Today’s history lesson
Today, we wanted to take you through a brief history of fastelavnsboller, or Nordic carnival buns. Food is not something we typically learn about in history class. That is, unless it’s related to other topics, like trade or politics. It’s such a shame because the history of certain foods can be really interesting! Why? Well, food is very closely tied to other parts of historical life. For example, cardamom is still a popular spice that we use in Scandinavian baking because of the Vikings and their exploration of other regions of the world.
At this time of year, around January and February, you may see these fastelavnsboller popping up all over bakeries and your social media feed. What are they? And where did they come from? Keep reading to learn about the history of fastelavnsboller and let us know in the comments if anything surprised you!
What are fastelavnsboller?
This may seem like a simple question, but it’s not. Fastelavnsboller come in so many different flavors and textures that it’s a hard definition to pin down. But ultimately, a fastelavnsbolle is a type of sweet bun, usually with some kind of flavored cream filling. We make them in many variations across Scandinavia to celebrate Fastelavn. The holiday is closely tied to the Christian observance of Lent and takes place in the lead-up to the 40-day fast of Lent. You can read more about the specifics of the holiday in this blog post from last year.
The fast itself starts the day after Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday. In Denmark, it was called “White Tuesday,” a day to indulge and eat “white” things, like sugar, eggs, and flour. Everyone would then have to give up these up the next day for Lent. This is where the idea of the fastelavnsbolle was born.
Fredrik Tersmeden (= User:FredrikT), CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Early history of fastelavnsboller
Another reason why a fastelavnsbolle was an indulgence was because Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries used to have to import wheat flour from more southern countries, making it an expensive baked good. People only really ate wheat bread and buns at religious holidays for this reason. At that point, the buns were very simple wheat buns with few added ingredients, and you ate them by first softening them in warm milk.
Apparently, the earliest date we can trace the fastelavnsbolle back to in Denmark is 1250, as it’s depicted in a painting in a Danish church. But alternatively, some have suggested that the modern fastelavnsbolle stems from the German “heisswecke” of the 16th century.
The first fastelavnsboller cookbook recipes
The first two fastelavnsbolle recipes appeared in the 19th century in two cookbooks. In Madam Mangor’s cookbook in 1837, her fastelavnsboller contained raisins, orange peel, and cardamom. You can actually find the recipe here and make it yourself if you like! A later cookbook from Mathilde Roedsted Schmidts in 1843 made a different version: a wheat bun with added rose water.
So, as you can see, even from the start, it was a bun with the potential to feature lots of different flavors and ingredients!
Modern changes to fastelavnsboller
Since the 19th century, the fastelavnsbolle has undergone many other adaptations too. The version made with Danish pastry dough came about in 1909, courtesy of Mrs. Jensen’s cookbook, and took off once the average Dane had the ability to buy margarine in the 20th century. We also didn’t really use whipped cream until after World War II, when Danes had access to fresh whipping cream on a more regular basis.
And what people now call the “traditional” fastelavnsbolle – a wheat bun filled with pastry cream and topped with chocolate icing – actually didn’t come about until the 1950s, although one could argue that it does most closely resemble the original wheat buns way back from the Middle Ages.
Thanks for reading!
So, what’s the big lesson to take from the history of fastelavnsboller? Well, probably that we can’t say that any modern version of the fastelavnsbolle is particularly traditional, and that it has certainly changed many times over the course of history. I think the moral of the story is to enjoy and eat the fastelavnsboller that you like!
And if you don’t want to pay a lot for one from a fancy bakery, we can promise you that the basic homemade ones are also absolutely delicious. You can find our recipe for a gammeldags (“traditional,” although after today’s blog post research, I’m really starting to doubt that term) fastelavnsbolle here and our chocolate version linked here. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed today’s post!
Sources (in Danish):
https://samvirke.dk/artikler/8-ting-du-maaske-ikke-vidste-om-fastelavnsboller
https://natmus.dk/historisk-viden/temaer/historisk-mad/fastelavnsboller/
