Lucia Bread (Saffron Rolls)

If you know a little about Swedish culture around Christmas, then you probably have heard of St. Lucia Day.  These saffron rolls are baked and eaten for St. Lucia Day.  It is technically on December 13th, but I baked these for my brunch on the 14th.  They were pretty easy to make and turned out very nicely.  A word to the warning though is that they stale very quickly and should be eaten on the same day as they are made.    You can add more raisins to the dough if you like, but I just used them on top as the decoration.  (This recipe is based on a recipe in The Great Scandinavian BakingBook by Beatrice Ojakangas.)  The picture above also shows Danish Rye Butter Buns.

Lucia Bread (Swedish Saffron Rolls)
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (between 105-115 F)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup cream
1/4 teaspoon saffron strands ground in a mortar and pestle
2 eggs
48 raisins (or more if desired)
4 cups flour

Glaze for bread rolls:  (Beat together)
1 egg
milk


In a mixing bowl for a counter top mixer, dissolve the yeast in the warm water.  Add a little of the sugar (about a tablespoon to feed the yeast).  Let stand for about 5 minutes or until foamy.  Add the rest of the sugar, butter, cream, saffron, and eggs.  Beat well.  Stir in the flour, about 1 cup at a time until the dough is smooth and slightly shiny.  All the flour should be mixed in at this point.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (up to 24 hours).  When you remove the dough from the refrigerator, divide dough into 24 pieces to then form into a S shape (see pictures).  (There are other shape variations you can make as well.  You can also divide into three and make one large loaf.)  Place a raisin on each end.  Brush with the glaze for the bread rolls and place in a warm place until doubled.  Preheat oven to 375F and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until golden.

Monica's Norwegian Bread

Monica's Norwegian Bread
I was visiting a friend of mine in Norway this year, and while I was there she made this bread.  We ate it many mornings we were there with all sorts of good things on top.  Now, in our house, it is called Monica's bread.  Monica's bread brings back the light filled days and nights of a summer in Norway.

This is a simple yeast bread to make and if you haven't liked baking bread or have not yet tried it, this is a nice one to start with as there is no kneading involved.  This is a more plain flavored bread, which means that it is wonderful to eat with other things piled high on it.  I just ate a piece of it with some freshly made ricotta cheese.  (You can read about homemade cheese on this page: http://invitedtodinner.blogspot.com/2012/02/making-homemade-cheese.html). Other things which I have recently piled on bread have been heirloom tomatoes (which have much better flavor than traditional ones) with a dash of feta cheese.

At any rate, while this bread must sit a while to rise, no kneading is required.  This recipe also makes three loaves, which you can eat up, give away or freeze, though it is always better eaten fresh.

Also, please note when making bread in particular it is best to have a scale to weigh the ingredients as it is a more precise way of baking and your results will be more similar, particularly if you grind your own grains.

Monica's Norwegian Bread
1 kg white flour
1 kg whole wheat flour
4 cups oatmeal
1 Tablespoons seeds (in this loaf I used sesame and sunflower as that is what I had on hand)
1 Tablespoon salt
7 grams dried yeast
2 liters room temperature water

Mix all the ingredients.  Leave the dough to sit at room temperature for at least 2 hours, though overnight is great too.   Pour the dough into three bread tins.  (I used parchment to be sure the bread would not stick, but there wasn't a problem getting it out of the tins.)  Put the loaves of bread into a cold oven.  Turn on the oven to 210F for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes, turn the temperature up to 400F for 2 hours.

Makes 3 delicious loaves

Danish Rye Butter Buns

When I was young, my family lived on the same street as my grandparents.  I loved to go to my grandma's on Saturday morning when she was in the kitchen baking.  The kitchen always smelled so good!  I was able to sit at the kitchen table and play cards with my great-grandma while my grandma baked away.  When I got a little older, my grandma let me bake with her.  One the the things that I learned from my grandma was how to cut bread.  She let me make a small version of whatever she was making.  One day we were baking cinnamon rolls.  I remember her large pan ready for rising while she showed me how to cut my small roll into individual rolls.  She gave me a piece of string and watched me pull it through the bread for a gentle, but effective cut.

As I grew older, I tried to make bread several times and it never quite turned out for me, so I quit making bread from scratch.  It always bothered me because friends and family who know me, know I like to bake and cook everything I can from scratch.  I wasn't going to let yeast things scare me anymore and started this year with artesian bread which turn out wonderful, delicious and not difficult to make at all.  These rolls also come from Beatrice Ojakangas' book Scandinavian Feast.  The name is right on as there are 5 sticks of butter used in this recipe, but it will be difficult to actually stop eating these rolls.

Danish Rye Butter Buns

2 packages active dry yeast

½ cup warm water (about 110F)

1 cup warm milk (About 110F)

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 stick butter, melted

2 cups rye flour

4 cups white flour

3 sticks cold butter

1 stick butter, softened

In a medium bowl, dissolve the yeast in water.  Add the milk, sugar, and salt and let stand for about 5 minutes or until the yeast foams.  Beat in the eggs, melted butter and 1 cup of the rye flour.  Measure the remaining rye and white flour in a large bowl.  Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture.  Pour the yeast mixture over the flour mixture.  Carefully fold the two mixtures together until just moistened.  Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at minimum 4 hour and up to 2 days.

When ready to shape the dough, turn it out onto a lightly floured board.  Knead gently to get rid of any air bubbles.  Divide the dough into four parts.  Roll the dough out to make a 15 inch circle.  With a butter knife, spread the surface of the circle with 1 tablespoon of the soft butter.  Fold the circle into thirds and roll it out into a 24 inch square.  Fold into thirds again to make a square about 15-16 inches wide.  Spread the surface with another tablespoon of the softened butter.  Roll up the dough (Jelly-roll style).  Cut into 8 pieces and place seam side down onto a baking sheet to rise.  Repeat with remaining three pieces of dough.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 2 hours).  Preheat oven to 400F.  Brush the buns with a beaten egg and sprinkle with a coarse salt.  Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden and crusty.  Remove from oven and cool on racks.  Serve warm or cooled.

Makes 32 buns