[Molly] I'm hosting a send-off party
to destination Sweden...
I don't think I have ever been more excited for anything in my life,
other than the birth of my children.
...with a smorgasbord of delightful Swedish-inspired foods,
like my sweet rose semlor,
beautiful buns with almond bellies
and whipped cream clouds.
Classic savory Swedish meatballs.
Mmm!
Just melts in your mouth. It's so flavorful.
A big green salad with tiny hasselback potatoes
and spicy horseradish dressing.
Plus the coolest party dish you've ever seen.
My smorgustarta is a combination salmon salad,
egg salad sandwich in cake form!
This cake was made for me.
Look at these beauties.
Hey, this is me, Molly Yeh.
This is my husband Nick.
This is our growing family.
And this is our farm on the North Dakota-Minnesota border,
the place where I eat, sleep and breathe food.
My good friend Mollie, Mollie with an "ie",
is moving to Sweden.
So to celebrate, I'm hosting a Swedish-inspired dinner party.
For dessert, I am making rose semlor,
which are sweet, pillowy, cardamom-spiced buns
filled with sticky almond paste
and a cloud of pink floral whipped cream.
They are so delightfully whimsical.
To start, I'll combine my dry ingredients.
3 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour.
This is essentially a basic brioche now with cardamom.
A 1/4 cup of sugar,
2 1/4 teaspoons of instant yeast,
1 teaspoon of kosher salt,
and 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cardamom.
I love cardamom. It's woodsy, it's peppery,
it's a little bit floral.
It's just so special.
And one of my favorite things about moving here was,
because so many people have Scandinavian heritage,
there's a lot of cardamom baked goods.
And then for my wet ingredients,
I've got an egg,
two-thirds of a cup of warm milk,
and a 1/4 cup of warm water.
I'll mix this with a stiff spatula into a shaggy dough
just to give it a jumpstart on getting combined.
Semlor is Swedish for "red rolls."
The singular form is semla.
And these buns are commonly eaten around Lent.
And there are different variations throughout Scandinavia.
In Sweden, they're most commonly filled with almond paste.
And, of course, anything with almond paste
has my heart instantly.
Okay, I've got a shaggy dough here.
I'll get this onto my stand mixer
and bring it together.
I can smell that cardamom.
It smells so good.
And then once pretty much all of the dry ingredients are hydrated,
I can start to add one stick of softened unsalted butter
a tablespoon at a time.
And I'm taking the time to add the butter gradually like this
after all the other ingredients are mixed up.
It's gonna yield a fluffier, puffier, softer bun.
Now that the butter is incorporated,
I'll knead the dough for 7 to 10 minutes
until it's smooth, but still slightly sticky.
If you didn't develop the glutens,
once it got that air in the center,
it wouldn't be strong enough to hold the air
and it would collapse.
And then you would have a dense not as tasty bun.
So take the time and work on your buns.
This dough is looking smooth.
Freshly-kneaded dough is one of the most satisfying textures.
Okay, I'll stretch it into a ball
so that it can rise evenly.
I'll place it top-down into the bowl
and smush it around so that it gets coated in the oil.
And then cover it up and allow it to rise
until it's doubled in size.
Bye.
Then divide into balls,
let them rise again,
slap on a little egg wash to make them shiny
and bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 14 minutes
until they're deeply golden.
They're so shiny and golden.
I'll let these cool briefly while I make my filling.
I'm starting with 2 cups of toasted almond flour.
So rather than starting with a store-bought almond paste,
I'm essentially making homemade almond paste.
And this get sticky and sweet
right in the middle of the buns.
And a cup of sugar.
And then I'll bring it together
with three quarters of a cup of heavy cream.
First few times I saw pictures of semlor,
I thought, "Okay, a puffy bun
filled with whipped cream. I can get down with that."
And then when I finally tasted one
and realized that there was this secret almond paste filling
also in the center,
I was like, "Dang, yes. This is for me."
