A time to take a rest from work and chat with friends or colleagues over a cup and a sweet treat, fika reflects the Swedish ideal of slowing down to appreciate life’s small joys. Fika can be had alone or in groups, indoors or outdoors, while traveling or at home. Sweden is one of the world’s top coffee consuming nations, and the twice-daily social coffee break known as fika is a cherished custom. I put the leftovers in the freezer.Īn illustrated lifestyle cookbook on the Swedish tradition of fika-a twice-daily coffee break-including recipes for traditional baked goods, information and anecdotes about Swedish coffee culture, and the roots and modern incarnations of this cherished custom. These are definitely best right out of the oven. I think the rolled version would cook more evenly.

While the twisted ones looked beautiful, I had to cook them about 10 minutes to get the centers done and that made the bottom of the buns slightly more done than I wanted. Next time, I might just try the plain, rolled like a snail version.

I shaped them into the fancy, twisted version shown on the second page of the recipe. This is not the American coffee break of grabbing some caffeine to power through several more hours of work. Fika is the Swedish practice of stopping work for a coffee break with friends and often a little something to eat. The only pain was shelling all those cardamom pods to get the seeds out it took me at least half an hour to get the 3.5 tsps of seeds that I needed. The Swedish tradition of fika might offer an answer. Also, I used ceylon cinnamon rather than cassia cinnamon, so the cinnamon flavor was mild. I made the cinnamon variety which was very heavy on the cardamom and thus tasted a bit closer to a cardamom bun. VETEBULLAR - KANELBULLAR och KARDEMUMMABULLAR (Cinnamon and Cardamom Buns), page 26 - These buns are really delicious.

Fika swedish coffee break