Carnival Buns Anno 1837

For Shrovetide or Carnival this year I wanted to try out an old recipe for fastelavnboller with a few changes and mixed two recipes together, as they both sounded interesting.
The regular bun with cream and glaze, as we know it in Scandinavia today, is a newer invention.
It was originally a wheat bun filled with dried fruit, similar to the Christmas cake/advent bread. The wheat bread was reserved for festive occasions. When fasting occurred, one couldn’t eat either white bread, milk or meat, so wheat buns were eaten for the party before the fast, fasting. And on White Tuesday, the last milk, eggs and wheat were used for pancakes.

CARNIVAL BUNS ANNO 1837
20 BUNS

500 G FLOUR
25 G FRESH YEAST
75 G CURRANTS
75 G RAISINS
25 G PICKLED ORANGE PEEL
25 G SUCCADE
1 TSP. SALT
2 TSP. GROUND CARDAMOM
60 G SUGAR
125 G VERY SOFT BUTTER
2.5 DL. WHOLE MILK
4 TBSP. ROSE WATER

EGG YOLK
PEARL SUGAR

Crumble the yeast well into the flour with your fingertips.

Add currants, raisins, orange peel, salt, cardamom and sugar.

Mix in the very soft butter until well-incorporated.

Add rose water and the lukewarm milk, a little at a time until you have a very soft dough, which doesn’t stick to your fingers.

Let the dough rise under a cloth, in a warm place, for 1-2 hours or until it is doubled in size.

Scrape the dough out onto a floured table and form 20 flat buns.

Let them rise again for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 230 degrees celsius.

Brush the buns with the egg yolk and sprinkle with pearl sugar.

Bake the buns in the middle of the oven for 20-25 min. They should sound hollow when you tap the bottom lightly.

Eat them warm and with butter.

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