I'll add a couple of pinches of kosher salt
to bring out all the flavor.
And now, a couple of splashes of rose water.
And the rose water adds this hint of floral specialness
that goes so nicely with almond.
I'll stir this in.
This is looking delicious.
Okay, the last thing I'm gonna add to the filling
is innards from the rolls.
So I'm doing double-duty here.
I'm gonna create a cavity in the rolls
to make space for the filling.
But I'm also repurposing the innards
by adding them to the filling.
And then you're left with a bread bowl for the filling.
Ah, bread bowls are so good.
All right, I'll keep on chopping the hats off.
So my friend Mollie, she recently in Ireland
met a Swedish guy that she fell in love with.
And so that's why she's moving to Sweden.
[sighs] So I'm really gonna miss her.
But I guess I can always cook a lot of Swedish food
when I get nostalgic.
Okay.
To fill, I'll take a small offset spatula
and add a little bit of the filling.
I'll pipe on a big dollop of whipped cream.
And this is just a basic fresh whipped cream
with some rose water and a hint of pink food coloring
so that it says, "I'm rose water whipped cream."
[exclaims]
I'll stick its hat back on...
over the cream puff.
Okay, I'll keep on filling.
Over-cute.
[giggles]
Mmm.
That is such a buttery bun.
And the filling power couple. Oh, my gosh.
Rose, almond and cardamom, a throuple made in heaven.
I love this so much.
Coming up, the coolest cake you've ever seen.
And guess what, it's not sweet. Gasp.
For the most sparkling majestic star
of my Swedish send-off feast,
I am making a smorgustarta.
It's a sandwich cake.
It's layers of fluffy bread
with egg salad and salmon salad between them
covered in cream cheese and colorful decor.
I could not be more obsessed with this concept.
I think I was actually just waiting for a friend of mine to move to Sweden
so that I could have an excuse to make this.
I'm starting by making the cream cheese frosting,
which isn't your typical sweetened cream cheese frosting.
I've got 1 1/2 pounds of softened cream cheese.
And then I'll just loosen it up
with half a cup of heavy cream.
A couple of pinches of salt.
And I'll blend it up until it's smooth.
That's it for the frosting.
So, a majority of it is going to be slathered all over the outside
of my gigantic sandwich.
But a little bit of it is going to be used
to hold together my salmon salad.
So I'll just scoop this out into a bowl.
I'm gonna have this dumb smile on my face
the entire time that I'm making this cake.
I've been waiting my entire life to do this.
Now I'll make the salmon salad.
Filling one is smoked salmon.
It's tangy and smoky
and it's got a nice bit of heat
from some horseradish.
And the second filling is egg salad.
It's got mayo. Need I say more?
I'll start by flaking some smoked salmon
into my cream cheese mixture.
This is hot smoked salmon, so it flakes really easily,
as opposed to cold smoked salmon,
which is more like something you'd put on a bagel.
A 1/4 cup of sour cream
will help lighten up the cream cheese mixture.
The zest and juice of half a lemon.
Always lemon with smoked salmon.
Some chopped dill.
Smoked salmon is so delicious on its own.
But when you pair it with dill and lemon,
it becomes truly one of the most delicious foods on the planet.
Some salt and pepper.
And then a plop of horseradish adds some great heat.
It really brings this salad to life.
I'll mix this up.
The color of the dill with the lemon zest
and this pink salmon is really pretty.
I am pretty sure that the smorgustorta was made for me
because I love decorating cakes,
but, at the same time, I would rather eat a sandwich
than a slice of cake.
You get the best of both worlds.
Right. Yummo.
Mmm!
Mmm.
That'd be delicious just by itself on a piece of toast.
For my second filling,
I'll make a basic, straightforward egg salad.
I like mine to be heavy on the mayo.
And to chop up all of my hardboiled eggs here,
I've got this fun trick using a wire cooling rack.
Put it over my bowl
and just smash the eggs right on through.
