Luciaboller - Swedish saffron buns
Luciaboller are Swedish saffron buns that are baked across Scandinavia during the Christmas period and specifically for St.Lucia day on the 13th of December.
While living in Denmark, I have been learning about various Christmas traditions and the food that is prepared during this special season. This is how I got to know about Luciaboller. These saffron buns caught my attention, as saffron is not a common ingredient for Nordic cuisine but a taste very familiar to me. In Azerbaijan saffron is produced and commonly used in cooking and baking. The taste of saffron evokes many memories and that is the reason I wanted to share it with you. The original recipe that I have translated from Danish is from Marinas Mad blog.
Ingredients
Makes 16-18 buns
For topping
1 egg
raisins
Base
0.5 grams of saffron threads
2.5 dl milk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
25 grams fresh yeast
600 grams wheat flour
100 grams soft butter
75 grams sugar
Method
Soak raisins that you will be used for decorations in a glass of water. This will prevent them from burning in the oven.
Crush saffron threads with 2 tablespoons of sugar in a mortar and pestle until they turn to a powder.
To prepare the dough - melt 25 grams of butter in a saucepan and add a bit of the milk and saffron sugar powder. Heat the milk to just before the boiling point and take it off the heat. Let it cool off for 5-8 minutes. Add the rest of the milk and heat until lukewarm.
Pour the mixture into a bowl and add the yeast. Make sure to stir the yeast to help it dissolve. Let the mixture cool off a bit.
Agg eggs and salt and stir it all together.
Add the sugar and stir again.
Add most of the flour (leave some for kneading) but wait with stirring the mixture.
Grate the cold butter into the mixture (alternatively use softened butter cubes and add them to the mix). Now using your fingers massage the butter with the flour & sugar.
Now mix the dough together and knead the dough until it becomes glossy and reaches a consistent texture.
Leave the dough to rise for an hour until it doubles in size. Cover the bowl with a lid or cling film to ensure that the dough keeps the moisture.
Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
Once the dough is ready divide it into balls (approximately 60-70 grams each). To form Luciaboller you can use various shapes but the most popular ones are S-shaped. To create this form roll each ball into a sausage and roll each end of the “sausage” into an s shape. (You can check my Instagram post on javahir_travel for a visual explanation.)
Once you have formed the shapes, place them on the baking tray (lined with parchment paper). Cover them with a damp tea towel and leave them to rise for 30 minutes.
Once your Lucia buns are ready, drain your raisins and add them onto the buns pressing firmly.
Whisk an egg and brush your Lucia buns to give them a golden gloss.
Place them in the oven for 12-15 minutes but keep an eye on them as they might be ready before the 12-15 minutes have passed depending on the oven and the sizes of your buns.
Place ready Luciaboller on a baking grid and let them cool off.
