On any given day, you may hear as many as six different languages spoken in my home.
My life and household has been diverse and multicultural for as long as I can remember. As the daughter of parents who emigrated from Sweden, I have been immersed in Nordic culture since childhood. So as you can imagine, Celebrating Swedish Christmas Traditions and Foods, and also recognizing Santa Lucia has been a huge part of my holiday traditions since childhood.
AND…FOOD is a big part of that celebration as well so I thought I would share our tried and true family recipe for saffron buns. If you get the wrong recipe the buns turn out to be like stones. The recipe in the book is similar to ours but we do some prep work that guarantees the success of our buns. It seems I’m a little biased about Lucia buns. I want everyone to have a postive and beautiful experience.
Saffron Buns or Lussekattor pronounced “Lucy cat-tor”
Lucia Saffron Buns
Ingredients:
·1 package of dry yeast
·¼ cup of warm water
·¾ cup of milk
·1 ½ cup stick of butter
·1 tsp of saffron threads
·½ cup sugar
·¼ tsp of salt
·1 cup of raisins
·2 eggs
·31/2 to 4 cups of flour
·1 beaten egg
Directions
1. In a bowl place one cup of raisins in warm water covering the raisins. This is called “plumping”.
2. In a large mixing bowl dissolve the yeast in warm water.
3. While the yeast is proofing, in a pot scald the milk and then add the butter into the milk and heat gently until it has melted. Once melted, take off the burner and let it cool until it is luke warm.
4. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Lay the saffron threads on a pieces of parchment paper and place on a cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet in the oven for about 5 minutes. Once the saffron is toasted, take it out of the oven, fold the parchment paper over and roll over the saffron with a rolling pin until the saffron is in a powder form. Add the saffron to the milk and butter mixture.
5. Add the milk,butter,saffron mixture as well as the sugar, salt, eggs and drained raisins to the yeast mixture. In your kitchen aid or other mix master, beat until blended. It should be smooth and satiny.
6. Mix in half of the flour. Once it is blended add the remaining flour gradually until each addition is blended well. After all of the flour has been mixed in, let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
7. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board. Knead for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and satiny.
8. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl , cover with a dish-towel and let raise for until doubled. This will take about 1 hour.
9. Place parchment paper on two large cookie sheets.
10. After the dough has risen, punch it down and divide it into 32 equal pieces.
11. Cover all pieces with a dish-towel .
12. Taking a piece of dough, roll it into an 8 inch rope. Shape it into a bun, S shape, snail or pretzel.
13. To make even fancier shapes take two 8 inch ropes and make crosses, butterflies, or twisted ropes.
14. As you finish each shape place it on the cookie sheet. Once a sheet in completely full, cover with a dish-towel to let it rise for 35 minutes.
15. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
16. Beat and egg in a bowl. Using a pastry brush paint the egg wash over the buns completely.
17. Sprinkle with pearl sugar (optional)
18. Place in oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
19. Buns are done when they are golden brown.
20. This recipe makes about 20 buns.
Don’t those look yummy?
If you would like more information about the Santa Lucia holiday traditions, Santa Lucia inspired crafts and even more Swedish treat idea, grab my FREE pdf download HERE. Even though the official Santa Lucia holiday is passed (December 13th) there’s no better time than the present to share these ideas, traditions and treats with your family. Consider it my gift to you this holiday season. Thank you and ENJOY.
The post Celebrating Swedish Christmas Traditions and Foods appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
It’s time for Weekend Links!
On any given day, you may hear as many as six different languages spoken in my home.
My life and household has been diverse and multicultural for as long as I can remember. As the daughter of parents who emigrated from Sweden, I have been immersed in Nordic culture since childhood. As a child I attended German/English schools and as an adult I continued learning even more languages for a grand total of six (English, Swedish, French, Arabic, German, Japanese, plus working knowledge in a few others.) So you can imagine, a Swedish Christmas has always been a part of my life from childhood to adulthood.
So as usual, my week has been filled with the discovery of wonderful booklists, activities and ideas from amazing blogger, authors and moms. Here are some of my favs:
Want to load up on your Holiday reading list? Check out this great Holiday booklist from Library Adventure
CHRISTMAS BOOKS ROUNDUP-PART ONE from Good Reads with Ronna
G is for Gingerbread Man -Sue from Sock Fairies has an absolutely delightful book review, craft and gingerbread baking activity project for kids! Love this!
Do We Do all Day has a Swedish Christmas and Holiday Picture Book list that is near and dear to my heart!
I had to smile and giggle when my Head Elf (assistant and project manager) told me she had never even heard of a Tomte until she met me! Is there really is such a thing as a Winter Tomte? Yes! This time of year especially we have many eager children waiting for the Jul Tomte to come on Christmas Eve bring sack full of presents, chocolate and good fun.
The Tomte in Sweden and Nisse in Norway and Denmark is a Scandinavian myth. Tomtes are small, bearded men who wear red colored caps and are rarely, if ever seen by humans. Since we are talking about Winter Tomte I have to also share that you’ll only see the menfolk as the women and children are home making merry and getting ready for the great celebrations ahead.
Sharing this family tradition, along with a robust booklist, made my An Exceptionally Magical Winter Tomte Booklist! even more special.
Speaking of Swedish Christmas, it’s something near-and-dear to my heart because my parents were from Sweden. Every December 13th, we continue a long family tradition of celebrating St. Lucia. In the darkest hours of the morning a young girl with a wreath of candles on her head brings hope, warmth and light to the darkest, coldest time of the year. I have taken all of our favorite recipes, activities and books that celebrate this event, along with the history of Santa Lucia as well, and created a very special color pdf for the holiday season.
The Celebrating a Santa Lucia Christmas pdf guide is my gift to you and simply click the image below to enjoy these fun family-friendly activities. Click this link or click the image below to grab your copy and create some new traditions in your own family! Thank you!
JIAB Recap Of the Week!
It always delights me that, despite the fact this post was written quite some time ago, it’s still one of my most viewed post. Have you seen/read this one? What do think it is that makes this post so popular?
Grandfather Tang’s Story: Storytelling with Tangrams
Don’t Forget
We still could use a Few Good Bloggers! Review bloggers, that is 
As the Co-founder of Multicultural Children’s Book Day is can’t even begin to tell you how thrilled I am at how this event continues to GROW. If you are unfamiliar with this very special online event that is coming January, 27, 2016, go here for the full scoop. In the meantime, we could really use a few more book reviewers.
It’s not too late to sign up as a review blogger for Multicultural Children’s Book Day! We have a plethora of simply amazing diversity children’s authors who are offering up a free books to bloggers who would like to do a review in honor of this January 27, 2016 online event!
The deadline to sign up is December 31st and we still have a few spots left. This is great way for bloggers to get involved in an important national initiative and gain new visitors to their site! All participating bloggers will be invited to add their book review to a Huge Linky on 1/27/16 that will ultimately become a valued resource for parents, teachers and librarians. Sign up ASAP!
The post Weekend Links- Swedish Christmas Booklists and More! appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
