Mum's recipe for classic Norwegian "skoleboller"

Coconut covered custard cream buns

Easter time is for many, me included, all about quality time, and spending time with the family and eating good food is at the core of this holiday! And even though Easter has come to an end for his year, plenty of you, like me, may have another week at home with the kids off school

 Mia Moo  loves baking and it is something we enjoy doing together, and is a hit when it comes to busting holiday boredom. 

  Making sweet buns is a very Scandinavian tradition for Easter, or any celebration, really....so today I am sharing my mum's recipe for classic Norwegian "skoleboller", or custard cream filled sweet buns with a coconut covered glaze....hmmmmm, yum!!

At the heat of most Norwegian baking is a yeast dough, and as I know many of my English followers will be unfamiliar with Yeast baking, I will do a step by step of making a basic sweet yeast dough:

You will need:

For the sweet yeast dough:

1/2 litre milk

50 grams fresh yeast

1 egg

1 1/2 dl sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cardamom

150g butter

6-7 cups flour

For the custard cream filling:

Custard

Eggs

For the glaze:

Confectioner's sugar

water

Coconut

Here's how:

Heat the milk to lukewarm then crumble the yeast into the milk. Add in the egg then stir until it all dissolves. Set this mix aside.

Here in the UK, I struggle to find ground cardamom, so next up I crush a handful of cardamom pods in a pestle and mortar, and grind the seeds until I get a fine(ish) powder.

Combine the sugar, baking powder and cardamom in a large bowl.

Cut the butter into cubes....

 Then using (clean) hands knead the butter into the sugar mixture.

Add the milk and yeast mixture and mix until the sugary butter dissolves.

Gradually add the flour to the liquid...

...towards the end you may need to use your hands...

...until it forms a ball.

Cover with a clean tea-towel and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size (1-2 hours).

Scoop the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface, then knead the dough until elastic.

This dough is the basis for more than 6 different traditional Norwegian sweet breads, and today I will show you the "skolebolle" option:

Divide the dough into equal sized portions, each to make 1 bun.

This recipe will make approximately 12-15 buns:

Don't make them too big, as the yeast will make them swell even more when cooking.

Roll into balls, then make a dip in the middle of each ball of dough for the custard cream filling:

Making the Custard Cream filling:

In Norway you can buy this filling ready to cook, but here's a cheats way of making it:

Simply use some normal custard and mix in an egg or two to make the filling set when cooked in the oven:

 Place your buns on a baking tray covered in baking paper then spoon the custard cream mix into the middle of each bun.

Cook in the oven at 220 degrees C for approximately 12-15 minutes, or until the buns are golden and the custard cream has set!

Leave your baked buns to cool down for 15 minutes, whilst you prepare the coconut and  the glaze:

Place some Coconut in a bowl, at the ready, then

use some Confectioner's sugar, and slowly mix in a few drops of water until it forms a gooey glaze...don't make it too runny!!

Spoon the sugar glaze onto the buns around the custard cream centre:

Then simply dip the glazed buns into the coconut:

Trust me, this is DELICIOUS!!

Mine may not look perfect, but they are not lacking in taste:

And even my little fusspot, Mia, loves these!!

(If your kids are not sure about the coconut, simply leave it off and serve them with just the sugar glaze) 

I hope you are all having a yummy Easter so far, and that you will try making some of these little treats to have with your Sunday cuppa!!