Semla ($3.50) is a traditional bun eaten near Easter. Made of wheat flour, cardamon spices, whipped cream and almond paste, there's a cut of lid that's also dusted with icing sugar. I was pretty excited about it when IKEA sold it fueling all claims that Easter is all about easter eggs, bunnies and hot cross buns.
Some interesting trivia courtesy of trusty Wikepedia...
- An average Swede eats 5 of these buns in a year in addition to their home baked ones!
- The King of Sweden, King Adolf Frederick died of indigestion after consuming a meal consisting of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring and champagne, which was topped off by 14 servings of semla, with bowls of hot milk.
- In Finland, the bun is sometimes filled with strawberry jam instead of almond paste, and bakeries in Finland usually offer both versions. (Many bakeries distinguish between the two by decorating the traditional bun with almonds on top, whereas the jam-filled version has powdered sugar on top). I wouldn't mind trying the strawberry one!
A word of caution, the whipped cream's very sensitive to temperature change, it slid off the top en route home.
The bun's ordinary in bite, not chewy. The spices can't be tasted though, the whipped cream and almond paste honestly don't quite go either. One major surprise is, the almond paste's not sweet at all and has a grainy texture, probably from the lightly ground almonds.
At 3.5 buckeroos, it is pricey..just a once off to say I've eaten it! It's like eggnogg, either you love it or hate it.
Till Easter!
IKEA
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