The Co-Founder and Creative Director of Yolke, Ella Ringner, shares her recipe for a traditional Swedish pastry, perfect for sharing at Christmas
IMAGE: COURTESY OF YOLKE
These remind me of going to Sweden for Christmas as a child with my Father’s family. Each year I make them for neighbours and friends as a little pre-Christmas bundle of love. They also make a fabulous breakfast in bed, served with a delicious cup of coffee.
Swedish Lussekatt Saffron Buns
Servings: 16
Ingredients
- 175 ml milk
- 1 tsp saffron threads
- 50 g golden caster sugar
- 1 packet of dried yeast
- 490 g plain flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- The seeds of 6 cardamom pods, ground up (the more the merrier, in my opinion)
- 56 g room temperature butter
- 2 tbsp soured cream or yoghurt
- 2 large eggs
- Raisins
Instructions
- First heat the milk, saffron and 1 tsp sugar in a pan on a low heat until the milk is steamy. Remove from the heat and wait for it to cool to 115ºF (I use my roasting thermometer), too hot and it will kill the yeast. Once at the right temperature, sprinkle the yeast over the warm saffron milk and let it sit for 10 minutes until it looks foamy like a soft yellow cloud.
- In a mixer place the flour, the rest of the sugar, salt and ground cardamon and mix together well. Then create a well in the centre. Pour in the yeast and saffron mixture, 2 eggs, room temperature butter and the soured cream and mix until all the ingredients are blended together and forming a sticky dough.
- At this point you might need to change the hook on your electric blender to a dough hook or take out and knead on a floured surface.
- The dough should knead into a soft texture – use flour if needed to avoid it getting sticky. Knead into a ball and place in a bowl with a tea towel over it, put in a warm place and leave to double in size (about 2 hours).
- Once it has doubled, knead it back a little and then divide into 60g chunks. Roll each ball out to be a long worm about 35cm long and roll each end in opposite directions forming an ’S’. Place these on a lined baking sheet and leave to rise again for 30 minutes covered so they don't dry out.
- I glaze mine with milk, pop a raison in the centre of each spiral and pop in the oven at 200c to bake for about 10 minutes or until they are a golden yellow.
- Serve with delicious coffee!
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