Wow, this is very soothing.
I could do this all day.
I'll season these with salt and pepper.
And then hold it all together with mayonnaise,
my favorite thing in the world.
A small plop of Dijon brings in this zingy personality
that an otherwise mild dish requires.
I'll add some freshly chopped chives and parsley.
Herbs are the savory sprinkle of this cake.
I'll stir this around.
Pretty sure I was meant to be Swedish.
Between my obsession with marzipan,
my love of doll horses.
I hope Mollie gets married soon
so that I have an excuse to go to Sweden
and bake her a 3-tiered smorgustorta.
Breaking news.
She did get married!
And I did bake her a 3-tiered smorgustorta.
I'm ready to assemble.
I've got my bread here and a 9x9 pan
that I've lined with plastic wrap,
which will help me remove the cake after it's set.
And it'll also help me wrap it up
because I will have to set it in the refrigerator.
For my first layer,
I'll do a layer of Pullman white bread.
I'll nestle them close together
and then pile on the egg salad.
I'll spread this out evenly.
So happy.
Now another layer of bread.
And I'm using wholewheat for this center layer
just because it looks pretty.
And then the salmon salad.
Spread this to the edge.
The perfect shade of pink.
Bernie will totally go for it.
And then finish with another layer of bread.
Just like that.
I'll wrap this in plastic wrap tightly
so that it doesn't dry out.
I'll let this set in the fridge for two hours until firm
and then I'll be ready to decorate.
I don't think I have ever been more excited for anything in my life,
other than the birth of my children.
I've just unleashed every dream and desire
I've ever had in my life on this cake.
Trim the edges,
ice the whole thing with my remaining cream cheese frosting,
add ham star cutouts
and then a lovely arrangement of fresh herbs,
sliced cucumbers, radishes, lemons,
and eggs, of course,
to peep what's inside.
This cake was made for me.
Next, the secret to everyone's favorite
Swedish furniture store snack.
They're super easy to make at home.
Would it even be a Swedish party without meatballs?
No way.
So I'm making Swedish meatballs.
They're super moist and flavorful.
And they swim in an extra creamy gravy
with tart bright lingonberry sauce on the side.
To get started on the balls,
I've got half a pound each of ground beef and ground pork.
I love that flavor combination.
It's a great amount of fattiness.
And then I'll sprinkle in three quarters of a cup of breadcrumbs,
a third of a cup of milk,
and one lightly-beaten egg.
And the combination of the egg and the milk and the breadcrumbs
will help the meatballs bind together
and then also contribute moisture.
I'll season with a teaspoon of kosher salt
and black pepper
and then nutmeg, ginger and all spice,
which is a delicious warm combination
that is a defining feature of Swedish meatballs.
And then freshly-grated nutmeg is always gonna taste better
than the pre-ground stuff.
So I'll do a few passes on my fine duster.
A couple of tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
for some dark depth.
And then half a yellow onion finely chopped
and a couple of garlic cloves
that I've softened in some oil.
I've got a baking sheet here lined with parchment.
And my scoop, I'll have that standing by
while I mix up my meatball mixture.
I'll just get in here with my hands.
So my favorite Swedish furniture store has delicious Swedish meatballs.
These are my version of those furniture store meatballs.
Okay, got my scoop here
to make them all uniformly-sized.
This is about a tablespoon-sized scoop.
I'll get this onto my baking pan
and then I'll keep on rolling.
And these will bake at 425 for 10 minutes
while I make my gravy.
This gravy is rich and decadent
and it coats the balls just perfectly.
I'll start with 3 tablespoons of butter
and I'll combine it with 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour.
So the butter and the flour will make a roux
and that's what will thicken my stock
to create a luxurious thick gravy.
I'll cook this off for about a minute or two
just to get rid of that flour flavor.
And then add a bit of all spice,
some thyme leaves.
I'll strip these right off the stem.
And then a dollop of mustard.
