Celebrating 17 May

It's Norway's national holiday today - hurrah!

Whilst my Norwegian family were getting ready to head out to see the annual parade, back here in suburban Melbourne I held my own special celebration, dressing up Olive and baking a traditional treat.

See this picture - that's me and my sister outside our old home in Sandefjord, on our way to the parade. I think I was 2.  The dress I'm wearing is called a bunad.   Based on traditional folk costumes, every region of Norway has their own special colours,  embrodiery and accessories.

Fast forward 35 years and here's my daughter wearing that very dress and hat (and waving the same flag, albeit not quite so new looking now).  I love that my mum has preserved these touchstones of our culture.

This year my parents are actually in Norway for my cousin's wedding and timed their arrival to be there for today's festivities.

Rather than miltary parades, school children march through the town waving flags and shouting Hipp Hipp Hurrah.

I'm reliably told that the day was lovely and warm and the parade was fantastic. One day I'll take Olive and Mr Di-licious.

Dress ups aside, today was also the perfect excuse to bake something that is truely Norwegian to me: sweet cardamom scented buns, filled with custard, also known affectionatley as school buns (skoler brod).

It's funny, I searched high and low for a recipe for these buns online (quite succesfully in the end) but it turns out I already had it in one of my own cookbooks. 

Happily for me the recipes match, making me confident that by sending you to the lovely Siri at The Transplanted Baker, you will find an authentic recipe (and I can be a little lazy and not type it out).

Using a spoon to create hole for the custard

These delightful buns are actually quite easy to bake and make a good starting project for working with yeast. 

My only regret was that I didn't make 24 smaller buns instead of the 12 whoppers I ended up with.  They didn't quite cook all the way through under the custard but this was more noticeable when eating them still slightly warm. 

I've shared some process photos to illustrate how to fill the buns with custard before baking (another first for di-licious).

Filled with homemade vanilla custard

Baked buns straight out of the oven

School buns are perfect with a cup of black coffee (Norway's national drink and pastime) or glass of milk.

The hardest part is stopping at just one!

Thanks for allowing me to indulge in a little nationalistic pride.

My bookshelf baking challenge this week will also be a taste of Norway - stay tuned!

Hipp hipp hurra for 17 Mai!




The reluctant patriot