SWEDISH LUSSEKATTER

First of all I have to tell you that this recipe is not part of my healthier Christmas baking drive and I know this is little late but I wanted to re-post this old recipe of Lussekatter anyway, I only make two batches of them, once for St Lucia on the 13th of December and then one for my mother-in-law when we celebrate Christmas because she absolutely loves them and I understand her because I love Lussekatter too. Lussekatter is really one of the few Swedish things I bake or cook for Christmas, (well on the whole I don't cook that many Swedish dishes although there are some old-fashioned ones that I would like to make and hopefully this new year might be the year I will.) but these are a must, we got to have bright yellow buns made with saffron and cardamom to feel that Christmas is approaching.
And speaking of Christmas, don't forget that Menu for Hope is going on and there are so many incredible prizes so go and take a look before buying a ticket!





LUSSEKATTER

25 g/0,9 oz fresh yeast (1 tsp instant yeast = 10 g fresh yeast)
200 g/ 7 oz butter
500 ml/2,1 cup milk
1 g/0,01 oz saffron powder
200 ml/0,85 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp salt
Approx. 1 500 ml/6,3 cups flour
1 egg
raisins

- Crumble the yeast in large bowl, add the sugar, cardamom and saffron and let the yeast ‘melt’. If you stir now and then, it melts quite quickly.
- Melt the butter in a pan, add the milk and warm it up to finger warm, strictly speaking it should be 37°C/98°F
- Pour the liquid on the yeast, stir well and add most of the flour and the salt. Work it really well before you put it away to rise for an hour.
- Put the dough on a table dusted with flour and work it until it is smooth.
- Divide the dough into balls slightly smaller than your fist and make ‘serpents’ that you form like the letter S, two S as a cross or make other traditional shapes that you can find if you google on the word "lussekatter". Some of the shapes can be seen in the photos.
- Put the buns on baking sheets with parchemnt paper on and leave rise for about 40 minutes.
- Whip the egg and brush the buns with it before you add the raisins in strategic places, see photo.
- Bake them in a pre-heated oven (225°C/440°F) for 10 minutes. Leave them to cool on a rack before eating.