Fastelavnsboller - Lent Buns

Fastelavnsboller, Lent Buns.

Fastelavnsboller comes in many shapes and sizes. There are the pastry kind, filled with custard, or a fruit jam, the choux pastry kind, filled with a custard or another whipped cream-based filling, or the ones made with an enriched dough baked with remonce and/or custard. This one is a mix of the two latter ones. It’s basically an enriched dough with remonce and filled with a raspberry whipped cream.

Back in Denmark this year have been crazy, and the newest trend is selling the most fancy fastelavnsboller. There are huge lines to the bakeries to get your hands on these cakes, maybe the Corona restrictions made people want to have some extra special, I don’t know. Here is my contribution to this craziness.

Makes 15-18

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 500 ml milk

• 150 g butter, salted

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 50 g fresh compressed yeast, or 4 teaspoons dry yeast

• 800 g all-purpose flour (hold some back, to see if the dough need it all)

• 150 g sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

• 1 pinch of salt

Remonce:

• 75 g butter, salted, room-temperature

• 75 g sugar

• 75 g marzipan or almond paste (with over 60% almonds)

Raspberry whipped cream:

• 500 ml heavy whipping cream

• 4 tablespoons raspberry jam

• 2 teaspoons chambord (raspberry liqueur)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 1 tablespoon confectionery (powdered) sugar

Directions:

Remonce:

Mix the sugar and marzipan well. Add butter little by little until it’s just incorporated. Be careful not to over mix or the remonce will be runny when baked.

Dough:

In a large bowl mix most of the flour, I save about 1 cup, with the rest of the dry ingredients including the dry yeast if using.

In a saucepan heat milk and butter until finger warm, you want all the butter melted, remove pan from heat. Mix in the fresh compressed yeast, if using, and vanilla bean paste.

Mix in the milk/butter mixture and knead the dough in a stand mixer on medium for about 10 minutes until you have a soft, shiny elastic dough. The remaining flour should be added while kneading, if needed. Let the dough rise in a covered bowl for about 90 minutes until it doubled in size.

Divide the dough in two, roll each portion into a rectangle and divide it into 9 squares.

Preheat the oven for 400℉ (200℃).

Put a teaspoon remonce in the center of each square. Fold the four corners up to the center and press to seal all edges, letting the air inside escape. Put fastelavnsboller onto a parchment paper lined baking sheets with joint side down. Leave to rise covered for about 30 minutes. Brush with egg wash  and bake for about 10-12 minutes until golden. Let the bun cool completely, before cutting and filling.

Raspberry whipped cream:

Mix the raspberry jam with the liqueur and vanilla bean paste in a little bowl and set aside. Whip the heavy whipping cream with the sugar until you have s medium stiff cream. Gently fold in the raspberry mixture, and put the cream into a piping bag with a star tip.

Cut the top of the buns, and pipe some raspberry cream inside, place the top back on, put a little dot of cream on the top as decoration and sprinkle with freeze-dried raspberry or confectionary/powdered sugar. Serve the fastelavnsbolle with a nice cup warm tea or coffee.

Enjoy!

Fastelavnsboller with Berries

Fastelavnsboller with Berries

This is yet another take on the traditional fastelavnsbolle, a sweet cake like roll. Here with cream cheese and mixed berries. Fastelavnsbolle takes different shapes and forms. Some fastelavnsboller are plain like fastelavnsboller, some are filled with cream and custard like Marieboller - Fastelavnsboller or Fastelavnsboller - Choux Pastry. 

Fastelavn is a similar tradition as the American Halloween if you use a piñata in the form of  barrel.  Children get dressed up, and go a kinda trick and treating in the early afternoon. Well, they ask for money instead of candy, but it's only the young kid doing this. You can read more about the Danish fastelavns traditions here

Makes about 10.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 250 ml lukewarm milk
• 2 teaspoons dry yeast
• 85 g sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1½ cardamom 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 450 g all-purpose flour 
• 75 g butter, salted and room temperature
• 50 g cream cheese

Cream cheese filling:

• 75 g cream cheese
• 50 g sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch 

Berries:

• 225 g mixed berries (only the smaller berries)
• 50 g sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch 

• egg wash

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast in the milk. Add the rest of the ingredients, and knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Let the dough rise covered for about an hour, until doubled in size.

