January 22, 2014

Buns for Santa Lucia's day

Hello,

There has been such a de-acvity with my food blog, that I need to be ashamed. However,  I have been able to clear my focus for the future blog posts, and I have decided to share bakings and dishes related to Finnish festivities during the calendar year. However, I will do them with my own twist, and try to find optional ways to make them.

The last time this kind of baking I have executed in my home kitchen are "Lusse bullar", meaning buns for Santa Lucia's day. The day of St. Lucia is spent on 13th of December. Here in Finland the minority of Swedish speaking Finnish are especially active in spending it. Santa Lucia has Catholic origins and is the saint of blinded and visualle impaired people.

Rather than baking traditional buns with cinnamon, raisins or butter, the Lucia buns include saffron and quark. The saffron gives an especially interesting and tasty twist not to forger about the beautiful colour and the quark gives them the softness.

The procedure for the baking is somewhat different than for the "traditional" Finnish bun baking procedure. The package of yeast (50 grams) is added to a warm liquid of butter (150 grams) and milk (5 decilitres) where the quark (250 grams) and the saffron (1,5 grams) have been added.




Then you can add sugar (2 deciletres), salt (half teaspoon) and one egg. Add around 15 deciletres of flour, and be careful not to add too much of it to avoid the buns to become too dry.

Let the batter to rise around 30 to 45 minutes and mould them to 32 pieces with the shape oblongs, but roll the buns from the ends of the oblong pieces are circled into opposite direction. Let the rolls rise for another 30 minutes. Spread the buns with eggs and add raisins into the centre of the circles in the ends.

Finally bake them in a 250 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Enjoy with a cup of coffee, tea, milk or mulled wine!

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