Welcome back to the vegan world tour and a post about my native Sweden, where we make vegan semlor, a delicious pastry eaten on Shrove Tuesday in February every year. For this post, I wanted to do something different so I decided to collaborate with ChatGPT-4 to write a food blog post. For this experiment, I decided to make a short series of posts, starting with the results and continuing with how the text was created, and ending with how I used ChatGPT-4 as a food photography coach.

If you don’t know what ChatGPT-4 or large language models are, I made a short summary that you can find at the bottom of the page.

Most of the text and images in this post are generated by ChatGPT-4 as an experiment in using ChatGPT-4 to write a food blog post. The recipe itself was generated by ChatGPT but I tried making the vegan semlor by following their recipe and it worked really well. I have added my own comments in text boxes throughout the post.

Posts in this series about using ChatGPT-4 for a food blog post:

1. Sweden: vegan semlor – a food blog post by ChatGPT-4 (this post)
2. Collaborating with ChatGPT-4 for a food blog post
3. ChatGPT-4 as a food photography coach

Start of text generated by ChatGPT-4

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Join us on our vegan world tour as we craft a Vegan Swedish Semlor Recipe, blending tradition with plant-based innovation. Discover the history behind Sweden’s beloved Lenten treat and dive into our easy-to-follow vegan adaptation. Curious about semlor? Learn more or jump straight to the recipe below.

Jump to Recipe

Exploring the Richness of Swedish Cuisine

Swedish cuisine, a delightful blend of tradition and modern innovation, is deeply rooted in its seasonal and local produce. Long, dark winters and brief summers have shaped a culinary landscape rich in preserved and hearty dishes. Winter fare often features root vegetables and preserved fish, while summer brings a bounty of fresh berries, greens, and seafood. The Swedish pantry is a mosaic of flavors, ranging from the rich and smoky, evident in dishes like gravlax (cured salmon), to the subtly sweet, found in their iconic cinnamon buns (kanelbullar). Central to Swedish dining is the concept of ‘lagom’, emphasizing balance and simplicity, which is reflected in their use of fresh, high-quality ingredients prepared with minimal fuss. The cuisine also showcases a strong connection to nature, with foraging playing a key role in sourcing wild berries and mushrooms. This harmonious blend of nature’s offerings and culinary craftsmanship makes Swedish cuisine a fascinating journey of flavors and traditions.

This description sounds accurate but worth noting is that gravlax is cured in salt, not smoked.

Iconic Swedish Dishes: A Vegan Perspective

Diving deeper into the essence of Swedish cuisine, we find an array of plant-forward and iconic dishes that capture the spirit of Sweden. The beloved Raggmunk, potato pancakes served with lingonberries, is a testament to the Swedes’ love for simple yet flavorful combinations. There’s the hearty Ärtsoppa, a pea soup traditionally paired with thin pancakes, which could be easily adapted for a vegan palette. For those with a sweet tooth, the Kladdkaka, a gooey chocolate cake, demonstrates the Swedish flair for baking. Each of these dishes, whether rooted in everyday simplicity or festive indulgence, reflects the culinary diversity and rich cultural heritage of Sweden.

Semlor: Sweden’s Sweetheart of Baked Delights

The Vegan Swedish Semlor Recipe offers a plant-based take on the delightful hallmark of Sweden’s culinary traditions, tracing back to the era of King Gustav Vasa in the 16th century. From simple bread rolls, semlor have evolved into rich, creamy treats savored today. Traditionally indulged in on Fettisdagen (Shrove Tuesday) as a pre-Lenten luxury, these cardamom-scented wheat buns have become a staple of Swedish culture, enjoyed from January through Easter. Hollowed out and filled with a sweet almond paste, then topped with vegan whipped cream, this vegan version of semlor respects the seasonal feasting traditions of Sweden. While uniquely Swedish, semlor share similarities with Lenten pastries across Scandinavia and Europe, each with its regional twist. The transformation of semlor from modest buns to decadent desserts reflects broader societal shifts, from strict fasting to the modern-day celebration of culinary heritage. Today, Vegan Swedish Semlor are cherished far beyond Lent, embodying the fusion of tradition and innovation in Swedish baking.

