This morning at breakfast we decided for a Schlemmertag. Schlemmen in German is “feasting.” I wanted to go to several cafes in Luleå and find the best Kanelbulle (cinnamon buns). Not a bad way to spend our second rest day in the city as we recover from the last week of cycling. We’ve traveled from Nordkapp to Alta, then on to Gällivare, and now to Luleå on the EuroVelo 7 bike trail.
Getting the Inside Scoop
We first stopped at the tourist office again because C wanted more information about some walks around town and an art walk. The same young ladies who were there yesterday were eager to help us again. Sadly, no more information on the walks or self guided tours, but we got to talking about winter in Luleå, the successful sports teams here, and fika. Fika is the Swedish coffee break and there are a ton of pastries to go with it. The one woman had a calendar which celebrated a different Swedish pastry every day because there are so many different kinds. Many are made for special holidays and there are specific pastries for each name day celebrations.
Side note about Luleå’s winter: most of the water surrounding Luleå freezes completely and there are ice roads which you can take from one island to another. There are a few sections of ice paths that are more for recreation and not cars. People use them to go walking or ice skating (there are two “lanes” one with snow for walking and a snow-free lane for skating). Others use kick sleds, snowmobiles, or fat bikes to get to work or around. This alone seems like a reason to come back in winter!
The gave us a list of the places to eat in Luleå and pointed out the cafes with the best cinnamon buns. Also, there was a pamphlet about the most common Swedish baked goods, which also guided us through the day.
Wallstens Cafe
First stop was Wallstens Cafe which was just opening but already had a lot of customers. It is located on the upper floor inside of a clothing shop. Besides Swedish pastries, the cafe also served lots of yummy looking salads and various kinds of drinks. Unfortunately there were no cinnamon buns when we were there, but a lot of other delicious looking pastries. Trying to pace ourselves, we only ordered a Chokladboll, literally a chocolate ball.
This ball is made of oatmeal, chocolate, sugar, and butter, and rolled in either pearl sugar or coconut flakes. Luckily this one was covered in pearl sugar, because I don’t love desiccated coconut. It turned out to be my favorite dessert of the day. (It has remained my favorite Chokladboll so far!)
Börje Olssons
Next up was Börje Olssons Konditorier, one of the oldest establishments in Luleå. The cafe is located in a shopping mall and unfortunately doesn’t have their own bathroom. But the wifi was great and we spent a while here planning our upcoming trip. At Börje Olssons we went all out: Kanelbulle, Hallongrotta, and Princesstårta.
We started with the princess cake because I was skeptical. The cake is covered in green colored marzipan and filled with different creams and jam. Created by the teacher of the three princesses in the early 1900s, the cake is a Swedish favorite and can also be pink. It was not my favorite, but I do think to enjoy marzipan you had to have grown up with it in Europe. The inside of the cake was nice though. There was a lot of cream which seems to be common in Swedish desserts.
Then we cut into the Hallongrotta, a cookie in a cupcake wrapper. The name literally means “raspberry cave.” The cookie looks like it would be sandy, but it was actually almost chewy, with a pit of raspberry jam in the center. I love everything raspberry so this one got a high rating from me! (Every Hallongrotta we have tried so far has been great! Seems like a classic staple of Swedish Fika). The last sweet treat we tried from Börje Olssons was the cinnamon roll, which was very tasty, though I found it to be on the doughy side.
Cafe La Vache
By now the sugar rush had hit us and the hot weather made the air inside the cafe sticky. We took a small break by walking around Luleå window shopping. When we were ready, we headed to Cafe La Vache which had an adorable interior. I particularly liked the lemon wallpaper – so cute! And here we could sit outside. There were so many desserts in the display, but I saw a sandwich go by and needed something savory. We ordered a mozzarella pepper sandwich and a cinnamon bun.
The bun was small and so dark that I thought it might also have a chocolate filling. There was no chocolate, but this little bun was stuffed to the gills with butter and sugar. It was so gooey and sweet! If you couldn’t tell, I really liked this one, but C said it was too sweet for him (I don’t ever experience that 😂).
Cafe Condis
Last but not least was Cafe Condis, the only cafe off of the main pedestrian street in Luleå that we tried. It gave the vibe of a local, no frills coffee shop whereas La Vache and Wallstens were more modern and covered in hipster plants. By the time we got here the Kanelbulle were all out but we had other delights to try on our pamphlet. We ordered a Dammsugare, also called a Punschrulle, and a Semla. The first gets its nickname after the vacuum cleaner, the cylinder one that is brown, green, and brown. It is a little green roll of marzipan filled with crumb cake and arrak, an alcohol. The ends are dipped in chocolate to give its signature look. Again, marzipan: not for me.
At the end we dug into the Semla, an unsweetened bun filled with cream and a little bun hat on top. There are various ways to eat it like using the hat to scoop out the middle before finishing it off, or just with a fork. We went the boring route with the fork. Despite this being one of the tourist office ladies favorites, we didn’t love it. I like the cream in anything, and this one had decorative strawberries, but the bun was too much like bread. From now on, I’ll stick with Chokladboll and Kanelbulle!!
Two things we didn’t get to try today are Kladkaka (mud cake) and Jordgubbstårta (midsummer strawberry cake), and they sound delicious to me. We also wanted to go to the cafe Lilla Skafferiet even though we’d have to bike outside of town to get there, but it unfortunately wasn’t open today. The women said the cinnamon buns there would be worth the effort of getting there (bus 7, she said!).