Fika is a very important Swedish tradition: a cozy coffee-and-cake break you can either take home, at the office or in cafes/bakeries perfectly equipped for it. All that matters is that you relax, drink and eat something. Fika=reversed version of ka-fi (kaffe/coffee).
There are quite a few fika treats that became classics – including buns, cakes and cookies. Common ingredients are cardamom, almond, marzipan, raspberry jam and coconut flakes. You will see kola, which has nothing to do with coca cola as I used to think – that would be something caramel flavored.
fikabröd: sweet buns
Bullar, buns are everywhere to be found in Sweden, and belong to the category of Fikabröd, fika breadstuff. The most common sweet bun is the iconic kanelbulle, – the Swedish cinnamon bun: with pearl sugar on top and no icing, less fatty than American ones. There is even a cinnamon bun day in Sweden! The second most common is the cardamom bun, kardemummabulle, which could be described as slightly ‘spicy’.
Toscasnäcka is a ‘shell’ covered in almonds. Anything called Tosca in Sweden means it has almonds.
Other buns are vanilj- or solbullar with vanilla custard, and sometimes chocolate-coated as well.
Längd is basically a big and long bun.
Kafferep cookies and small treats
- chokladboll: one of the simplest and most iconic Fika treats, no-bake small chocolate balls usually covered in shredded coconut.
- dammsugare hoover. green marzipan and chocolate ends. They’re also known as punschrullar (punch rolls) if they contain punsch liqueur. The name either comes from their shape or the custom of using leftover biscuit crumbs in bakeries. The Danes call their own version -white where you have green in dammsugare – is Træstamme, tree trunk. Which is a marrowbone, mergpijp, for the Dutch.
- biskvi/sarah bernhardt: Biskvi are chocolate cones with an almond cookie base, filled with buttercream. The Sarah Bernhardt (named after a French actress) is basically a biskvi with a chocolate truffle filling. Sarah Bernhardt’s are apparently very popular around Christmas in Iceland!
- mazarin is a small, round shortcrust pastry originated in the 17th-18th century, filled with almond paste, and distincted by white or pink icing on top.
- Napoleon, very similar to Dutch iconic tompouce, except the latter is either pink or orange for special occasions, while I’ve seen Napoleons having a darker red icing
- Vaniljhjärta: personal addition because I find this lovely. A tender heart-shaped shortcrust pastry filled with vanilla cream.
- Jitterbug is a buttery spiral-shaped cookie with merengue.
kafferep was a tradition which developed in the 19th century, before Fika name and concept emerged. There are IKEA cookies called Kafferep! It consisted in gatherings that included eating cookies, kakor – seven types to be precise, called sju sorters kakor. Baking seven types of cookies is actually also a Norwegian Christmas tradition. They include: Hallongrottor: vanilla cookies where the ‘cave’ in the middle is filled with raspberry jam. Chokladsnittar: rectangular ‘chocolate slices’. Brysselkakor: round vanilla ‘Brussels cookies’ circled by a pink coating. Drömmar meringue-like vanilla round cookies, melting in your mouth like ..’dreams’. Havrekakor: crunchy ‘oat biscuits’, Nötkakor: little balls with a whole hazelnut. Schackrutor chocolate-vanilla ‘chessboard’ square cookies
cakes
in Sweden you have Tårtor, kakor and paj. A tårta typically has whipped cream and looks fancier than a basic kaka, while a paj is.. a pie.
- Kladdkaka: iconic Swedish gooey chocolate cake, or mud cake, the name means sticky cake.
- Toscakaka: moist cake with crispy caramel almonds on top.
- Smulpaj: crumble cake. Typical fillings are rhabarber, apples and blueberries! Blueberry pie, blåbärspaj paired with vanilla sauce, vaniljsås!
- Prinsesstårta is the princess of Swedish cakes, often served for birthdays! First featured in the early 20th century Princesses’ cookbook Prinsessornas kokbok, it is very recognizable by being a green dome with a pink rose on top. It is made of layers of sponge, whipped cream and raspberry jam, covered by green marzipan. There are variations with other colors (and meanings): yellow –prinstårta (prince cake), pink – operatårta (opera cake). Prinsesstårta can also be made as a roll and served in slices.
- An iconic Swedish rollcake holds the name of Hungary’s capital: Budapest: with whipped cream in the roll and coated in an almond crumble with a chocolate swirl, it usually has mandarin inside. I tried a pear version the first time though!
- Other notable cakes are Silviakaka (a sponge cake with coconut on top) and Oscarstårta (almond and cream cake)
- Carrot cake, morotkaka, is also very common
savory fika ‘ sandwiches
Sweet fika is great, but sometimes you cannot risk a sugar crash: there are plenty of nice options for a savory fika, with open Sandwich (macka) options! The most iconic ones are the shrimp sandwich (räkmacka, often accompanied by eggs) and meatballs on redbeet salad (kötbullemacka). It is quite easy to make these Swedish sandwiches at home too.
A round, closed sandwich is called Fralla.
Sources:
- Pictures from: Conditori Norpolen (Vara), Mormor (Lund), Lejlas (Uddevalla), Nordfelts (Vänersborg), Kakeria (Trollhättan)
- visitsweden.com
- fikatrail.com
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