In which I share a delicious saffron bun recipe, just in time to celebrate Saint Lucia’s Day on the 13th.

Carlos’ Countdown ’Til Christmas (13)

398 words about life — 13:50 · 11th Dec 2013

13 days until Christmas. The countdown continues.

In two days we’re going to celebrate Saint Lucia’s Day. For those of you who have no idea what that is, don’t worry, I’ll explain in all in due—in two days—time. In the meantime you need to get your ass to the store to pick up some supplies, you’re going to be baking buns soon enough and you’ll need some saffron.

Also, read the recipe properly, I’ve made some important notices where necessary.

Saffron buns

Makes 24 buns.

(1)
125 g butter
300 ml milk
1 g saffron
50 g baker's yeast

(2)
150 g sugar
700 g all-purpose flour

(3)
raisins

(4)
salt
1 egg

Directions

(1) Melt butter or margarine But don’t use margarine, it sucks in a pan and add the milk and the saffron.

Warm the mixture to 37 °C using a thermometer, getting the correct temperature is important for a good rise. Also, you don’t want to kill the yeast, you murderer.

Pour the mixture over the finely but really, who are we kidding divided yeast; then add the remaining ingredients (2).

Mix into a smooth dough.

Cover the dough with a piece of cloth and let it rise for 30 minutes.

Knead Knead like your life depends on it the dough, divide it into 25-30 pieces and form each piece into a round bun.

Let the buns rest for a few minutes, covered by a piece of cloth.

Form each bun into a string, 15-20 cm long, then arrange the string to a suitable shape, making sure the ends of the strings meet. The “S” shapes is a classic, for a reason. Don’t try to mix it up with some other “lesser” letter.

(3) Press a few raisins I honestly hate raisins but in these I’ll let that slide into the dough.

Cover the buns with a piece of cloth and let them rise for 40 minutes.

(4) Whip the egg together with a few grains of salt, and paint the buns with the mixture.

Bake them for 5-10 minutes in the oven at 250 °C until golden brownish yellow.

Take out, let cool and shove them into your talking hole. Enjoy.

Golden saffron buns in a bowl.
These go into your talking hole.

You’ve just read Carlos’ Countdown ’Til Christmas (13).

In which, 10 years ago, I wrote 398 words about life and I covered topics, such as: christmas , recipes , and baking .