Saturday, December 09, 2006  Advent Saffron Buns  Saffron buns
is an absolute must in Sweden during the holidays. It's strongly
connected to Lucia (december 13) but is common all through
December. You can buy them everywhere, but home made are
generally better. However, saffron tends to really dry out
ordinary yeast doughs, so you want to make sure to use lots of
fat in the dough, and most people nowadays also use quark to
make the dough extra soft and pliable.  This recipe is for round
buns filled with almond paste, but the most traditional way is
to not fill them at all, just make the saffron dough and then
shape into various traditional shapes. Dagmar shows some on her
blog.  These freeze very well, which is handy. I got the recipe
from ME at Jungbo, and the only thing I've done is halving it
(my Kitchen-Aid could JUST about take this amount) and I added
some finely chopped almonds to the filling.  A word of warning.
Don't even think about making these if you have issues with
messy baking. The part where y