This is the best Youtube recipe and video for Swedish lussekatter, Swedish saffron buns for St Lucia. I like them all year round, and for special holiday or weekend treats.
The Norwegian lussekatter is good too, and when I find a recipe I like as good as this one, I will add it,). For Norwegian St Lucia and Jul, I make the above recipe, using rømme. If I´ve run out of rømme (Norwegian sour cream), I use thick, plain Greek yogurt or similar, such as clotted cream.
There is no point to making this without the saffron. Saffron has a very distinctive taste, and no you can not substitute something yellow for the same color, as the taste will not be the same. However, if you do not want to pay for saffron, as yes it is expensive!, this recipe also makes fantastic yeast rolls. Through out the year, if I am not making this with saffron, I make this same recipe without the saffron when I want just yeast rolls. You can make one large yeast bread, or small round ones. I don´t shape them into the Lucia buns unless it is for St Lucia. Some other holiday shapes, are bunnies for Easter. Then use raisins for eyes, and cut ears using scissors. Hot cross buns, with a sugar glaze and raisins. Or braided breads for Sunday meals. Cinnamon instead of the saffron for Sunday meals.
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St Lucia buns/ saffron buns/ Lussekatter recipe:
(See the link above for a fantastic video, easy recipe and instructions, and great holiday music). I do the mixing in reverse, so my saffron milk mixture can steep as long as possible to give more saffron flavour. But following the YT video works great too. (My written out version, reversed to video, just makes the saffron milk mixture first).
List of ingredients
1 packet of dry yeast (or one piece of fresh yeast)
200 ml plain white sugar
dash salt
1500-1700 ml plain plain, or flour number 0
150 g butter, salted
500ml whole milk (keffir, buttermilk, or soured milk works great.)
2 sachets of saffron, about a gram total. (for other holiday or Sunday bread, leave out or use other spice instead, such as cinnamon or cardamom)
250g rømme/sour cream (or Greek yogurt)
2 whole eggs, for eggwashing the final risen dough shapes
raisins, for decorations (only 2 raisins per Lucia bun. For other versions, you can add the raisins to the dough when first mixing it)
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1)Make the saffron milk.
On top of the stove, in a pan, heat together in this order:
150 g butter, melt, then add
500ml whole milk
2 packets of saffron (about a gram, of either powdered or threads)
Stir saffron into the butter, milk.
Add 250g rømme/sour cream (or thick plain Greek yogurt, or clotted cream if you don´t have sour cream)
Keep warming and stirring frequently til the sour cream or similar has dissolved into the saffron milk. Do NOT boil! Keep warming on the stove, while you make the dry part of the recipe.
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2) Make the dry flour yeast mix.
Into one large bowl mix in this order:
1 package dry yeast*if you use fresh yeast, just crumble it up in a tiny separate bowl, adding a little of the warm milk to proof the yeast, then add this to everything once bubbly
200 ml white sugar (do not use super fine sugar, as it makes it too sweet)
dash salt (about 1-2 tsp)
500ml plain flour, or flour type 0 (have extra 1000 ml flour or so for adding later, and for rolling out)
Mix dry together.
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3). Adding the warm (not hot!) saffron milk mixture to the dry flour yeast mixture.
When the flour mix is done, and the saffron milk has steeped, make sure the saffron milk is only warm (not hot or it will kill the yeast), then you can add it to the dry flour yeast mixture in your bowl.
Stir with a long wooden spoon, then start slowly adding the 1000ml flour a few cups at a time, til you get the right consistency. (see video). The flour will at this point be the right consistency when it is sticky but not wet, and not dry or tough. Sometimes I must add a bit more than 1000ml. When mixed, slightly sprinkle over the top with flour, then cover with a thin tea towel, set aside in a warm kitchen, to rise for about an hour til the dough about doubles in size.
(After about an hour)
Sprinkle countertop lightly with flour. Push out dough onto the counter, to knead well for about 4-6 minutes by hand, adding slightly as little flour as necessary.
Divide this into half, then half again. This leaves you with four smaller pieces (but still large pieces). Divide each of these 4 pieces into 5 equal pieces, and divide these 5 into 2 equal halves (so that by now you have 40 smaller equal pieces)*.
* This is a great math lesson for kids! Or, to explain further, dough is X
X
x x
xx xx
(this gives the four smaller, but still fairly large pieces) further divide each x into 10 equal pieces
x x x x
each x will be divided into 10 smaller equal pieces, so that now you have 40 equal small pieces.
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Roll each of the 40 smaller pieces into snakes.
Lay out snake.
Roll each end towards the middle, but on opposite sides/opposite directions (see video). They kinda look like fat snowmen, but with only 2 snowballs,).
Lay the "snowmen" onto your baking tray, let rise til double about half an hour. Turn the oven on to preheat to 250C. (Well my oven takes a while as it´s old,))
Once risen, brush beaten egg over the "snowmen", then add a raisin to each end, in the middle of the swirl.
Place tray in oven on middle rack, in a hot preheated oven. Bake for about 8-12 minutes, til they are lightly browned, not burnt. (If you make larger sizes, or smaller, that is ok, but make them all the same size, or they will cook unevenly, with some burnt, and others not cooked through. Smaller ones cook quicker, larger ones cook longer).
Finished look,is lightly browned top.
Serve with hot drinks such as hot cocoa; hot gløgg made with hot apple juice; or hot blueberry juice. I like the video, as it shows it perfectly:
Lucia buns, clove-studded oranges or mandarines, red and white candy canes, tiny flower shaped crisp gingerbread cookies, and a hot drink.
That is how we serve them (changing up the drink to whatever we have).
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SHAPES of lussekatter buns. Kids think it´s fun to try new shapes, and some are easier than others, and quicker. If you make them from the same size snakes, they´ll bake evenly even in different shapes. Just use the same amount of dough for each. If not, then bake only one shape to a tray.
-traditional S shape, rolling dough into snakes, then rolling each end into a swirl in opposite directions. One raisin on either end.
-put two S shapes back to back, so they bake together. The easiest way to do this though is to roll each S instead into a C with the swirls both on one side. Then put them back to back. One raisin on each end swirl.
(photo when time)
-Put two S shapes together, overlapping to form a bit of an S cross shape. Another easier way, similar, is to first cross the snakes, then at the point where they meet, roll each swirl either all in the same direction, or alternate direction of swirl. Either way they bake together forming a bit of a swirly cross shape. Before baking, put one raisin in each end swirl.
-half the snake, then push together and out, so there is a loop near the bottom, and swirls at the top, for a bit of a U with swirls at the top, press the bottom swirl slightly together so it bakes together. Before baking add a raisin to either end.
-half the snake, then twist, put one raisin on either end.
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