The most Norwegian thing: Skolebrød

…or School Bread in English. This is our beloved sweet cardamom yeast bake filled with vanilla custard, topped with icing and desiccated coconut.

Some Norwegians call it a Skolebolle, (school bun), or even Solbolle (sun bun, often without the icing). To me they’ve always been SKOLEBRØD.

What is not the tradition is to add orange essence, lemon zest and coconut to the custard – that’s my own take on it, and it was delicious.

12 Skolebrød

Citrus custard: (As I often make custard without any particular recipe, the following is approximate measures. But just use any custard recipe and add the flavourings (and corn flour) as here)

4 egg yolks

60g sugar

2-3 tbsp corn flour

500ml whole milk

1 tsp vanilla sugar

A few drops of orange essence

Zest of 1 small lemon

A few tablespoons of desiccated coconut

Beat sugar, egg yolks, vanilla sugar and corn flour until a thick and smooth paste. Heat milk with the lemon zest and essence and pour a little into the eggs whilst stirring. Then pour the egg mix into the pan on the hob. Stir constantly over low heat until it thickens. Add coconut and cool down completely.

Cardamom dough:

350g white flour, type 00

150g strong white flour

130g sugar

50g butter

2 tsp cardamom powder, or 1 tsp coarsly ground

7g salt

7g dry yeast

400ml milk

Heat butter, salt and milk until warm, not hot. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Pour the milk mix over and stir/knead vigourously in the bowl. Ideally use a kitchen machine with a dough hook and knead for 8 mins. Add more flour if dough is too sticky. Leave to prove overnight. Sprinkle flour on the kitchen bench and add to the dough to make it less sticky while you roll 12 buns. Use a bit of oil to make round depressions in the middle of each bun. Fill each with custard and prove for another half an hour. Brush the buns with whisked egg and bake for ca. 20 mins at 200 degrees C. Decorate with thick icing made from icing sugar and egg white and a bit of rum or vanilla essence. Sprinkle with coconut and leave to set.🧡