Emmy's Semlor

For 20 medium sized buns (or 10 bakery sized ones) you need:
300 g cold milk
1 tsp dry yeast (or 16 g fresh yeast)
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp freshly grounded cardamom seeds
100 g granulated sugar
150 g butter (room temperature)
600 g strong flour (protein rich wheat flour)

1 egg for brushing the buns

Almond paste:
150 g whole almonds
375 g warm water
160 g unrefined sugar
A pinch of salt

Assembling:
(50 g almonds, a little bit of finely ground cardamom, vanilla sugar or vanilla bean seeds)
Milk
5 dl (2 cups) whipping cream
1 tbsp vanilla sugar or powdered sugar

Keep in mind that both the buns and the paste will need a day or a night, so start in time!

Instructions:

The buns:

1. Weigh the milk in a large bowl and whisk in the yeast.
   Reset the scale between each ingredient, and add them one by one to the bowl.
2. Knead the dough for 5 minutes in a blender set on lowest speed, or by hand for 10 minutes.
   Don’t add more flour – it will only make your buns dry!
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rest in room temperature,
   until the dough has risen to double size (this takes at least 12 hours).
4. Divide the dough into pieces of 55 g (bakery buns are often as big as 110-120 g,
   but I make mine half this size). Roll each piece into a ball and place on a baking sheet covered baking pan.
5. Cover with a dish towel and plastic wrap or a large plastic bag.
6. Let the buns rise in room temperature until they’ve doubled in size.
   If this takes more than 1 ½ hour you could help them by putting them someplace warmer,
   e.g. on top of the fridge or on top of a heated oven.
7. Heat the oven to 230 C° (445 F°) if you have a convection oven or 255 C° (490 F°) in a regular oven.
8. Brush the buns with whisked egg. Bake in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes
   (or up to 12 minutes if you’ve made your buns larger). Leave to cool before assembling.

The almond paste:

1. Roast the almonds in a dry frying pan for a few minutes until they’re golden and smell delicious.
   (You can roast the almonds for the assembling at the same time).
2. Put the almonds in a bowl (not a crackled porcelain one as they will stain the surface!
   Metal, glass or plastic will do). Add the warm water.
   Put on a lid and let stand in room temperature overnight.
3. Pour the water into a cup. Pour out the wet almonds into a mixer, add the sugar and salt,
   and mix for several minutes until the sugar no longer crunches between your teeth when tasting.
   Add a teaspoon at a time of the almond water to the mix to make the paste moist rather than crumbly.
   You might also need to use a spatula to scrape down the almonds from the sides of the mixer a few times.

Assemble the buns:

1. You can skip this step but it will add a bit of texture:
   Roast some almonds in a dry frying pan. Chop them finely.
2. Cut off the top of each bun to form a lid.
   With a fork scrape out just a little bit of the bun to form a hole for the almond paste.
3. With the fork mix the crumbles from the buns with the almond paste.
   Add a teaspoon of milk at a time until the texture is moist but not runny.
   Here you can add cardamom and/or vanilla, but it will no longer classify as a classic semla if you do.
4. Still using the fork, add a thick layer (around 2 tbsp) of the almond paste to each bun.
   (Sprinkle with the chopped almonds).
5. Whip the cream by hand (it will taste more) or with an electric whisk at lowest speed.
   Whip until it has just started to harden and feels slightly too soft to work with.
   Fill an icing bag with the cream and add as much cream as you dare to each bun.
6. Put the lids back on to each bun and press very gently.
   Put vanilla sugar or powdered sugar into a very fine strainer (I use a tea strainer) and dust it over the buns.
7. Prepare your favorite hot drink and get ready to taste a fluffy bit of Swedish history!