hey dudes I'm Hilah and today on Hilah
cooking it's Christmas around the world
we are going to Sweden home of IKEA and
meatballs but we're not going to do
meatballs we're gonna make saffron buns
which are a traditional Christmas bread
and we're going to shape them like
little kitty cat tails and I'll tell you
a cute story about that while we make
them alright for the saffron buns we
need some saffron so I've got some
stamens here it's not cheap and what it
is it's a stamen of a crocus and then it
grows and mostly Spain and Morocco I
think I'm not sure how it came to end up
being used in Sweden but I'm sure had
something to do with the spice trade
anyway it smells kind of floral and it
gives a brilliant yellow color so I'm
gonna put it in this little Bowl and I'm
gonna use a fork to break up the little
stamens are quite dry whoo and crunchy
try not to get your very expensive
saffron all over the counter and then to
sort of bring out the color a little bit
I'm gonna add about a teaspoon of cognac
which you could use brandy or sherry or
cognac if you don't drink you can just
add the crumbled up saffron to the warm
milk later on soaking it and alcohol
just kind of develops that color a
little bit better and you can even leave
it like up to overnight to really bring
that yellow out and the saffron was used
because it's so yellow it kind of
represents the Sun and it's supposed to
keep the devil away so it's good luck if
you are not a Satanist all right and
then I've got here some melted butter
and warm milk scalded milk so it's quite
warm I'm gonna add sugar and salt to
that and get that dissolved hmm it's
like Yellowstone National Park look at
that there's some science at work there
guys okay
so just mix this up until it's dissolved
okay seems pretty good doesn't feel
gritty anymore I'm going to pour this
into
a mixing bowl here and okay that's a
good temperature it's warm but it's not
mmm butterfingers it's warm but it's not
hot so it's not going to kill our yeast
but it's gonna wake it up a little bit
and then I'm just got one package of
active dry yeast as opposed to non
active dry yeast just kidding that's not
an option
but if it were it would not be the one
to get and then kind of whisk that
together - all right so then we're just
gonna let this sit for ten minutes we're
gonna let this sit for ten minutes and
then we'll come back and finish making
our dough all right after ten minutes we
can add the saffron booze to the rest of
this alright and then we can add half of
the flour that we will add ultimately
and get that started to mix up on a low
speed and then we'll add one egg and the
rest of our flour and about a quarter
cup of raisins you could use dried
currants also or I guess you could leave
them out and we'll just mix this up for
a few minutes until it comes together
into a soft dough okay so it doesn't
take very long you could totally do this
by hand also just with a big spoon get
all that out of there and then I've got
a clean Bowl here
I'm just gonna put a little bit of oil
and scrape this dough ball into the nice
clean bowl see it's really very soft and
makes a really nice little soft sweet
bread that there get it kind of covered
and then we're just I'm just gonna cover
this with some plastic wrap and we'll
set it aside at room temperature for an
hour to an hour and a half until it's
risen up a little bit it's not gonna
quite double but I'll show you what it
looks like
all right so after an hour and a half or
so this is what you have here so see
it's not really actually kind of hasn't
changed much at all but it's okay it's
gonna rise again so it will rise a good
anyway I'm gonna divide this up into
twelve balls if you want to weigh them
out so that they're more even they would
weigh about two and a half ounces each
about like that I don't know about the
same size as every other ball thing six
eight ten twelve thirteen oh okay
well or you can make thirteen balls
whatever um now we're just gonna sort of
move them the hell out of the way well
just roll it into a snake and if it
springs back on you that's okay just set
it aside so now I'm gonna go ahead and
get all these two maybe like four to six
inches long and then let them rest for a
few minutes all right once you've got
them all rolled out about that long
we're gonna lengthen them a little bit
more maybe like eight to ten inches this
jeez dude okay I don't really know how
long that is but that looks right so
that long and then here comes the little
part so these are also called loose a
cotter which I'm probably totally
pronouncing that wrong but it means st.
Lucia is cat so you shape them into a
little figure eight or an S shape so I
like to do it like this bring both ends
in opposite directions scrolling them up
like that until you get a little fat s
shape see very cute and they used to be
called like in the 1600s Devils cats or
Deauville cutters because there was an
old legend that came to Sweden from
Germany about the devil would like show
up in the form of a cat and sort of
punish all the bad kids and
eventually the name got changed to st.
Lucia scats because she was like the
bringer of light and like the
representative of like anti devil I
guess my religious knowledge is pretty
pitiful y'all so please feel free to
chime in in the comments there so just
keep doing that and making my little cat
shapes they once they're all rolled up
we'll discover them with another piece
of plastic wrap and let them rise and
again for another hour to an hour and a
half in a warm plan
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okay so hour and a half later they
didn't rise all that much because it's
kind of cold in here
but it'll be fine will rise in the oven
I've got another egg that I beat up I
beat that egg up and I'm just gonna
brush some of this egg on top of my buns
gently just gently brush your buns and
this will give them a nice shiny look at
the end okay so once all your little
saffron buns are covered in egg I'm
gonna put them in a 400 degree oven for
just 10 minutes cook really fast and
then they'll be done okay my saffron
buns are all cooked they're nice and
shiny and brown and beautiful I hope you
liked this recipe visit Hilah cooking
comm for this printable recipe and also
Swedish meatballs recipe and I got
homemade gravlax I did up to you there
Swedish recipes as well as other
Christmas recipes from around the world
and if you don't know already I just
want to give you a gentle reminder I
have three cookbooks now that are for
sale learn to cook which is really great
for adult beginners and people that like
funny things and breakfast taco book and
holiday cookies and these are both in
full color so check that out I'll put a
link to that thank you so much for
watching and subscribing and supporting
my little business
alright looks like a little snail or
like a little seashell it's super cute
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mm-hmm it'd be great for coffee or
breakfast or Christmas morning or
anything like that well there you go
Swedish saffron buns I hope you like it
thanks for watching thanks for
subscribing and I'll see you guys next
time bye
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