Mmm! The Smell of Home baked Saffron Buns
The smells of Christmas are the smells of childhood…
Richard Paul Evans
Around here saffron buns in December is a tradition. We make a yellow dough, we leave it to rise on it’s own, we cut it, roll it and make kittens out of it. Well, at least the buns are called cats in Swedish.
The buns can be baked into many traditional shapes, but we always do the simplest one which is a reversed S-shape…
The saffron buns are traditionally eaten during Advent (today is already the third of Advent!), and especially on Saint Lucy’s Day, December 13, but it’s okay to make them a day late too. Better than not making any. A December month without these buns with be a very sad story to me…
Saffron buns are one of my favorite December traditions. I love how they smell, taste and look – and oh how I wish I could share these with you guys. At least let you nibble a bit, so you could get a feel of how lovely they are.
Most commercially available saffron buns contain food dyes that enhance the natural yellow provided by saffron. The very high cost (it is the world’s most expensive spice by weight) makes the inclusion of sufficient saffron to produce a rich colour an uneconomical option. I never buy finished saffron buns, they taste nothing to me. So I wait for this day all year…
For now I’ve got my freezer stuffed, but it won’t stay like that for long I’m sure.
Mmm… The Smell of Home baked Saffron Buns. Tis’ the joy of this season! We also made cut gingerbread cookies with almonds, just like my grandmother used to make them (she is too old/ill to bake anymore now).
They are delicious!
Sorry I can’t share more than the photos, but still: You can download a printable Recipe Cards of our saffron buns on my blog, and a few years ago I also filmed while we made a batch for this yummy buns. Take a look here.
Ha! I just realized my last food post was very yellow too, but I do eat food in other colors, I promise.
How I would love to bake and eat these! I looked at the recipe and it sounds delicious! I would worry about the baking heat–480ºF for 7 minutes sounds awfully hot to me, but I haven’t baked “normal” food in a long time. The yellow color is so cheerful at this time of year!
These are the times you wish they would invent monitors with scent function. I’d move in real close and take a good sniff. Or…how about 3D printers that would just print out the stuff you baked in someone elses home! Oh yum, that would be even better! ;-)
your saffron buns look beautiful! One of my sisters was an exchange student in Solna for a year and brought back a recipe for these. She used to make them for St. Lucia’s Day and they were delicious!
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