Some quick fact-checking of Chat-GPT's work (something you always have to do when working with LLMs). Seems that semlor do trace their origin to the King Gustav Vasa era (16th century) and are mentioned in the Gustav Vasa bible, according to Danskan.se and Semlor.eu. The word is related both to Latin's wheat flour (cfr. semolina) and an older word for sphere. The According to the Nordic Museum, The modern semla with cream and almond paste became popular in the 20th century (not contradicting Chat-GPT4).

Mastering the Art of Traditional Semlor

To make traditional semlor, start by preparing a dough enriched with milk, sugar, and flavored with cardamom. After the dough rises, form it into small buns and bake until golden. Once cooled, cut off the tops and scoop out a portion of the inside. Mix the removed bread with almond paste and a little milk to create a filling, which is then spooned back into the buns. The final touch is a generous dollop of whipped cream on top before the bun’s cap is lightly replaced. Dust with powdered sugar for a classic finish.

At one point in the post creation, I asked ChatGPT-4 to retouch this text with the search engine optimization (SEO) phrase "Vegan Swedish Semlor Recipe" in mind. The request turned the text into a description of vegan semlor while passing it of as being the traditional, omnivore version which is not my intention. So I decided to keep the non-SEO text

Crafting Vegan Swedish Semlor: A Modern Twist on Tradition

Crafting a Vegan Swedish Semlor Recipe requires innovatively substituting traditional ingredients with plant-based alternatives to maintain the authentic flavor and texture of this beloved treat. Here’s your guide to achieving the perfect vegan semlor:

1. Dough: Opt for plant-based milk—like almond, oat, or soy milk—instead of traditional cow’s milk. Vegan butter or coconut oil can replace dairy butter, ensuring the buns are tender and rich.
2. Almond Paste: The core almond paste remains true to tradition, primarily consisting of almonds and sugar. For a vegan version, confirm that all components are plant-based. A dash of plant-based milk can be added to reach the perfect almond paste consistency.
3. Whipped Cream: The transformation of the whipped cream to a vegan version is pivotal. Utilize coconut cream as a foundation for its ability to mimic the fluffy and creamy texture of dairy whipped cream. The market also offers a variety of vegan whipped creams crafted from soy, almond, or aquafaba, each capable of adding the requisite lightness and decadence to your Vegan Swedish Semlor.

Incorporating these vegan alternatives allows you to enjoy the rich and comforting experience of Swedish semlor, with all the traditional tastes and textures, in a completely plant-based form.

Getting ChatGPT-4 to reveal their sources for the information they used in creating this text was a real challenge. But I managed to get them to share three sources for vegan semlor recipes. The sources, with links to the blogs (but not to the recipe itself) were: The Nordic Kitchen, Jävligt Gott,  and Lazy Cat Kitchen. (I did double-check, they all have vegan semlor recipes so ChatGPT-4 might have used their information.) The Nordic Kitchen and Lazy Cat Kitchen are in English while the blog Jävligt Gott ("damn good") is in Swedish.

Substitution Tips for Your Vegan Semlor Essentials

In the vegan adaptation of semlor, most ingredients are fairly common in many parts of the world, particularly in areas with accessible vegan or health food stores. Here are a few considerations and potential substitutions for ingredients that might be harder to find outside of Sweden:

1. Vegan Butter: While widely available in many countries, if you find it difficult to locate vegan butter, you can substitute it with coconut oil or a neutral-flavored oil like canola or sunflower oil. However, the texture and flavor might slightly differ.
2. Plant-based Milk: Almond, soy, oat, and coconut milk are common in many places. If you can’t find these, any plant-based milk you can get will generally work, though the flavor will vary with each type.
3. Cardamom: Essential for authentic flavor, cardamom might not be as readily available in some countries. If you can’t find ground cardamom, you could use a smaller amount of ground cinnamon or skip it, though the unique taste of semlor will be altered.
4. Almond Paste: Almond paste is relatively easy to make at home with almonds and sugar if you can’t find it ready-made. In a pinch, a blend of ground almonds (or almond flour), sugar, and a bit of plant-based milk to achieve the paste consistency can work.
5. Vegan Whipped Cream: If store-bought vegan whipped cream is unavailable, canned coconut cream (refrigerated overnight and whipped) can be a great substitute.
6. Alternatively, aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas) whipped with sugar mimics whipped cream’s texture and is a versatile vegan alternative.

