Weekend Breakfast Blogging: St. Lucia Buns (Lussekatter)

Well...hell...

Okay, for breakfast blogging I made the theme to be "Ethnic Dishes with a Twist", the twist being that everyone should make a breakfast recipe from another culture, country, or ethnicity than their own.  Everybody else has been doing a great job with this event and I finally had time tonight to complete mine. I couldn't decide what to do at first.  One of my ideas was to make congee just because I see it on the menu of every big city hotel we stay in where there's a high percentage of Asian tourists.  Then I read a recipe and found that it's basically a rice porridge. That's fine. Actually, I love rice for breakfast with just a little butter and milk on it. I know that's not the same thing but somewhere along the line I lost my enthusiasm.

My other idea was to look up into my own family tree.  I'm Swedish/Norwegian on both sides but we have no Scandinavian hand-me down food traditions and that makes me a little sad.  I decided to make my own. Ever since elementary school when I first heard of St. Lucia Day, I've been been wanting to wear lit candles in my hair.  After all, I am the oldest girl of family.  But amazingly, Mom and Dad weren't real hip on that whole fire on my head in the wee hours of the morning while I'm baking bread thing.  I don't know why.

But I'm an adult now so I can wear lit candles in my hair if I want to. The problem is that now that I'm adult the idea has lost its appeal.  But not the thought of the St. Lucia buns.  I don't have a lot of practice with saffron but I do use and love cardamom, my favorite Scandinavian spice.  Put the two together and I call that Good Eats or Yumm-o or some other phrase that isn't already in the lexicon by people who might possibly sue me for using their trademark phrase.

St. Lucia (Sankta Lucia) Day marks the beginning of the Christmas season on December 13th. Sure, I'm a little early but let's call this a practice run. The tradition is for the eldest daughter in the family to serve saffron buns to her family while wearing a white dress with red sash and a crown of candles. It's a romantic tradition if not particularly approved of by Smokey the Bear.

My saffron buns didn't come out exactly as I would have liked them. They're a little overdone but they still tasted good.  Thankfully, Gene smelled them and pulled them out of the oven for me. You know that children's book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"?  Well that was my day yesterday.  I made the lussekatter tonight to try to distract myself from the fact that I'm having big trouble with my knees (now both) again in the form of some very wicked fluid retention on both and pain going with it. But, I was able to get into my primary care doc today so hopefully he'll be able to figure it out and fix it.

This is what the buns are supposed to look like:

Quite a bit lighter than mine and without the weird plumped up black raisins. I have NO idea what that was all about but the buns still tasted good once we knocked the demonic looking raisins off so what the hell.  We'll eat these up and next time, like December 13th, when I make them again, I'll be less distracted and pull them quicker from the oven.

The recipe follows.

St. Lucia Buns/Lussekatter

from the mini cookbook Splendid Swedish Recipes by Kerstin Olsson Van Gilder

2 pkgs active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)

2/3 cup lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp powdered saffon

5-5 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup raisins

1 Egg, slightly beaten

1 Tbsp water

2 Tbsp sugar

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in milk, sugar, butter, 2 eggs, cardamom, salt, saffron, and 3 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.  Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth.  Place in greased bowl, cover, and let rise until double.  Punch down dough; divide into 24 parts.  Shape each piece into an S-shaped rope; curve both ends into a coil.  Place a raisin  the center of each coil.  Place rolls on greased cookie sheet. Brush tops lightly with butter; let rise until doubled.  Mix 2 egg and 1 tbsp water, brush buns light. Sprinkle with 2 tbsp sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Makes 24 buns.

Comments

[Deborah]

I have never had these buns before, but they look and sound very tasty!! I was having one of those nights last night too, and my cooking reflected my bad night!!!

[Tanna]

Well, kiddo, I'd be very happy with those buns! I think yours are better looking than the other.
I hope the knee/fluid problem is resolved soon for you.

[Mansi]

They look great Glenna, much better baked than the other photo!! The other one looks fake:)

-Mansi

[candy]

these sound awesome! when i was searching for scandinavian dishes, i didn't see this one. but i will definitely have to try it soon!

i'm the oldest (and only, actually) girl too but i'm not sure about the candles on the head thing. i like my hair :)

[Raaga]

They look lovely :-)

I hope you got my entry :-)

[Glenna]

Deborah--I hate it when that happens, don't you? Just like I hate it when inanimate objects refuse to behave. Annoying!

Tanna--Thanks so much for both the compliment and the well wishes.

Mansi--Oh you're very sweet but it'sokay. I know mine are overbaked--I forgot them! LOL!

Candy--We'll have to remember to make them on December 13th. It would be fun if we both did it.

Raaga--Thank you so much and I'm sure I did...I'll go check and email you if I didn't.

[Salmiak]

Hi!

I hope you don't mind a new visitor to your blog. I am Swedish and I bake quite a lot of saffronbuns come december, and I wanted to let you know that here we usually bake them at high heat (225 degrees celcius) and only for 5-8 minutes maximum. I don't know if your ovens are a bit differently constructed or so.. but try cutting the time down with a few minutes atleast.. will help with the color. The poofed up raisins i have no idea about.. never seen that happening before lol. But I always pick them out of the bun before eating them anyway...

Also, I never use water in the egg-glace.. just a slightly whipped egg.. painted all over the bun.
You shape yours prettier than me though ;). I prefer making saffroncakes.. less work.

[Salmiak]

Oh.. I just read that you sprincle it with sugar? That's what is giving the overdark color. :) We don't do that.

... well i might next time.. sounds good ;)

[Glenna]

Salmiak--Thank you for all of the hints! I really appreciate the help. Loved the thing about not eating the raisins. Yep, I picked mine off too, especially since they baked so weird. Don't mind the advice at all. I really appreciate it. I'll try it your way next time.

[Susan from Food Blogga]

These sound great, Glenna. I'll be happy to take those demonic raisins off your hands. ;)Hope you're knees are better soon!

[Glenna]

Susan--Thanks for the well wishes and the offer. You can have the raisins off my buns anytime. Wait, that sounded sort of ...weird...:-)

[DaviMack]

They're beautiful! Hope they tasted as good!

[Glenna]

Thanks, David!

[June]

One of my all time favorite ethnic recipes is bohemian Christmas Bread. It's super easy just remember you need to use a bread machine for this recipe. It's just:
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 cups bread flour
1/2 tsp dried lemon peel
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup warm milk
1 1/2 oz warm water
3 tbsp chopped almonds
2 1/2 tbsp raisins
You just load all of the ingreadients into the bread machine after mixing them together, start it up according to the machine and at the end of the cycle add the almonds and rasins. For a twist in the recipe add 1 and a half teaspoons of cinnamon to the mix. Enjoy it for it is delicious!!

[person]

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