In Scandinavia, winter is quite dark and cold, even in the southern regions it starts to get dark after 2 pm, so light is an essential part of the Christian or even the old pagan winter traditions.
On the 13 December, at the St. Lucia's Day celebration, the oldest daughter of the house dresses up in a white dress with a red sash and wears a crown with candles on her head then she serves a tray of drinks, biscuits, and these gorgeous, golden saffron buns - called Lussekatter or Lucia cats - to her family and friends staying in the house for the celebration.
Ingredients
- 50 g fresh yeast
- 175 g butter
- 1 g saffron
- 160 g sugar
- 500 ml milk
- 1 pinch salt
- 900 g flour
- 1 egg for egg-wash
- raisins
Instructions
- Crumble the yeast into a bowl.
- Melt the butter.
- Crush the saffron with a few tablespoons of sugar in a mortar.
- Add the sugar-saffron mixture and the milk to the butter, heat it up to lukewarm. If you don't want to leave the saffron pieces in the dough, filter this liquid.
- Pour it into the bowl with the yeast and leave it to rest for 5-10 minutes.
- Add the leftover sugar and the salt, then start incorporating the flour gradually while mixing the dough by using dough hooks on your hand mixer.
- Once the dough came together, cover its bowl with a tea towel and let it rise for 30 minutes in a warm place, it should be double in size at the end.
- Take it out of the bowl and place the dough on a floured surface and lightly knead it through.
- Get small handfuls of dough and roll them into 'snakes', then form them into S-shapes while rolling the end of the dough 'ropes'.
- Place the buns on a lined baking tray.
- Give them an egg wash and place 2 raisins in the middle of the spiral parts.
- Bake them in the preheated oven, at 200 °C, for smaller buns: 15 minutes, large buns: 25-30 minutes. At halftime turn the tray around.
- Let them cool down to room temperature before serving.
Lussekatter - Swedish Saffron Buns - Photo by © Reka Csulak
