Lussebullar

Today, in 70 degree temps, the first of Advent- I'm baking lussebullar. This is the traditional Swedish pastry we make for the Lucia celebration on December 13. It is an interesting celebration for a secular country, but none-the-less a very lovely, cute, cozy and quaint celebration that I adore. It brings some light into the harsh winter nights of December :)
I had a post for these last year, and my recipe has changed a little, as I'm always on a quest for the most moist and flavorful versions - Enjoy!

You will need:
4 oz (1 stick) butter
1 cup half-n-half
1 cup milk
2 packets active dry yeast
1 tsp salt
1 gram saffron
6 oz vanilla flavored Greek yogurt
1 cup sugar
5-6 cups flour

raisins
egg-wash (one egg, 2 tablespoons water well mixed)

Slowly melt butter in pan, adding in milk and cream. When butter is completely melted, mix in half of the sugar, and the salt. Stir well- and add the finely crushed saffron. Let the mixture stay warm until a deep yellow color has completely saturated the liquid, at that point add the yeast to the mixture.

Pour the liquid mix into a large bowl, and either with the mixers dough hook, or a wooden spoon, mix in the flour, and the rest of the sugar. Also in this process add the yogurt. Mix until you have a sticky dough.

Cover the bowl with damp towel, and let stand until at least doubled (1 hour or more). Turn on the oven to 425 degrees.

Lightly flour a surface, and place the dough on it. Kneed the whole dough until smooth and manageable, yet still slightly sticky.

Roll pieces of dough in to "snakes" about 8-10 inches long, and roll the ends opposite each other- as in picture.
Place on baking sheet.
Push raisins into "eyes" of cats, and brush them with egg wash. let them rise 5 minutes or so and pop them into oven.
It takes about 10 minutes for them to finish baking, then place them on a wire rack for cooling. And Enjoy!

Pepparkakor (swedish gingerbread cookies)

Today is the first of Advent, a milestone on the Swedish calendar. Although a secular society, this tradition remains strong in Sweden. Every Sunday until Christmas we light one candle in a four candle holder. We bake and eat pepparkakor, and other yummy baked goods.

My homemade Advent candle holder

We also light an electric version of the advent candles, if you ever visit Sweden in the winter, you will find these in nearly every window, cozy and cute!
In Sweden it seems any tradition that involves light and candles have remained strong through the years- my guess is that it helps alleviate some of that darkness in the winter:) Either way, these are lovely traditions that I try to continue in my home!
Here is my recipe for pepparkakor (Swedish gingerbread)

6 oz butter
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon dark corn syrup
2 tablespoons molasses
1 egg
1/4 cup orange juice
3-4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 tablespoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons orange zest

Turn oven on to 400 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar, and stir in all the other moist ingredients.
In a separate bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients.
Slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients, while mixing. Add enough flour to make a stiff and workable dough.
Flour a large surface, a rolling pin, a metal spatula, and the edges of your favorite cookie cutters.
Roll out the dough to about a 1/8" thickness, cut your cookie shapes, and transfer to cookie sheet. Put in oven, and watch carefully! Usually it takes about 5 minutes to see edges turning brown. Take them out right away, they burn easily.
Let them cool on a wire rack.
When I make the batches closer to Christmas, I usually make a simple decorator frosting of powdered sugar and water, and pipe some patterns, faces, and other fun things on the cookies!