This Sunday is a holiday called “Fastelavn” celebrated in Denmark. It is very similar to Halloween in the US. It’s tradition to eat buns with cream on this holiday. And this year I’ve made some with pastry dough and black currant cream, which are made from some of the last frozen berries from the garden. It’s the same cream I use for my recipe for blackcurrant layer cake.
All the ingredients for the dough needs to be cold, including the flour, which you should put in the freezer the night before.
The shape of the buns is inspired by the fact that it is also Valentine’s Day on the same day as Fastelavn this year.
Vegan blackcurrant festive buns
Ingredients
Danish dough
- 4 dl cold water
- 50 g fresh yeast
- 100 g sugar
- 20 g salt
- 650 g frozen flour
- 400 g butter
Black currant cream
- 600 g blackcurrant
- 100 g sugar
- ½ lemon
- 4 sheets of vegan gele (equivalent to 8 g of agar agar or 4 sheets of isinglas)
- 2 dl vegan heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Danish dough
- Crumble the yeast in a bowl and pour in the water and stir until the yeast is dissolved
- Mix the sugar in the bowl
- Mix half of the flour and salt in the bowl and stir
- Add the rest of the flour and stir with a wooden spoon or dough scraper until the dough is uniform
- Put the dough in the fridge and let it rise for 30 min
- Roll out the cold butter to 20 x 20 cm between two pieces of baking paper with a rolling pin
- Sprinkle the kitchen table with flour and roll out the dough to 40 x 40 cm. Put the butter in the middle of the rolled out dough and fold all sides up around the butter and lightly press the dough together, so the butter is completely covered with dough. Put the dough on a cutting board and leave it in the fridge until it is completely cold (about 30 min)
- Sprinkle the kitchen table with flour and roll the dough oblong to 40 x 80 cm. Fold both ends in towards the middle. Then fold the dough together once. There should be 4 layers of butter after the dough has been folded. Put the dough back on to the cutting board and place it in the fridge until it is completely cold (about 30 min)
- Repeat step 8 once more
- Sprinkle the kitchen table with flour and roll out the dough to 30 x 60 cm. Stick out 20 hearts with a heart shaped cake slicer (about 10 cm in diameter). Then make holes shaped like hearts in the middle of half of the large hearts with a small heart shaped cake stick (about 6 cm in diameter). Save the large hears, the hearts with a hole, and the small hearts. Use excess dough by placing leftovers on top of each other and rolling it out into a new piece the same thickness as the old one and sticking out more hearts
- Place the large hearts (without a hole in) on baking paper and brush their top with a little water. Place a heart with a hole in the center on top of each of the hearts on the baking paper. Also place the small hearts (from the holes) on baking paper.
- Let the buns rise for 2 hours with a kitchen cloth on top or let them rise in the fridge overnight
- Bake the buns in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 190°C
- Allow the buns to cool before adding the cream. Make the cream in the meantime
Blackcurrant cream
- Blend the blackcurrants and strain the seeds and flesh of the berries through a strainer (use a spoon to squeeze out as much juice as possible)
- Put blackcurrants, sugar, and juice from the lemon in a saucepan and cook until the sugar has dissolved
- Remove the saucepan from the heat
- Put the gel in the warm blackcurrant mass while stirring constantly
- Let the blackcurrant mass cool to room temperature (possibly by putting it in the fridge)
- Whip the heavy whipping cream stiff and add a few tablespoons at a time into the blackcurrant mass. Stir only until the cream is uniform to make it as fluffy as possible
Put The Cake Together
- Put the cream in a spray bag and spray the cream in the hole in the middle of the buns
- Optional: Add a bit of icing on the small hearts (made from blended and strained blackcurrant, icing sugar, and water)
- Place the small hearts on top of the buns