2014 Cooking Club Week 8: Fastelavnsboller

oscarBravo

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!

Muahahaha

Looks yum !

homemadecider

Dear jesus!! :eek: I am in love!

Mrs Fox

I want THAT in my face, NOW!!

catho_monster

oscarBravo, you little legend. This is exactly what I feel like making today and I'm pretty sure I have all the ingredients!! Will report back

catho_monster

Ummmm, did you glaze the buns before they went in the oven? Mine are just out and are rocking the desert-sands look, nowt like yours...

oscarBravo

Oops, yes, they got a dab of egg wash. It doesn't really matter, especially if you're going to ice them; I don't think it affects the flavour at all.

catho_monster

So, I had these for breakfast, lunch and dinner today.
That's what I was meant to do, right?

MagicMarker

Mrs Fox wrote: »

I want THAT in my face, NOW!!

Careful now...

oscarBravo

catho_monster wrote: »

So, I had these for breakfast, lunch and dinner today.
That's what I was meant to do, right?

I know I'd live on them.

I wouldn't live long, but I'd die happy.

Glad you seemed to enjoy them.

doctorwhogirl

Fo shiz trying these today! Only have skimmed milk but sure we'll see how they turn out!

oscarBravo

doctorwhogirl wrote: »

Fo shiz trying these today! Only have skimmed milk but sure we'll see how they turn out!

How did it go? It's probably too late, but if you have a drop of cream, it would help to offset the skimmed milk. Otherwise, it should still work fine, but the vanilla cream won't be as rich.

doctorwhogirl

They're due to go in the oven in about half an hour! they look ok! We had a jam eruption from one but the rest look grand. Took me awhile to realise they need to prove with the folded bit down...duh!

I went with just a jam filling in the end for a slightly lower calorie bun as I'd watch what I eat. They look good. Can't beat enriched dough, smelled just fab and was so soft.

Malari

These were a disaster for me I'm afraid. I should have tried again with the yeast straight away, because it didn't exactly get "frothy". Then I rolled the dough out too thin on the first few, so the filling burst through straight away. The others I rolled thicker, but the dough never really increased in size during either prove, and most of them cracked open during baking.

Would fresh yeast be better, do you think? Where would you get such a thing?

oscarBravo

Sorry to hear they didn't work out for you.

Fresh yeast can be hard to get; we happened to bring some back from Denmark where it's a staple item. That said, it should work fine with dried yeast, which is what we always use in this house when we haven't been back to the old country lately.

It's also not that unusual to see some leakage during baking. Were they at least edible?

Malari

I put white icing on them. My boyfriend would eat the baking tray if I put white icing on it! They were a bit dense though.

Maybe I'll warm the milk a bit more the next time to activate the yeast. Or maybe use strong flour? I've made loads of doughs and breads so just disappointed this didn't work out.

doctorwhogirl

Over-kneaded maybe Malari? They didn't need much kneading when I gave them a go.

Malari

I doubt it, barely a couple of minutes? I think my yeast just didn't fizz!

oscarBravo

Sometimes dried yeast fails. Not often, but it happens. I guess you're right: if it doesn't froth, chuck it and try another packet.

doctorwhogirl

I used fast acting yeast in mine, still worked grand! For my tastes anyway!

MissFlitworth

Eastern European shops are normally good spots for fresh yeast, in little bricks on the fridge