Lucia is coming soon and I want to wish you a nice Lucia.
This can be a really stressful day, sometimes there are many Lucia gowns to iron and many celebrations to rush to, so I thought I would share a favorite recipe that gives really juicy saffron buns that you can freeze without them becoming dry and boring.
They are really not health buns but it's only Lucia once a year and if you don't eat all 25 buns yourself, it usually goes well ;)
This recipe contains quark/kesella a little extra butter, sugar and almond paste and that is what makes the buns a little extra juicy and tasty.
Ingredients
Makes about 25 buns
150 g butter
1g saffron
2 dl sugar
5 dl milk
250 g quark
A pinch of salt
1 egg
about 16 dl wheat flour, enough for baking too.
Butter, granulated sugar and almond paste as fillingEgg for brushing and pearl sugar for garnish.
Melt the butter, add the milk and heat to 37*C.
Crumble the yeast into a bowl and pour over the liquid. Add sugar, salt, quark (or kesella) egg and finally the flour.
I use a stand mixer and work the dough for quite a while.
Let rise under a cloth for about 30 minutes.
Since I'm not very good at making neat "kuse" shapes, I bake them like regular buns. I roll out the dough, spread with room temperature butter, a little granulated sugar and grate over almond paste.
Then I fold the dough in half and cut strips that I twist into regular buns.
Let the buns rise again for about 30 minutes, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar.
Bake until the buns have color and 8-10 minutes cca at 200-225*C (varies a bit depending on the oven)
With this I wish you a nice Lucia!
These buns are excellent to make a little before Lucia and freeze. Then just take them out of the freezer and microwave briefly and they are like freshly baked again.