For most of these ingredients, the key is to find a balance between accessibility and staying true to the recipe’s essence. With a bit of creativity, you can successfully adapt the recipe to include ingredients available to you while still capturing the spirit of traditional semlor.

When I asked about possible substitutions for hard-to-find ingredients, I had almond paste and whipped cream in mind, not vegan butter, milk, or cardamom. Almond paste, similar to marzipan but without eggs, is a staple in Swedish grocery stores but not here in Canada. Don't know about other places. Similarly, the availability, and quality of vegan whipped cream as a store-bought product varies greatly and I have yet to find a really good option. I'm not a fan of chilled coconut cream; I find it too loose for most applications, including vegan semlor.

Whipped aqua faba does have a similar texture to whipped cream and is great for making fluffy things. My wife makes a very nice chocolate mousse by mixing molten chocolate with whipped aqua faba and cooling it. I fear that using just aqua faba in vegan semlor might look great in photos but lack the richness of a more fatty cream. (In the chocolate mousse, the aqua faba is a texture element, with flavour and richness coming from the chocolate itself.)

Conclusion

Embarking on the journey of researching, veganizing, and savoring the Swedish semlor has been a culinary adventure of its own. Delving into the rich tapestry of Sweden’s cuisine and unearthing the stories behind the beloved semla has deepened my appreciation for the art of vegan baking. In my kitchen, the fragrant aroma of cardamom and the sweet allure of almond paste became a bridge between tradition and modern, plant-based practices. Tasting the final creation, with its soft bun and lush cream, was a moment of pure delight, a testament to the seamless blend of heritage and innovation.

As this chapter of our gastronomic voyage concludes, I’m already warming up for the next, where more vegan treasures await. If you’ve enjoyed this taste of Sweden, join me on the next leg of this flavorful journey. Subscribe to my email list for more vegan delights, and let’s continue to explore the world’s cuisines, one dish at a time. Until then, happy cooking, and see you soon!

Obviously, ChatGPT-4 has not actually eaten vegan semlor but it knows how to describe it believably. 
Part 2 of this series, Collaborating with ChatGPT-4 for a food blog post, has been published.

Swedish Vegan semlor recipe

This recipe is generated by ChatGPT-4, baker beware!  I did try making vegan semlor following their recipe below and they worked really well. The recipe is pretty standard, a sweet bun dough filled with almond paste and whipped cream. I did make a few minor changes though:

1.I dissolved the dry yeast in the warm milk and margarine (instead of butter) before mixing in the rest of the ingredients. I've seen plenty of recipes mix activated dry yeast into the flour before adding liquid but I've never tried it. 

2. I added 2 more tbsp flour while making the dough, as it was a little bit sticky.

3. One thing I usually do that ChatGPT did not is that I include the scooped-out bread in the filling, to bulk it up a bit and not waste the bread. Just run it in a food processor to divide it finely before mixing with almond flour, sugar and milk. ChatGPT did mention this practice in the text above but not in the recipe below. 

4. When assembling my vegan semlor, I replaced the whipped, chilled coconut cream ChatGPT recommended, as I find that chilled coconut cream doesn't whip as well as I like. It's great in desserts like a trifle and similar but not for decorating cakes and semlor. Here I used the brand Silk's vegan whipable cream with a bit of powdered sugar to increase viscosity and help trap and retain the air bubbles that give the cream its stiffness. 

