LUSSEKATTER, SAFFRON BUNS

Do you celebrate the Santa Lucia Day?

In the Scandinavian countries, the tradition originally comes from Sweden, but in the 20th century was also celebrated in the rest of Scandinavia. It`s  the  winter solstice, when the days gets longer and the nights shorter, the northern part of he world needs a light in the dark. The Lucia figure dressed in white, with candles or electric light in a wreath on the head, goes  first in the procesion of girls and boys,also dressed in white with candles in their hands. Normaly organized in the schools now, time ago in each house, the oldest daughter was St. Lucia.

And since the night was  long, dark and cold, everybody was very hungry and the breakfast was Lusse ekatter, Saffron Buns.The house full of candles, Scandinavia is the part of the world where more candles are burned in the winter time, but much used the whole year.

The Lucia Song.

 Some recipes  have sustitued the saffron  for tumeric, wile during the war,  the money was short, and as you know, the saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. But the saffron is worth the cost, all the other ingredients are low cost, and if you don't make them too big, of this recipe you become 55 or more Lussekater.
 They  freeze well, so keep the ones you are going to use  in a day or two, and freeze the rest,, To defrost put in the oven on air at 150 degrees for some min., careful not to toast too much.

Shopping list

500 ml. de leche.             ( milk)

150 gr. de mantequilla.     ( butter)

50 gr levadura de pan.      ( yest)

5 gr de azafran.                 ( saffron)

1 cucharilla de sal.            ( salt)

200 gr quark.                    ( quark)

200 ml. de azucar.             ( sugar)

1 huevo.                            ( egg)

1 kg harina de trigo.           ( wheat flour)

For decoration:

2oo ml de pasas de corinto.   ( corinto raisins)

1 huevo.                                  (egg)

Start with the saffron grinding it in a mortar, when it's powdery, add a spoon of sugar and continue grinding until you get hold of all the saffron. Heat the milk and the butter to "fingertemperature"  38 degrees, and whisk inn the yeast, if you can't find fresh yeast, use dry, normally each envelope contains 25 gr, so you will need two.

Whisk in the egg, the sugar, salt and the quark, I couldn't find the quark, so I used cream cheese instead, and it turned out beautifully, and in the end the flour  little by little, save some flour to roll out the dough later.

You can use an electric mixer or do it by hand, this time I did it by hand, and it was fine.

Put a tea towel over the bowl, and let rise for 30 min in a warm place, I use to have some warm water in the sink, and put the bowl  in the water,  the dough must doule it's own size, put a litttle flour on the worktop, and knead the doug for a while, then make a sausage  and cut in two, as shown on the picture, then divide every half in 4 portions, that makes 8 portions, every portion makes 6 or 7 Lussekatter, the shapes are as you see on the photos.

Place on he baking  platter covered with baking paper or silicone sheets, and set the owen on  40 degrees, let the  Lussekatter raise again for 10 min. inside the oven.

Take the oven platters out and preheat  the oven to 210 degrees,  on air, then cover the baking plates with a teatowel  each, and whisk the egg, paint the Lussekatter and put the sultana raisins in the loops.

First with one platter,  and program 8-9 min , then paint and put raisins on the second, and in the end on the third. They should be light golden, and so fluffy.Take off the baking plate and let chill on a rack.

For breakfast they don't need any accompaniment more than a coffe or a tea, but we started a little ahead and had some for tonight's dinner with a little cambozola (cheese mix of camenbert and gorgonzola) and a little raspberry jam, mummmmm.

The house smells of saffron.

We`ll have a try on theese
 for dinner tonight.

 And for breakfast tomorrow.....................

 The Lusecatter is a X-mas ckake , but I use the recipe the whole year, only I give them a round shape, and the half of the dough I mix inn the raisins, love it, but some of my family likes it better without, so the other half goes plain.

Sorry I`m a little late with the recipe, if you have the time during the week end, try it, guess you`ll love it as much as I do.

Night, night.

ADVENT

Advent is the beginning of the church year, and means expectant waiting, and preparation for the nativity of Jesus at christmas. The word is an angliczised version of the Latin, Adventus, meaning coming.

The advent wreath, traditionaly a Lutheran practice, now spread to other christian denominations, always round, the infinity, God's love don't have a beginning nor a finish. The evergreens and the lighted  candles signified the persistence of life in the midst of the winter, long before the arrival of chistianity. In modern times we use  to lit the candles the first sunday of advent 4 sundays before christmas eve, and usually lit them during the meal every day of the week.

In my home in Norway we always used to have one, and in the dark mornings having breakfast before school, we used to lit one candle, and I brought this tradition with me to Spain, and of this year of course I made a wreat, with a new design, using apples, wine corcs I have saved the whole autumn, pine branches, candles and a glass bowl.

The second option is using any candleholder, equal or different shapes,I used 2 star and 2 heart shaped ones,  4 metal christmas baskets with pine branches, acorns, and four candles.

We use the 4 candles for a while every day, and it really light up this dark time of the year.

Tomorrow we have the winters first brunch, and the table is prepared, the best option for winter mornings.   I have prepared some cupcakes, in the morning some croisants filled with ham and cheese will come hot out of the oven, a little salmond and scrambled eggs with Wasa bread, and my own flatbread, some good cafe latte or a spiced christmas tea, and maybe a small glass of the years Christmas Aquavit.

Manolito can't wait for tomorrow.

This option is good if you want to light one candle at the kitchen table during the week-

My new tablecloth, I got the fabric on Almuñeca's friday marked.

How is your advent, i would really like to know, send  a comment. Have a nice 1st Advent Sunday, only four weeks and chistmas is here.
Night, night!!!!!