How to succeed with saffron buns!Contributor: Ylva Lindgren

Lussekatt, saffron bun, saffron bun or julkuse - dear child has many names and many forms. My favorite is the round saffron buns as you brush with melted butter and dip in sugar.

Saffransbak really belong to Christmas. Plan your lussebak well in advance and your buns will be extra juicy and tasty! Here are some tips on how to go about.
Real butter and fresh flour. First and foremost, bet on good ingredients. In many recipes are included fromage frais or quark. Skip. Instead, use real butter, fat milk and fresh flour. I use bread flour in my lussebullar. It requires a few extra minutes in the machine. Core Wheat flour is also possible, the most important is the quality of the flour, avoid buying the cheapest kind. Use the blue yeast and not the red which is said to be for sweet doughs. The red yeast makes dough rise too quickly.
Plenty of butter. Be generous with the butter, 150 g is the time for the dough on 3 cups milk.
Raisins soaked. Raisins burned easily in the oven and have the ability to suck up liquid and dry out the buns. Therefore put the raisins soaked in good time before baking. 2 tbsp water, mulled wine or cognac 4 tablespoons raisins.
Saffron concentrate. Use the time to soak whole saffron, it enhances the flavor. Whole saffron is available in well-stocked supermarkets or in pharmacies. This requires that you are out in good time. Blanda 1 g whole saffron 2 tablespoons spirits and 1 tablespoons sugar in a small jar. Let stand in a dark place until you use it in your saffransdeg, at least one day, preferably one week or longer.
Use cold dough liquid. The milk does not need to be heated. Use cold dough liquid and let ferment instead take a bit longer, when the flavors have time to develop better and buns will be tastier. The butter will not melt, but be room warm. So while the eggs.
Make a predough. Be in good time and make a predough milk, saffron, yeast and half of the flour. Drive a few minutes the machine into a dough and let stand in refrigerator covered with plastic overnight or up to one day. Followed by the rest of the ingredients and mix to a smooth dough.

Let the dough rest 30 minutes before you bake it to buns. Saffron buns will be extra juicy and probably you will never want to bake without predough.
Weigh flour. Use a kitchen scale and weigh the flour for best results. Flour is particularly difficult to measure with the measuring cup. Be wary of adding more flour than what is in the recipe.
Gluten Test. Edit dough properly. A common mistake is to run the dough for a short time in the machine. Count on 10 minutes, or 15 minutes hand. The dough should feel elastic, smooth and shiny when it's ready. Saffransdeg to be weaker and more sticky than regular wheat dough. Saffron dries namely the dough.

Make a gluten test to see if the dough is ready: take a small piece of dough and shape into a ball in your hands. Press the dough with lightly floured fingers to a thin, thin plate. You should be able to stretch out the dough between their hands without breaking down. In the old baker's language says that "to be able to read the newspaper through the dough”.
Bake the buns. Sprinkle any bare hands with some flour when you bake the buns, Avoid floured surface. Divide the dough into pieces, preferably with the help of a spatula or knife, into even sized pieces. Do you use scales 60-70 g / bun right. Shape into round balls, låt vila under plast ca 10 minutes.

Roll them out so that they are about 20 cm long and swirl them together to lussekatter. Place the buns thinly on a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Long leavening. Be patient and allow fermentation to take time. Buns will rise to double size. This may take several hours, depending on how cold or hot it is where you let the buns rise. Let them be happy to ferment in a plastic bag or plastic wrap instead of under a cloth, then ferment the better.
High temperatures and short cooking time. When the buns are fermented garnishes carefully with the soaked raisins, without pressing too hard. The buns will be baked at relatively high temperatures, 225 degrees masthead, as 5 minutes. The buns should be quite bright.
Syrup or äggstrykning. Brush the buns directly when they have finished baking and have come out of the oven instead of before. I brush out my buns with sugar. Boil 1 dl sugar 1 cups water, Set aside and let cool. The finished buns brushed with the law and have a nice shine and keeps juicy anymore. One can also brush with äggstrykning: 1 eggs mashed (Go VisPas) with 2 tablespoons of water and a pinch of salt. The salt allows to avoid having lumps and water makes äggstrykningen easier to pencil in.
Freeze fast. Saffron buns taste best freshly baked and slightly warm. Freeze the buns as soon as they cool down if they should not be eaten the same day. You can also freeze saffron buns unbaked and bake them a few days later. Ta fram dem i god tid, let them be happy to thaw in the refrigerator, let rise and bake as usual. Remember not to store the unbaked buns too long in the freezer, around a week usually go well. Yeast loses namely force in the freezer.

Filled saffron buns. If you want even more juicy saffron buns – makes a lovely filling with butter and almond paste, Roll out the dough, wide of the fill, roll up and cut into pieces just like the classic cinnamon buns. One can also make saffron dumplings; stretch the dough to a rectangle, wide onto the filling and fold the dough in half lengthwise. Cut into strips and swirl together into bundles. Prover as usual and bake without brush them before they go into the oven. When cooled slightly brushes to the buns with melted butter and dip them in sugar – delicious!
Almond filling with the taste of orange: 200 g marzipan, 200 g unsalted butter, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 msk marsanpulver, 1 tbsp vanilla sugar. Mix to a fluff pulp. Season with grated orange peel.