I think the zingyness from the Dijon
kind of helps balance out all the richness.
I'll gradually whisk in now 2 cups of low-sodium beef stock.
And as it combines with the roux,
it'll thicken up.
So whisk constantly so that the roux get incorporated
smoothly with the stock.
Oh, it smells good.
I'll amp up the richness with half a cup of heavy cream.
Since Swedish meatballs are smaller,
they're healthier.
[chuckling] So there's room for heavy cream.
A couple of shakes of Worcestershire sauce
will add that great depth.
I'll let this bubble for a few minutes now
so that it thickens up.
Making a gravy is so satisfying
because you get to watch it thicken up
before your very eyes.
And making this gravy is a good activity to do
in the few minutes that the balls take to cook.
Speaking of which...
Mmm!
Oh, yeah.
These look great.
They're gonna look even greater
once they're cloaked with this creamy gravy.
I'll get them right into the braiser.
I'll fold them in to get them totally coated in the gravy.
I'm getting excited.
Gravy looks good on these.
I'll take them up.
Look at how creamy that is.
Sprinkle on some fresh parsley.
Get the necessary lingonberry sauce.
Lingonberry sauce is tart.
It's a little bit like cranberry sauce.
And you've gotta have it with a Swedish meatball.
That's a perfect bite.
Mmm!
That is so good.
Just melts in your mouth. It's so flavorful.
[sighs] And I gotta be honest...
I kind of feel like putting together some furniture now.
Still to come, salad done the Yeh way.
It's got the perfect balance of carbs to green stuff.
Oh, yeah!
For a fresh vibrant side for my dinner party,
I'm making a big green salad
with cute little hasselback potatoes scattered throughout.
It's coated in a punchy horseradish dressing.
It's my ode to Sweden's greatest potato invention.
To start, I have fingerling potatoes,
the rainbow kind because that's the party-ready kind.
And I'm hasselbacking them.
And all that means is that I'm cutting them
into little, tiny slices,
but not going all the way through,
so that they stay together in one potato.
And when they bake up,
all of those little cuts will get crispy.
So you get crispier potatoes and I'm all for that.
I'll get these onto my pan.
I'll drizzle with some olive oil.
It's important to get these entirely coated,
which will help get them crispy.
I'll sprinkle with a good couple of pinches of kosher salt.
Some pepper.
And then a little bit of dill, paprika and garlic
will add loads of flavor.
I think it's also my love of dill that makes me
secretly Swedish.
Paprika for smokiness.
And garlic powder.
I'll bake these at 425 for 20 minutes
and then I'll crank the heat up to 475 degrees
for another 10 minutes
so that those edges can get extra crispy.
And then while these bake, I'll make the dressing.
I'll start with a 1/4 cup of mayo
and then dollop in a tablespoon of horseradish,
a 1/4 cup of sour cream, a touch of Dijon,
a little honey.
It kind of rounds everything out with that sweetness.
And then a couple of tablespoons of white wine vinegar
adds brightness.
Salt and pepper.
And finely-chopped fresh chives and dill.
This is a very springy dressing.
I'll stir this on up until it's smooth.
Mmm. Smells really good.
You know what this needs for taste testing?
A freshly-baked hasselback potato.
Cute!
These look great.
Mmm.
There are some great flavors going on there.
I've got some beautiful mixed spring greens
and shaved fennel
and then some thinly-sliced radishes.
I'll toss this with my dressing.
And get the leaves fully coated.
I'll pile on the greens.
The color is so pretty.
I'll nestle in the potatoes.
I'll drizzle on a teeny bit of dressing
so that the potatoes can get some.
A sprinkle of flaky salt will taste so good.
And then I'll finish with some fennel fronds.
They're so delicate and they add great visual texture.
Look how pretty.
Let's get this Swedish send-off started.
[woman] Mmm.
Mmm-hmm.
[Molly] We're gonna miss you so much.
We can't wait to visit.