. Ferment the dough in a bowl in either a plastic bag or under a tea towel until
the dough is twice the size, approximately 45-60 minutes. A tip here is to place
the dough where there is no wind flow and fairly warm (not hot!)

Home made almond paste (in Sweden this is called "mandelmassa" and can be bought at
the supermarket)

1. Scald and peel the almond.

2. Mix the almonds to a fine powder in a mixer.

3. Add the sugar and mix for 5-7 minutes until it is a smooth and warm paste.

Semlor

1. Turn out the dough on a table powdered with flour and divide it into 18 pieces.
Turn these pieces of dough into round buns.

2. Put the buns on an oven-tray on top of baking paper. Make sure to leave some
room between them since they will become bigger.
3. Put oven at 200 degrees.

4. Let the buns ferment further on the tray under a tea towel before baking them in
the oven.

5. Brush the buns with a beaten egg and bake them in the middle of the oven for 6-7
minutes. When the buns have a nice golden brown color, take them out and let them
cool down.

6. Cut the top of the buns and scoop out some of their inside.

7. Mix the scooped out part of the buns with the almond cream together with a dash
of milk until you get a creamy paste.

8. Fill the buns with almond paste, top it with whipped cream and put on the lid.
Powder the bun with icing sugar and voil�, a yummie Swedish semla :)

If wanted, add some vanilla essence to the whipped cream to get a nice flavor, and
enjoy it in a bowl with some hot milk eaten with a spoon.

Good luck :) practice makes perfect!