Sweden/Finland
Today, the Swedish-Finnish semla consists of a cardamom-spiced wheat bun which has its top cut off, and is then filled
with a mix of milk and almond paste, topped with whipped cream. The cut-off top serves as a lid and is dusted with
powdered sugar. Today it is often eaten on its own, with coffee or tea. Some prefer to eat it in a bowl of hot milk. In
Finland, the bun is often filled with strawberry or raspberry jam instead of almond paste, and bakeries in Finland
usually offer both versions. (Many bakeries distinguish between the two by decorating the traditional bun with almonds
on top, whereas the jam-filled version has powdered sugar on top). In Finland-Swedish, semla means a plain wheat bun,
used for bread and butter, and not a sweet bun. At some point Swedes grew tired of the strict observance of Lent, added
cream and almond paste to the mix and started eating semla every Tuesday between Shrove Tuesday and Easter. Every year,
at around the same time that the bakeries fill with semlor, the Swedish newspapers start to fill with semla taste tests.
Panels of 'experts' dissect and inspect tables full of semlor to find the best in town.
Some bakeries have created alternative forms of the pastry, such as the "semmelwrap" formed as a wrap rather than the
traditional bun, while others have added e.g. chocolate, marzipan, or pistachios to the recipe.
In Finland and Estonia
The traditional dessert predates Christian influences.[citation needed] Laskiaissunnuntai and
laskiaistiistai, both days included in laskiainen, were festivals when children and youth would go sledding or downhill
sliding on a hill or a slope to determine how the crop would yield in the coming year. Those who slid the farthest were
going to get the best crop. Hence the festival is named after the act of sliding or sledding downhill, laskea. Nowadays
laskiainen has been integrated into Christian customs as the beginning of lent before Easter.
Norway
Norwegian fastelavnsbolle with whipped cream, jam and powdered sugar
Fastelavnsbolle consists of a cardamom-spiced wheat bun which has its top cut off, and is then filled with whipped
cream, topped with jam. The cut-off top serves as a lid and is dusted with powdered sugar. The buns are served at Sunday
of Fastelavn (Shrove Sunday), but were previously associated with Shrove Tuesday.
Denmark/Iceland/Faroe Islands
The version sold in Danish bakeries on or around Shrove Monday is rather different, made from puff pastry and filled
with whipped cream, a bit of jam and often with icing on top. At home people may bake a version more similar to a usual
wheat roll, mixing plain yeast dough with raisins, succade and sometimes candied bitter orange peel.
In Iceland it is done in a similar way but in place of puff pastry more common is the choux pastry version.
In Icelandic, Shrove Monday is called bolludagur (bun day), named after the pastry.
In the Faroe Islands, it is done with choux pastry, and filled with vanilla cream, whipped cream and jam, and topped
with chocolate icing.
The oldest version of the semla was a plain bread bun, eaten in a bowl of warm milk. In Swedish this is known as
hetvägg, from Middle Low German hete Weggen (hot wedges) or German heisse Wecken (hot buns) and falsely interpreted as
"hotwall". The semla was originally eaten only on Shrove Tuesday, or all of the three days before Lent, as the last
festive food before Lent. However, with the arrival of the Protestant Reformation, the Swedes stopped observing a strict
fasting for Lent. The semla in its bowl of warm milk became a traditional dessert every Tuesday between Shrove Tuesday
and Easter. Today, semlor are available in shops and bakeries every day from shortly after Christmas until Easter. Each
Swede consumes on average four to five bakery-produced semlor each year, in addition to any that are homemade.
King Adolf Frederick of Sweden died of digestion problems on February 12, 1771, after consuming a meal consisting of
lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring and champagne, which was topped off by a helping of hetvägg (semla), the
king's favorite dessert.
This was the sweet chosen to represent Finland in the Café Europe initiative of the Austrian presidency of the European
Union, on Europe Day 2006.