Lussekatter

So, I’m a little late to the party on these buns. These are traditional Swedish buns flavoured with saffron, and they are served on St Lucia’s day – December 13^th.

The name translates as Lucia’s cats – which doesn’t really seem to make a lot of sense. I read somewhere that they are meant to represent a cat’s face with the two raisins as eyes, but another source said that they represent curled cat’s tails.

Who knows. Anyway, they’re tasty and sweet and a little out of the ordinary Christmas fare for the UK, so I think they’d make a welcome addition to any table.

makes 2 dozen

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp saffron threads
• 30ml milk
• Handful raisins
• 375ml milk
• 1 sachet dried yeast
• 200g caster sugar
• 85g butter, melted and cooled
• 1 egg
• Pinch salt
• 750g flour (might need a little more)

Egg wash

1 egg
30ml water

Method

To prepare ahead, grind the saffron in a pestle and mortar and add in the 30ml milk. Stir and set aside for a few hours. Place the raisins in a bowl of water and let plump up.

When you’re ready to start, heat up the 375ml milk gently to 25C.

Add in some of the sugar and sprinkle the yeast over the top. Let stand for 10 minutes.

Add the rest of the sugar, cooled butter, egg and saffron milk, salt and stir.

Add in the flour, about 150g at a time. You want a smooth kneadable consistency.

Knead on a floured surface for 5 minutes, adding more flour as needed.

Place in a clean bowl, cover in clingfilm and let rise in a warm place for 60-90 minutes.

Remove the raisins and dry off on kitchen roll.

When the dough is risen, turn out and knead a few times, divide into 4, then divide those pieces into 6 (24 bits total).

Roll each bit out to about 15cm long.

Then go back to the start, and roll them out to about 30cm long.

For the buns, roll the ends in opposite directions to form a rolled up “S” shape.

Place on a lined baking tray and plop the raisin in the middle of each spiral.

Fill a baking tray with buns then coat each with egg wash and set aside, covered in a clean tea towel , to rise for 20 minutes.

Continue to fill the rest of the baking trays with buns, spaced well apart.

Near the end of this last rising time, preheat the oven to 220C.

Bake the buns for 10 minutes until golden on top.

Let cool on a wire rack then dig in!