Mix the filling and the berries in each their own bowl.

Preheat the oven to boil 435℉ (225℃).

Turn the dough on to a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 9-10 balls, I use a scale to get them to be the same size. (Just a tiny bit OCD😉). Let the balls rise for 15-20 minutes.

Make a silver dollar sized dent in each ball, making sure not to poke holes all the way through. brush the edges with egg wash. Spoon a small tablespoon fill-in in the holes, topping with the mixed berries.

Bake the fastelavnsboller for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Let the fastelavnsboller cool on a wire rack before serving.

Enjoy!

Fastelavnsboller - Choux Pastry

Fastelavnsboller - Choux Pastry

Fastelavnsboller can be very different things. It can be a sweet roll filled with marzipan and a custard, it can be a puff pastry cake, a custard filled Marie bun or as here a puff pastry with different fillings. 

Here I have used 3 different fillings. 

• Pink: Whipped cream mixed with some powdered sugar and fresh raspberries.

• Orange: A passionfruit curd mixed with whipped cream.

• Blue: custard and whipped cream.

I tend to use less sweet fillings, because I use iced pastry, but feel free to use your own favorites. I think a mocca mousse or chocolate mousse could be good too.

Fastelavn is a similar tradition as the American Halloween if you add some kind of piñata in the form of  barrel.  Children get dressed up, and go a kinda trick and treating in the early afternoon. You can read more about the Danish fastelavns traditions here.

Makes 12-16.

Ingredients:

Vanilla custard:

• 3 egg yolks

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

• 2,5 dl milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

• heavy whipping cream, whipped

Cream puff (choux pastry):

• 300 ml water

• 150 g butter, salted

• 175 g all-purpose flour

• 1 pinch salt

• 1 pinch baking powder

• 4 eggs

Icing:

• confectionary sugar (powdered sugar)

• water, hot

• food coloring

Directions:

Vanilla custard:

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale in color. Whisk in the cornstarch and vanilla paste.

Heat the milk to a slow boil, set aside. 

While whisking vigorously drizzle the warm milk into the egg yolk mixture, just a tiny bit at a time at first. Once you’ve added about ¼ of the milk, you can add the rest in a thin steady stream, whisking constantly.

Pour the mixture back in the saucepan and reheat it over medium heat. Whisk constantly until it starts to boil and is thickened. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl.  Sprinkle with sugar or press some plastic wrap against the custard so it won't form a pudding skin. Chill the custard completely in the refrigerator.

When the custard is cold, whip the heavy whipping cream. Fold the whipped cream in the custard a little at a time till you get the desired taste and texture. 

Cream puff (choux pastry):

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Put water and butter in a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. In a bowl sift flour, baking powder and salt. When the butter is all melted add all the flour at once, and stir the mixture with a wooden spoon. Lower the heat and keep stirring until a dough is formed and it pulls away from the sides of the pan and is slightly shiny. 

Keep beating the dough with the wooden spoon until slightly cooled, about 2 minutes.  

Beat all the eggs in a bowl. Add a little of the beaten eggs, incorporating it thoroughly before adding more. Add the egg in small amounts until you have a thick paste but not runny at all.

Scoop or pipe the 24 dough (golf ball-sized) onto the parchment paper lined baking sheets. If you have small tips on the puffs anyway, dab the tops of each puff with a fingertip dipped in water to smoothen the tops.

Bake the puffs for 18-20 minutes, until they are puffed up and golden brown.

DO NOT open the oven while baking the choux pastry, it will cause them to deflate.

Let the puffs cool on a wire rack. Ice the buns with some colorful icing.

Cut the buns in half and fill it with prepared vanilla custard and some whipped cream. Serve with a nice cup of coffee or tea. 

Enjoy!