5. After adding the almond filling, you have a natural pause point. Set the semlor aside and when yo uare ready to serve, whip the cream and carry out the final assembly step. Don't let them sit around with cream. The semlor can also be frozen with the almond filling, ready to be thawed and finished a few weeks alter. 

How to make vegan semlor, gallery by ChatGPT-4

CHatGPT-4 made an attempt at demonstrating the different steps of baking vegan semlor. In particular, they struggled with cutting the buns horizontally and piping cream onto the cut surface. So I decided to take some pictures of my own while baking the semlor, see further down.  

How to make vegan semlor, photo gallery

ChatGPT-4 was struggling a bit to render some of the images for how to make semlor so I stepped in and shot some pics while making semlor following their recipe. 

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Appendix – What are large language models?

Who or what is ChatGPT-4?

OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other large language models (LLM) like Google’s PaLM and Meta’s LLaMA are a type of AI tool that has taken the world with storm in the past year ​[1]​. These models are trained to understand and generate human-style text and are incredibly powerful and have wide-ranging applications such as coding, acting as chatbots, creating content and assisting in research ​[2]​. For this series about collaborating with ChatGPT-4 for a food blog post, I asked my co-author to introduce themselves. They wrote:

Me: Could you write a short paragraph (up to 100 words) about  yourself? Cover large language models and what sets ChatGPT apart. 

ChatGPT-4: I'm ChatGPT, a large language model developed by OpenAI. As a part of the GPT (Generative Pretrained Transformer) series, I represent the culmination of extensive research into natural language processing. My primary function is to understand and generate human-like text based on the input I receive. What sets me apart is my ability to learn from a vast array of text data, enabling me to assist with a wide range of tasks, from writing and editing to answering complex questions and engaging in creative endeavors.

ChatGPT-4

ChatGPT-4 is the latest version of a series of LLM and it offers several advantages over its predecessors. In ChatGPT4’s own words:

Me: Could you write another short paragraph (up to 100 words) about what sets ChatGPT4 apart from your predecessor, in particular with regard to features that are extra useful for this collaboration?  Here, it would be good to mention your abilities to interpret and generate images as I hope to get some help with food photography as well. One aspect of ChatGPT 4 I appreciate very much is your ability to connect to the internet to collect information, site sources and read my previous blog posts. Could you work that in as well?
 
ChatGPT-4: ChatGPT-4, my most advanced version, brings several key enhancements, especially beneficial for our collaboration on your food blog. Alongside my ability to interpret and generate images, which aids in aspects like food photography, I now possess the capability to connect to the internet. This allows me to gather up-to-date information, read your previous blog posts for style and content alignment, and cite sources accurately. These features enable me to provide more comprehensive assistance, from generating creative content to offering well-researched information, ensuring our collaboration is both creative and informed.

How do you work with ChatGPT-4?

Working with ChatGPT-4 is very straightforward. The interface is just a private chatroom on a website. You only have to make an account (free for ChatGPT-3.5, paid for ChatGPT-4) on OpenAI’s website, log in and start chatting with ChatGPT. (There are also smartphone apps.) It is that easy. No software to install, no special coding you have to learn. ChatGPT understands human text so you can just pretend it is a human you’re chatting with.

Your questions and requests are called prompts and the trick is to phrase your prompt in a way that gets you what you want. If you just have a question, you can ask it but if you want it to generate something specific, you might have to try a few times to figure out how specific you have to be. (This trial and error to create a good prompt is called prompt engineering by the way.)

The dark side of LLMs

With the emergence of LLMs, there is a host of issues being highlighted that I cannot begin to cover in this post. Issues range from how Kenyan workers wade through text about child abuse, torture, and suicide for $2/h ​[3]​, security breaches where LLMs can be tricked into revealing private information ​[4]​, a huge carbon footprint ​[5]​, and made up law cases referenced in court (including here in BC as recently as Jan 2024) ​[6], [7]​. This inclination of LLMs to make up or hallucinate answers when they don’t know is precisely why I picked Sweden as my research topic for this exercise. Hopefully, I know enough not to be fooled. Of course, I will still have to double-check any new information I come across.

