Tuesday is shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as pancake day in the UK. Here in Sweden they have a different altogether more naughty treat for that day - Semlor! A very light bun, marzipan, cream, what more could you want? And unlike pancakes, you eat them every Tuesday till Easter...

We've been trying out to make them in our kitchen. 

Semlor are the traditional bun for this time of year. There are probably as many recipes for semlor out there as people who make them. Our favourites are the ones from Cafe Mäster Hans in Malmö. These are similar in style to those. To be honest, we've not found any we disliked, just some we loved more than others.

 Dough

50g live yeast (or 25g of dried yeast)

300ml of milk warmed to 37C

600ml of white flour

200ml of spelt flour (you could use just white if you wish)

1 Tbsp honey

1 egg

75g melted butter

Warm the milk, mix in the live yeast, and add the melted butter and egg, and beat.

Add to the flour and honey and mix to a dough - just like bread it should be warm and elastic. 

Leave to rise for 30 minutes in a warm place till it looks something like this

Mandelmassa (a type of marzipan)

75g ground almonds

25g of flaked almonds

1 tbsp honey

75ml of cream

Break the flaked  almonds into small pieces, and add to the ground almonds. Mix in the honey and cream with the almonds and beat until it starts to stiffen a bit.

Make the buns

The dough should now be well risen. Turn on the oven to 250C to start warming up and help the buns rise.

Cut the dough into 16 balls and space well on baking sheets. Don't handle the dough too much! It's meant to be very light.

Leave the dough to rise for 30 minutes on the sheets.

Place the buns in the oven and turn the temperature down to 225C. Bake for about 10 minutes. Take out and leave to cool

Cream

200 ml of whipping cream

1 tsp of ground cardamom

Whip the cream and cardamom together to  form a fairly stiff cream.

 Assembly

Cut the buns in half and put a thick layer of mandelmassa on the base.

Add a generous layer of cream, put on the lid gently, and sprinkle with icing sugar.

To eat use the lid as a scoop to eat some of the flavoursome cream, then eat the base and remaining cream. Repeat till full! :)