Apricot Hastbullar
These Swedish-inspired buns make a perfect little treat to go with your cuppa or coffee.
Hastbullar are popular fika (Swedish coffee break) buns that are much quicker to make than yeasted breads like cinnamon rolls: the name translates as quick buns.
I found a recipe for them in my newly acquired Scandinavian recipe book: Fika, The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall, my very first Kindle recipe book (as I can no longer carry actual recipe books in my new van).
This beautiful book has gorgeous illustrations instead of photographs, and I bet it’s even lovelier in print rather than digital, oh e-recipe books are going to take some getting used to: I have such a soft spot for gorgeous cookbooks!
I noticed when reading through the recipe that they are in fact very similar to rock cakes, the dry ingredients are rubbed into the butter then the liquid ingredients turn it into a batter.
Rather than baked freeform like rock cakes, the author recommends baking them in paper cases and they certainly do look daintier like this.
They are a little lighter than my Britannia rock cakes but they are still more substantial than sponge or muffins.
The recipe in the book makes them with fig and hazelnuts, I raided my baking box and found I had dried apricots and chopped almonds: a great combination to use instead!
These buns aren’t very sweet, I like this but my 9 year old niece wasn’t quite so sure! I’m not one for super sweet things so these are perfect for me.
I came across Johanna’s beautifully illustrated blog, Kokblog, a while ago, after my obsession with Nordic baking took hold. I was super excited to discover she was producing a book.
I’ve baked a couple of things now from it, I love that the recipes don’t need fancy equipment and they lust me back to Scandinavia!
Apricot Hastbullar
The recipe below is based on a recipe from Fika, the art of the Swedish coffee break, by Anne Brones and Johanna Kindvall, I’ve tinkered a little with the measurements to make them more metric-friendly – I do love my kitchen scales!
Preheat oven to 220ºc (425ºf) and line a muffin tin with paper cases
- 175 g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground cardamom
- 75 g caster sugar
- 100 g unsalted butter, cubed
- 75 g dried apricots, chopped (I used the softer, ready to eat, variety)
- 1 free-range egg + 1 egg for glazing
- 175 ml milk
- chopped almonds, hazelnut nibs or sugar pearls to decorate
Combine the flour, baking powder, ground cardamom and caster sugar, add the cubed butter and rub into even crumbs with your fingertips.
Add the chopped apricots and disperse into the crumbs.
Beat one egg with the milk and add to the crumbs, stirring to a batter. Try not to overmix, the batter, it should have a sticky dropping consistency.
Spoon into the paper cases, be generous, I got 11 filled sharing out this amount of batter.
Brush a little beaten egg over each and scatter a few chopped nuts or sugar pearls.
Bake for 10 – 15 minutes until risen and golden.
Cool on a wire rack.
- 175 g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground cardamom
- 75 g caster sugar
- 100 g unsalted butter, cubed
- 75 g dried apricots, chopped
- 1 free-range egg + 1 egg for glazing
- 175 ml milk
- chopped almonds, hazelnut nibs or sugar pearls to decorate
- Preheat oven to 220ºc (425ºf) and line a muffin tin with paper cases.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, ground cardamom and caster sugar, add the cubed butter and rub into even crumbs with your fingertips.
- Add the chopped apricots and disperse into the crumbs.
- Beat one egg with the milk and add to the crumbs, stirring to a batter. Try not to overmix, the batter, it should have a sticky dropping consistency.
- Spoon into the paper cases, be generous, I got 11 filled sharing out this amount of batter.
- Brush a little beaten egg over each and scatter a few chopped nuts or sugar pearls.
- Bake for 10 – 15 minutes until risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.
- Eat fresh.
Have you tried hastbullar?
By Rachel A Davis
The post Apricot Quick Buns (hastbullar) appeared first on Vagabond Baker.
