Vettebullar

For Christmas this year (2016) Darren aka The Hubby gave me a cookbook called Fika The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break written by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall.  Darren comes from Swedish and Norwegian heritage and the customs and food has always mystified me...except for the Lutefisk.  With my own background being mostly British and Scottish I've decided this is an excellent opportunity to bake and try all these wonderful delights.  Will I succeed?  Who knows, but I think it's going to be amazing and the best part is...no lutefisk required.

First, what the heck is fika anyway?  Fika, pronounced feekah, is not only going for coffee, as we tend to know it such as grabbing a cuppa joe to wake up in the morning but it's sitting down with a friend and enjoying a beverage and a treat.  This reminds me of when I was a little girl and my Mom and Grandma would go shopping and then stop to have 'lunch' as Grandma would say.  It was taking some time to relax and share in company.  I really like the idea. "Ska vi fika?"  Let's take a break, spend some time together and relax.

Since this is about trying the recipes in a swedish cookbook we also have to understand that fika is not always about going out.  It's also customary to provide fika when someone drops in or visits.  So put on your coffee pot and turn on your keurig because we're about to make vettebullar.

Wait, wha?

Bullar.  Buhler. Booler.  However you say it, it means buns in Swedish.  Vette is the word for wheat.  So basically vettebullar would mean wheat buns but in this recipe it uses cardamom and cinnamon and is sweetened using cane sugar instead of regular sugar.  

So off to the grocery store I went where I found neither cardamom seeds nor cane sugar.  Instead I had to purchase these at Bulk Barn.  The cardamom was purchased whole which means they are in pods.  I had to google exactly how to extract the seeds and I found the most efficient way was to crush them with a rolling pin like I would a clove of garlic and then pry open the shell.  Once opened the seeds fell into a bowl easily.  It was at this point that I noticed the aroma of cardamom seeds like this are nothing like the ground kind which I had in my pantry and as my Mother In Law would say "came over in the arc."  As for the cane sugar, as far as I can tell it's less refined and in larger chunks yet smaller than a decorating sugar.

After church Sunday I set out to make this iconic fika recipe.  I'm not going to post the actual recipe because I suspect the writers of the book would prefer actual revenue and not me just giving it all away for free.  I also think that this recipe except for the spices and cane sugar is somewhat similar to most cinnamon bun recipes.

Good Dough Rising

I was excited to use my Kitchen Aid dough hook for the very first time since we purchased the professional mixer a few years ago.  This is because after trying and failing miserably many years ago to make yeast anything I decided never again and Hubby gave me a bread maker instead.  Well, that was back when that jar of ground cardamom was bought so with fingers crossed and high hopes I watched as the dough doubled with the first rising.  Hallelujah!  It was then cut in half, rolled out and coated with the filling mixture.  Each half made 16 small buns which were put on cookie sheets for a second rising then finally into the oven.  My oven is about 50 degrees warmer than normal so even though the recipe said 435 degrees F I set my oven for 400 and checked often throughout the 10 minutes.

Ta-da!  I am so impressed with how these buns baked up.  I feel like this was a monumentous occasion!  I concurred the yeast!  The real test came when the baking aroma lured Darren into the kitchen who was all too eager to try.  He had to eat two vettebullar to be able to judge accordingly.  His analysis...and I agree...is that this recipe makes a flavourful bun but not harshly sweet.  This is not a sticky bun but rather a fragrant delicious accompaniment to a strong cup of coffee.  Just as it should be. 

Vettebullar perfection