Fastelavnsboller

Fastelavnsboller

Fastelavn is a old tradition dating back hundreds and hundreds of years. Danes celebrate fastelavn aka the night before Lent. Fastelavn sunday is 49 days before Easter Sunday. In 2014 fastelavn will be celebrated on marts second.

Children will dress up and "slå katten af tønden"  - the danish version of piñata, where you hit a wooden barrel filled with candy and fruit. The one that get the bottom to fall out will be crowned “kattedronning”, queen of cats, while the the person getting the last plank of the rope is crowned "kattekonge", King of cats. You might think that it would be hard to break the barrel, but they are made for different age ranges, so everyone has a chance. 

The picture on the right shows me dressed as Little Red Ridinghood having a go at the barrel. My mom and brother is standing behind me to the left. 

The children also get a fastelavnsris, a branch decorated with candy, black cats, masks and paper flowers.

This tradition is very similar to the American Halloween.  The dressed up children walk door to door singing the song "Boller op, boller ned, boller i min mave, hvis jeg ingen boller får så laver jeg ballade"  Buns up, buns down, buns in my stomach, if I get no buns, I’ll make trouble. Kinda like the trick or treat song: "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat! If you don't, I don't care. I'll pull down your underwear!" But unlike the American tradition the Danish children beg for small change and not candy.

Another tradition is fastelavnsboller, or fastelavns buns. There are different ways to make fastelavnsboller. You can make them from puff pastry or cream puffs  and filling them after they are baked. Or you can make a simple yeast dough and fill it with a almond paste and/or vanilla custard. I'll make the later. I also add remonce as filling. Remonce is butter creamed with sugar and marzipan (almond paste).

Next year I'll make twice as much custard, because I ran out before I had filled all the fastelavnsboller. I made rolls with remonce from the leftover dough - not bad at all!!

Ingredients:

Vanilla custard:

• 200 g milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

• 3 egg yolks

• 25 g sugar

• 1½ teaspoons all-purpose flour

Dough:

• 300 g all-purpose flour

• 14 g (2 packs fleischmann's) dry yeast

• 20 g sugar

• 100 g milk

• 1 egg

• 125 g butter (salted)

• ½ teaspoon vanilla paste

Remonce:

• 50 g butter room temperature

• 50 g sugar

• 50 g marzipan

Icing:

• confectionary sugar

• water

• cocoa or food color

Directions:

Vanilla custard:

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale in color. Whisk in the flour and vanilla paste.

Heat the milk to a slow boil, set aside. While whisking vigorously drizzle the warm milk into the egg yolk mixture, just a tiny bit at a time at first. Once you’ve added about 1/4 of the milk, you can add the rest in a thin stream, whisking constantly.

Pour the mixture back in the saucepan and reheat it over medium heat. Whisk constantly until it thickens. Remove from heat and chill the custard in a bowl in the refrigerator. Sprinkle with sugar or press a film of plastic wrap against the custard in the fridge so it doesn’t form a pudding skin.

Remonce:

Mix the sugar and marzipan well. Add butter little by little until it’s just incorporated.  Be careful not to over mix or the remonce will be runny when baked.

Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Dough:

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Just before all the butter is melted remove pan from heat and add the milk. 

In a large bowl mix sugar and dry yeast. When the milk mixture is finger warm pour it in the bowl. Mix well and add vanilla paste, egg and salt. Mix in the flour a little at a time, you want the dough to be soft but nut sticky. 

Kneed the dough on the kitchen counter until the dough id smooth and soft. Let the dough rise in a covered bowl for about 90 minutes until it doubled in size.

Divide the dough in two, roll each portion into a rectangle and divide it into 6 squares.

Put a tablespoon custard and a teaspoon remonce in the center of each square. Fold the four corners up to the center and press to seal all edges, letting the air inside escape. Put fastelavnsboller onto a parchment paper lined baking sheets with joint side down. Leave to rise covered for about 30 minutes. Brush with egg wash  and bake for about 10-12 minutes until golden. Let them cool on wire rack before decorating with chocolate or colored icing.

Icing:

Heat the confectionary sugar over very low heat (this makes the icing set faster) add water and cocoa or food coloring.

Enjoy.