Flavourful Swedish Saffron Buns

Soft Swedish Saffron Buns, Kesar Buns

Learn how to make your own light and fragrant Swedish saffron buns at home. It’s an easy recipe. These Christmastime Swedish buns are soft and slightly sweet. Saffron gives the Kesar buns their unique rich colour and taste. The dough can be easily mixed by hand. There’s no need to pull out a stand mixer or any other device. Unless of course you’re making a very large batch!

This is the traditional way the Swedish saffron buns are made, but as another option, instead of positioning a raisin in the centre of each spiral, you could also mix a handful of these in the kesar buns batter itself. If you’re vegetarian, please read the instructions for eggless saffron buns below.

And if you’re wondering about the use of saffron in Sweden, Swedish people have been using spices like saffron and cardamom for a very long time, thanks to their spice trade with some Asian countries, centuries ago.

The recipe below will make six tasty and soft Swedish saffron buns.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups (approx. 200g) all-purpose flour

3 tbsp sugar

25g butter

⅓ cup milk (80 ml) + a little more

½ egg, lightly beaten

¾ tsp instant yeast (or 1 ¼ tsp active dry yeast)

A large pinch (approx. ½ tsp) saffron

½ tsp ground cardamom

½ tsp salt

Raisins

Some sweetened milk

For eggless saffron buns

Replace the egg with 2 tbsp milk

(Start with 80ml + 2 tbsp milk)

Then add more milk as needed later.

Procedure

1. Lightly crumble and add the saffron to a tsp of water and set aside.
2. Add 1 tsp sugar (out of the 3 tbsp), and the yeast to the lukewarm milk. Stir and set aside for a couple of minutes till you sift the flour. (If using active dry yeast, you’ll have to wait for around 10 minutes for the yeast to bloom.)
3. Sift the flour into a glass bowl and add the salt, and rest of the sugar to it. Stir it all with a whisk.
4. Add the beaten egg and ground cardamom to the yeast mix and stir everything. Make a well in the centre of the flour mix and add this liquid mix to it.
5. Mix the dough with a wooden spoon first. If too dry, add a little more milk. Could be 1 – 2 tbsp more. Whip again with wooden spoon and transfer the dough to a lightly flour-dusted work surface.
6. Work the dough with your hands for a minute and then mix in the butter. Continue kneading. If the dough is too sticky add more flour, but very little at a time. You shouldn’t add more flour than you need to. Added ½ tsp at a time. Then knead the dough for around 3 minutes, stretching and folding it against itself till it is smooth and soft and stretchable. (You should be able to stretch the dough into a thin layer.)
7. Make a smooth ball of the dough and transfer to the same glass bowl after drizzling it with a little oil. Turn the ball of dough around in the bowl so it is well coated with the oil. Cover and set aside in the warmest place in your kitchen to proof and double in size.
8. The first proofing could take around 1½ hours. Punch down the dough and transfer it to a lightly dusted work surface. Gently flatten and roll it into a log. Break it into 6 portions.
9. Roll each portion into a ball. Flatten it, roll it into a short log and then roll and stretch it out into a rope around 12 – 15″ in length. Start curling up the two ends of the rope in opposite directions till it forms a kind of S-shaped bun. Press a raisin into the centre of each spiral.
10. Set the shaped saffron buns on a butter paper-lined baking tray. You could also place them directly on a lightly greased baking tray. Cover the buns and set them aside to proof for around 40 to 50 minutes.
11. Brush the tops of the buns with sweetened milk to give them a golden brown colour after baking. Bake them at 200 C / 390 F for 10 – 15 minutes till they develop a golden brown colour on top.
12. Transfer the Swedish saffron buns to a cooling rack. They’ll be soft and fluffy.