2014 Cooking Club Week 8: Fastelavnsboller

Fastelavn is the Danish version of Mardi Gras. It means "the eve of the fast", and carries the same tradition of indulging in rich treats before Lent. Rather than pancakes on the Tuesday, they eat buns on the Sunday - hence fastelavnsboller, or "fast eve buns".

There are many, many recipes for these, but this is my favourite. It gives a soft, sweet bun with a texture somewhere between a soft roll and a doughnut, and you can fill them with whatever takes your fancy.

Ingredients (makes 16 buns):

• 25g fresh yeast (or 1.5 sachets of dried)
• 100ml full-fat milk
• 2 eggs
• 25g cane sugar
• 500g plain flour
• 250g soft butter

Vanilla cream:

• 2 eggs
• 30g cornflour
• half a vanilla pod
• 500ml full-fat milk
• 50g cane sugar

Icing:

• 300g icing sugar
• boiling water
• food colouring
• roasted chopped hazelnuts

Method:

Warm up the milk (don't overheat it), and add the sugar and yeast. If you're using dried yeast, leave it for ten minutes until it's frothy. For fresh yeast, stir until it's dissolved. Add the eggs followed by the soft butter, then start mixing in the flour a little at a time. When it has all come together, kead the dough for 3-5 minutes, then leave it to rise in a covered bowl for half an hour.

Meanwhile, make the vanilla cream. Mix the eggs and cornflour in a saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod. Add the vanilla seeds and pod, milk and sugar and bring to the boil. When it reaches the boil, remove the vanilla pod. Cook for up to a minute while stirring continuously. When the cream has thickened, take it off the heat, sieve it if you're worried about lumps, and leave it to cool.

Split the dough in four and roll each quarter into a square. Cut each square into four smaller squares, giving sixteen squares of dough in total.

Place a teaspoon of vanilla cream on each square. You can also add other fillings at this stage, such as a blob of jam or some chocolate - it's up to you. Close the bun by pulling the four corners together, followed by the four new corners that this creates (see the pictures below). Seal the bun up, turn it over and place it on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, pressing it down gently to give it a flattened shape. Leave them to rise in a warm place for about two hours, until they've risen into nice round balls.

Bake the buns at 200ºC for 12-15 minutes, then leave them to cool on a wire rack. Once they've cooled, make some icing using icing sugar, boiling water, food colouring if you like, maybe add some flavourings. Ice the buns and top with the chopped hazelnuts, or sprinkles, or chocolate shavings... have fun with them!