Sweet saffron buns (Lussebullar or Lussekatter)

Lussebullar are traditional Scandinavian saffron wheat buns.

They are slightly sweet and usually served around the time of Lucia (13th of December) along with a warm glass of glogg and some gingerbread cookies. You can form these breads into different individual shapes or make larger breads. You use raisons to decorate the breads and you give them some shine with an egg wash. These saffron breads work excellent to freeze and are nice to keep on hand during the whole month of December.

Ingredients:

1 gram of saffron (a pinch)
½ teaspoon salt
14 tablespoons butter (200 grams)
2 cups milk
1.7 ounces yeast (50 grams)
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
30 ounces flour (875 grams)

Garnish:

Raisins
Beaten egg

Method:

Break the saffron together with the salt in a mortal and pestle. Melt the butter, add the milk and let it sit until lukewarm. Add the yeast to some of the butter-milk mixture, let bubble up.

Once the yeast mixture has developed, add the rest of the butter-milk mixture, the saffron, the sugar, the egg and the flour. Work everything together until you have a nice smooth dough. Let rest under a towel for 30 minutes. At that point, bring the dough out and kneed it well. Split the dough into 4 pieces and then split each piece into 8 or 12 pieces, depending on how large you want your buns. Form each piece into traditional lusse buns, put on a sheet pan, and garnish with raisins.

Let the pieces rest under a towel for 30 minutes. Brush with an egg wash and bake in a 450 degree F oven for about 6-7 min. Take out and let rest on a baking sheet.