TLDR;
Semla is the singular name, whereas semlor is plural.
A semla is a beloved and traditional Swedish baked good. It's a cardomom-spiced sweet wheat bun filled with an almond paste and whipped cream.
Historically it was eaten on Shrove Tuesday and during lent, but now it is a culturally essential part of the cullarinary calender in Sweden from January to Easter.
Where did it all begin?
Staple bread and lent goes back to, well, bibical times. The journey from a cross-shaped wheat bun to a bakery treat is long, complicated, and disputed.
When it comes to something that would be recognisable as a semlor, and also meet the criteria to be reviewed on this website, it doesn't appear until much later, perhaps towards the end of the 1800s.
The classic modern semla with whipped cream and almond paste doesn't get a proper foothold until the 1930s.
What exactly makes a semla a semla?
Today there are a huge number of baked good sold as semla variants - everything from a saffron semla to a chocolate semla. Some of the variations bear little connection to a semla other than it's a filled bun.
So for the purposes of this website, a semla has to consist of four things.
- A sweet bread roll
- Almond paste
- Whipped cream
- Cardamom
If any of those four things are missing, then it won't be reviewed as a semla. This of course doesn't neccessarily stop them from being delious bakery items!
When can you buy semlor?
Purists will say that you shouldn't eat a semla until Shrove Tuesday. I'm not a purist when it comes to when it's ok to eat a semla, but I will admit that it was quite perculiar when I treated some of friends visiting from the US to semlor in June!
Semlor are generally available in Swedish supermarkets and bakeries from the beginning of January until some point during March. They might make an appearence in December, if there's any room amongst the saffron buns and lussekatter. Exactly when a bakery starts varies a lot, but by mid January most will have started.
The end date for the season is much more of a sliding scale, some places might stop only a few weeks after Shrove Tuesday. As a rule, the closer you get to Easter the less likely it will be to find them.
Looking back at all of the reviews on this website, there's never been a semla reviewed in April, with March 18th being the latest date of a review. The earliest review is January 8th.