Mardi Gras and whipped cream

[cimorene]

I was born in New Orleans! My parents lived there briefly before my dad got laid off by Shell in the early 80s oil crash thingy, but just long enough to create vague memories and photos of me in costume on my parents' shoulders collecting beads. I had a big collection of plastic beads growing up.

My sister later went to school in N.O. and she and my parents now live in Baton Rouge, which also has parades, but my mom is sick and my sister just had surgery so none of them have gone to Mardi Gras this year.

There's a traditional pastry called Lenten buns in Sweden and here that are basically like a round sweet yeast roll topped with cream and jam like the scone toppings of so much debate in Cornwall and Devon. (Whipped cream though.) And there's another version with marzipan instead of jam, which is the one Wax likes. They have little packages of two from the various nearby bakeries in all the supermarkets around this season, so we've bought them a few times. Wax is hoping they keep it up for a while even now that Lent is over. (Lent is not otherwise a thing here. Nordic cultures don't go for giving up chocolate and carbonated beverages like my Catholic relatives.) I like the cream and jam, but the buns themselves being cold from the fridge really takes away from it. I'm sure they're way better fresh and still hot from the oven, but you can't heat them with the cream on, so you'd have to bake them at home. We haven't done that, because when we bake it's usually sweeter desserts than that, like cake and cookies.

Comments

[viggorlijah]

I have a recipe somewhere for iced buns that are so so very good straight out of the oven with a tiny bit of cream or icing. Making them at home is worth the effort because they are incredibly fluffy when fresh. You are both lucky to have packs of two at the bakery and an in-house cake maker Wax!

[cimorene]

Yes! I am very lucky because I am way lazier and less likely to bake them myself. We can get buttered buns frozen, so you put them in the oven yourself and that's pretty great! But not the plain ones which you would need for the Lenten buns. Some brands sell them just as the dough so you bake them yourself, and some prebake so you just warm them.

[princessofgeeks]

Yum.