Lucia Buns for Breakfast in Bed

My middle child is a whopping 11 today! whenever there is a birthday, that means breakfast in bed for the birthday child (or parent!).

I'm not sure how we started this little tradition or how it came to be the breakfast in bed is usually Lucia Buns, but somehow we've been doing this most of the years we've been in this house (about 9 years now).

I make the Lucia Buns, which are a Swedish sweet roll, the night before, since it is a yeast bread, and I am not waking up to bake LOL. Because my mom is coming over this afternoon, and we have a fellowship tonight, I made a double batch of them.

I started with warm milk, and I dissolved the yeast into it.

While the yeast was dissolving, I pulverized some Saffron and a small amount of sugar together. I have a mortar and pestle (gotta love garage sales!!!!!) but you can also use a flat bottomed mug in a bowl. Saffron looks like little dark orange hairs, in a small, square, plastic box. You only need a pinch of them. When shopping for saffron, you can usually find it on a card and hanging up along the aisle where the spices are.


I dump the sugar and saffron mixture into the yeast and milk mix and stir.

Next, I start adding more and more flour, as well as melted butter, to make a bread-like dough, which I then knead well on a floured board.

Let it rise about 45 minutes, then punch down and shape into "s" shapes (or any other shape you want.)

I start by grabbing some of the dough, and forming a rope

I roll out the rope until it is as wide as the surface I'm working on (about 2.5 feet),


Then I cut it in half


and cut the pieces in half again.

Next, taking one of those pieces, I roll it out and then coil up the one side half way


And then the other. They will look like the letter "s" or like sea horses (According to my daughter).

Place them on a baking sheet or stone, and let them rise about 30 minutes.

Preheat an oven to 350F and bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Powder with powdered sugar.