I’m a bit of a hoarder. Not so much of stuff but of stuff like presents; I finished my Easter egg about a month ago, I’m still eating last Christmas’ chocolate coins and I have a Topshop voucher in my purse that despite buying at least two things in there since I’ve had it, I’m still insistent on ‘saving’. And until last night, I had a packet of Saffron that my sister had bought me from Morocco last Christmas that I was yet to use.
Today it St Lucia’s day and it’s tradition in Sweden that these Saffron buns, (St Lucia Buns, Lucia Cats or Lussekatter) are made and eaten to celebrate, someone gave me a recipe for these and I decided it was time to part with the saffron and make them.
I’ve had a bit of trouble with them rising but I think that’s probably due to the fact that me and fast action yeast have never gotten along and it didn’t affect the crumb too much so I was pretty happy with them in the end and although they’re not something that we traditionally associate with Christmas in this country, they do taste pretty Christmassy and I will definitely be making them again next year. They’re quite difficult to describe, the recipe looks similar to that of a brioche but they’re not as delicate or soft and the saffron adds a different flavour and although they have sugar in, they’re aren’t really sweet. They’re best eaten fresh from the oven as they are or with a little butter.
Happy St Lucia’s day!
I’ll be back tomorrow with the next recipe in my Christmas series, not long to go now!
Ingredients
150ml milk
1g saffron
1 sachet of fast action yeast
75g caster sugar
50g butter
350g plain flour
1 tbspn natural yoghurt
1 egg
a few raisins
Method
- Preheat the oven to 190°. Heat the milk and saffron in a pan over a low heat, once warm, add the butter and stir until it melts. Don’t let the milk reach simmering point.
- Put the yeast into a free-standing electric mixer with a paddle attachment and pour the liquid mixture over it. Add the yoghurt, sugar and sift in the flour. Mix until a smooth dough forms. Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover with a cloth and leave to rise for half an hour.
- Change the paddle attachment to a dough hook and return the bowl to the mixer, knead on a medium speed for about 3 minutes.
- Divide the dough in half, then divide those halves into halves and then divide those quarters into halves so you end up with 8 equal pieces of dough.
- Roll each piece of dough into a long strip of dough (see below) and then shape traditionally they’re shaped into an infinity sign or figure of eight, whatever you call it and are also often made into swirly ‘S’ shapes but i made a few different shapes and they all worked fine (again, see below) so you can shape them into whatever you fancy.
- Press a few raisins into the dough, cover with a piece of cloth and leave to rise for 20 minutes.
- Whisk the egg and brush the buns with it, place on a baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes.
- Eat!
LG x
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