In Britain, we mark the beginning of Lent with pancakes. Although nowadays relatively few of us strictly observe the Lenten dietary traditions which prohibit the eating of dairy and meat in the lead up to Easter, we happily leap on the annual opportunity to eat breakfast for dinner: sales of lemons and caster sugar soar, and we delight in filling ourselves full of pancakes.
But pancakes are not the only Lenten final hurrah: the semla bun is the Scandinavian favourite. Following the same logic as pancakes, the buns are designed to eat up the dairy ingredients which would have been prohibited by Lent religious laws.
Semlor buns (semlor is the plural, semla is singular) are cream buns made from an enriched bread dough, perfumed with ground cardamom and shaped into buns, before being filled with an almond paste and a chantilly cream. Versions of the bun are eaten across Nordic countries on Shrove Tuesday, but they are probably best known and loved in Sweden and Finland.
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