Cooking in KC: Swedish Coffee and Semlor

If you’ve read a few posts, you might notice that I try not just to share a few recipes, but also share a little bit about myself—where I’m from, who my family is, what I do. New tidbit: I love traveling. Dane and I have been lucky enough to do a fair amount of traveling together. Our latest trip was to Chicago to celebrate our 5 year anniversary.

I could make this post all about Chicago—it was beyond words—but oh my goodness. The food. Let’s talk about the food. I am a type A planner, so not only did I study maps, research attractions, and create itineraries, but I also scoured the internet and grilled friends for the best places to eat. Yes, we had a food itinerary as well. (You can follow me on instagram @engquistm if you want to see all of the great food we ate.)

One of my favorite breakfast experiences was Ann Sather, a Swedish diner known for their cinnamon rolls (they have their recipes online). Dane’s family is full of proud Swedes, so I was excited to take him there.

These are a side dish!

The cinnamon rolls were divine. But that Swedish coffee. This was best coffee I’ve ever had in my life.

Heavenly.

We also loved Ann Sather because it reminded us of another trip we’d taken. In 2009, Dane and I were college kids traveling through Europe while I studied abroad. We went to Sweden, which is where we got engaged, and have loved that country ever since.

Way back in 2009!

The Swedes love coffee, and the coffee break is a sacred time of day when people relax, socialize, and of course drink coffee. They even have a word for this ritual: fika. (I think Americans should adopt this practice.) While we were in Sweden drinking coffee (or other libations), we discovered semlor (semla in the singular)—cardamom rolls filled with an almond paste mixture and whipped cream.

When we first discovered semlor.

So I’m recreating Swedish Coffee from Chicago’s Ann Sather and Semlor from Stockholm’s many coffee houses.

Swedish Coffee

If you Google "Swedish coffee," you will find egg coffee. Don't do this. I tried to make this just for posterity's sake, and it was not worth the effort. To make Swedish coffee, just brew your normal roast. Since Dane used to work at Starbucks, we are coffee snobs and stick to Starbuck's espresso roast.

To taste, stir in a sprinkling of cinnamon, cardamom, and brown sugar (light or dark). You can also add a dash of vanilla.

Spice is nice.

I mixed cinnamon, cardamom, and various sugars together to keep in a jar for whenever I feel like adding a bit to my morning coffee. If you do this, go sparingly on the cinnamon and cardamom--they bring the spice. You'll need at least twice as much sugar. I did not realize this, so I still have to add another 1 tsp (ish) of brown sugar to every 1 tsp of spice mix.

Sooooo good.

The crowning glory is homemade whipped cream. I don't normally have heavy whipping cream on tap, so you could easily make a more "everyday" version by just adding half and half to your coffee (which I do always have on tap).

Semlor (Semla)

These look elaborate, but they’re not. I follow this recipe. It makes about 16 schmedium (ha) buns. However, when it comes to almond paste, it was easier to make my own (using this recipe) than to find it in the grocery store.

The dough is pretty simple--just mixing ingredients, but the dough is sticky, so while every recipe cautions against using too much flour, I found I needed plenty to keep it from sticking to everything.

The hardest part is waiting for it to rise.

For sizing purposes. This is before they rise.

You end up sawing the tops off of the buns and hollowing them out. The inners are used to make the filling (so don't let yourself, your husband, dogs, children, or anyone else eat them all #thestruggleisreal).

This is a good job for your kitchen helpers.

I used my food processor for the whole almond paste process (first blending the almonds into meal, then adding sugar and warmed milk). My paste was a little soupy, but once I moved to the next step adding in the bread from the rolls, it thickened up. The original recipe calls for you to add milk to the almond paste, but I found mine didn't need that much milk added.

Almond paste before adding the bread and extra milk.

All that's left is to fill the rolls--first with the almond mixture, then the whipped cream--then put their tops on, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.