December sun – Lussekatter or Swedish Saffron Buns
Updated: If you are interested I have just posted a few photos from the Christmas food catalogue that I have talked about here on my photography blog.
LUSSEKATTER OR SWEDISH SAFFRON BUNS
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
around 1 500 ml/6,3 cups flour, 2/3 normal flour and 1/3 light wholewheat flour
1 egg
dried cranberries (or 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. I know this is supposed to be bad for the yeast but I never had a problem so you choose if you prefer to mix the yeast with a little warm milk instead before you add it all.
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. Now if you choose use wholewheat flour, you might have to add a little more but be careful not to add too much as it makes a stodgy Lussekatt and that is not nice.
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 or into other shapes.
Put the buns on baking sheets with parchment paper on and leave rise for about 40 minutes.
Whisk the egg and brush the buns with it before you add the cranberries in strategic places, see photo.
Bake in a pre-heated oven (225°C/440°F) for 10 minutes. Leave them to cool on a rack before you start eating them, as we all know, eating hot buns can give you stomach pains and who wants that?
Mmmm these are perfect! Yum! And you know that I will be making these…
Dried crenberries, interesting!
This year our “lussekatter” got al little too less sweet. J made the dough from a recepie and he didn´t notice my handwritten comment, that 1 or 1,5 dl sugar should be 2 or 2,5…
Anyway I love the way J has adopted the KitchenAid. He bakes and makes frechly minced meat all the time. And I thougt it was prejudiced to think that men only cook when they can use electrical equipment…
They look dreamlike! A marvelous speciality. I love Scandinavian baked goods.
Cheers,
Rosa
Happy Santa Lucia! I can almost smell these
…
Mmm, looks tasty!
But we (in Sweden) make them usually either with saffron or with cardamon, not together. And a very nice addition to the dough can be quark cheese or ricotta – they become softer and can hold longer
Thanks for posting this 21st century version on the right day! I always forget about these buns until like a week later, but this year – I actually sent myself a reminder email of your previous post on the 13th!
I am a terrible yeast bread baker – too dry or not enough rise – but this fall I’ve decided to experiment with yeast once again, and your lovely looking creations is one reason why.
Keep those postings coming! It’s lovely having our old friend Ilva “back in the saddle again”- if only fleetingly!!
p.s. Would you be kind enough to repost the original version as well? http://www.luculliandelights.com/2008/12/swedish-lussekatter.html
ah I love Lussekatter and shame on me but every year I miss the 13th to make them… love your photos!