Swedish Lussekatter (saffron buns)
Servings: 12 buns
Ingredients
Dough
- 50g (3½ tbsp) butter
- ½ gram (¼ tsp) ground saffron
- 200ml (⅘ cup) milk
- 7g (2 tsp) dried yeast (see note 3)
- 1 egg
- 80g (⅓ cup) sugar
- 300g-450g (2½ cups - 3¾ cups) spelt flour (see note 2)
- 1 small egg (for the egg wash)
- raisins
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a small pan.
- When melted, add the saffron, and allow the mixture to cook for a couple of minutes.
- Remove from the heat, and stir in the milk. Allow to sit for around 15 minutes.
- Add the cooled mixture and the egg to your stand mixer, and give it a quick mix.
- Add the remaining ingredients, and 300g of flour. Work the mixture, gradually adding more flour as necessary. Be careful with this step, as too much flour will result in dry bread. At this stage, the dough should still be a little tacky.
- Switch to a dough hook attachment (if you have one) and knead the dough for around 10 minutes. The dough should be shiny, and drop fairly easily from the hook.
- Cover with a tea-towel and allow the dough to proof for around and hour, or until doubled in size.
- When the dough is ready, line a large baking tray with baking paper.
- Pre-heat the oven to 200℃ / 400℉.
- Knock back the dough, and roll out into a long triangle of around 40cm x 32cm (15¾" x 12½").
- Cut into around 12-16 strips (the thinner the strip, the smaller/flatter the buns) - see note 1.
- Taking the end furthest away from you, roll up the strip. When you reach half way, turn the strip over, so that the rolled part is underneath.
- Roll up the end closest to you until it reaches the other half. Turn sideways, and place on the prepared tray.
- Repeat with the other strips.
- Cover again, and leave for a further 45 minutes.
- Beat the egg, and wash over the tops of the buns. Attach a raisin in each end (in the middle of the spirals).
- Bake for 8-14 minutes, depending on size (mine were small, so I baked them for 9 minutes). The buns are ready when they are starting to brown on top. Be careful not to overtake .
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool. The buns are best served warm. Please note: the buns do get dry quite quickly, so if you are eating the next day, give them a quick 20 seconds in the microwave before eating. Enjoy!
Notes
I have made the dough using a stand mixer, but you could prepare the dough without one; just follow exactly the same instructions.
- The ingredients made 16 small buns. You can make them bigger (taller) by making your strips a little thicker. The baking times may vary, depending on the size of your buns.
- You can use spelt or regular flour for this recipe (just use the same amount).
- In Sweden we have something called dried yeast. It is used both in warm liquid to proof and also added directly to flour. I am aware that the US has two options for dried yeast, and I believe dry active yeast is the most similar for the purpose of making this particular recipe.