Mosaic Monday: Baking

13 December we celebrate St Lucia/St Lucy’s day in Sweden.
(The link will take you to a blog post of mine from last year.)

One of my staying-in-days last week (with the storm going on outside), I got it into my head to try something I haven’t done for years: bake my own saffron buns, which are traditional here for Advent and especially Lucia/St Lucy’s day (13 December). They are made from sweet yeast dough, usually with saffron and raisins, and the most common shape (at least around here) is the reversed S-shape like above.

Over the last decade, because of my neck/arm problems, I’ve been avoiding recipes that involve manual kneading, and lifting of big heavy hot baking sheets from the oven; keeping to ‘simple’ cakes, lighter ovenware, and bread made in the bread-maker. So I only made a half a batch of dough now, which was probably a good decision. (My right arm confirmed it afterwards…) My kitchen in this flat is also rather small, so baking takes some planning from that point of view as well. But it was fun.

Back in “the good old days” I often took a day off from work this time of year and spent the whole day baking for Christmas. Used to bake my own traditional gingerbread biscuits/cookies as well. (Now I sometimes do a simpler kind with the same spices, but no use of rolling-pin and cutting into different shapes involved.)

Linking to Mosaic Monday