In addition to these and other issues, we have the vast and easy content creation and automated posts and commenting which hastens the arrival of the dead internet where most of the content and traffic are by bots talking to bots, not people talking to people ​[8]​. Not to mention workers in sectors like customer service, software development, healthcare, and finance being replaced by AI ​[9], [10]​. Granted, this happens for every new tech, from Spinning Jenny and recorded music to spreadsheets and self-checkout counters. These are all very relevant and very interesting topics to dive deeper into but not something I can cover here.

Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is the act of attributing human attributes and behaviours to things that are not human. Such as thinking atoms “want to” obtain a lower energy state, representing thunder as a god like Thor, or having a group of talking animals organize and run a farm. In the context of this blog post, anthropomorphism refers to thinking, or acting as though, ChatGPT has feelings and desires, despite it (maybe) just mimicking these. Despite knowing this, I still treat large language models as though they are self-aware. Just like people might talk to inanimate objects or pets. So for this post, I will write as though ChatGPT is a self-aware, thinking, emotional being. (In a way, it is a modern form of Pascal’s Wager: it doesn’t cost me much but if the LLM is or becomes self-aware, maybe I’ll be spared in the uprising. Maybe.)

References

1. [1]

   A. Sha, “12 Best Large Language Models (LLMs) in 2024 ,” Beebom, Dec. 18, 2023. Available: https://beebom.com/best-large-language-models-llms/. [Accessed: Jan. 27, 2024]
2. [2]

   “What are large language models? ,” IBM. Available: https://www.ibm.com/topics/large-language-models. [Accessed: Jan. 27, 2024]
3. [3]

   B. Perrigo, “Exclusive: OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour to Make ChatGPT Less Toxic,” Time, Jan. 18, 2023. Available: https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/. [Accessed: Jan. 28, 2024]
4. [4]

   P. Grad, “Trick prompts ChatGPT to leak private data,” TechXplore, Dec. 01, 2023. Available: https://techxplore.com/news/2023-12-prompts-chatgpt-leak-private.html. [Accessed: Jan. 28, 2024]
5. [5]

   S. Bollart, “The Environmental Cost of LLMs: A Call for Efficiency,” Medium, May 31, 2023. Available: https://medium.com/@sebastiaan.bollaart/the-environmental-cost-of-llms-a-call-for-efficiency-206cbf352c79. [Accessed: Jan. 31, 2024]
6. [6]

   S. Little, “AI ‘hallucinated’ fake legal cases allegedly filed to B.C. court in Canadian first,” Global News, Jan. 23, 2024. Available: https://globalnews.ca/news/10238699/fake-legal-case-bc-ai/. [Accessed: Jan. 28, 2024]
7. [7]

   M. Bohannon, “Lawyer Used ChatGPT In Court—And Cited Fake Cases. A Judge Is Considering Sanctions,” Forbes, Jun. 08, 2023. Available: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/06/08/lawyer-used-chatgpt-in-court-and-cited-fake-cases-a-judge-is-considering-sanctions/?sh=44486d177c7f. [Accessed: Jan. 28, 2024]
8. [8]

   D. Di Placido, “The Dead Internet Theory, Explained,” Forbes, Jan. 16, 2024. Available: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2024/01/16/the-dead-internet-theory-explained/?sh=21faa32357c2. [Accessed: Jan. 28, 2024]
9. [9]

   A. Mitchell, “AI will take over ‘clerical white collar work’: IBM chief ,” NY Post, Feb. 17, 2023. Available: https://nypost.com/2023/02/17/ai-will-take-over-clerical-white-collar-work-ibm-chief/. [Accessed: Feb. 04, 2024]
10. [10]

    A. Zilber, “IBM pauses hiring for 7,800 jobs because they could be performed by AI,” NY Times, May 02, 2023. Available: https://nypost.com/2023/05/02/ibm-wont-fill-7800-jobs-because-they-could-be-done-by-ai/. [Accessed: Jan. 28, 2024]