Saint Lucia Bread

brilliant saffron yellow and just a little less rich than brioche

Scandinavians mark the beginning of the Christmas season on December 13th, with a Saint Lucia day. The eldest daughter dress like in white pajamas topped off with a wreath of candles on their head. Candles burning its traditional for the girls to serve brilliant yellow saffron rolls and coffee to their family. My sister in law (now technically the eldest daughter) of Northern Minnesotan origins brought the tradition to my familys house minus the candles. Even after the buns were past their soft and fresh stage Sabrina pointed out that 6 seconds in the microwave roused the St. Lucia in the rolls.

Saint Lucia Saffron Rolls

5 packages yeast or 1.5 oz
2 cups warm whole milk
1/8 oz saffron
1 cup butter or 2 sticks, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg beaten
7 cups flour

1 egg, beaten
raisins for decorating

Mix milk and yeast together and allow to sit for 5 minutes until yeast is foamy. If the yeast does not become foamy within 10 minutes, throw it out and buy some fresh yeast. This process is called proofing to prevent you from hours of labor for bread that wont rise. Add the saffron to the milk and allow sit for another 5 minutes. Stir in the melted butter, sugar, salt, and first beaten egg.

Add the wet ingredients to the flour in a large bowl mixing until the dough pulls away from the sides. I like to do this step in a food processor because it mixes the dough uniformly. The dough will be sticky but manageable. Turn the dough out onto a floury surface and knead for 10 minutes. Be careful not to add too much flour, which will make the buns tough. The dough will be smooth and soft.

Put kneaded dough in a clean lightly greased bowl. Cover with a towel and keep in a draft-free, warm place for 2 hours or until dough doubles. After 2 hours punch the dough. Shape the dough into buns on baking trays. We tried pretty hard to stay traditional at my home, but its too much fun to get creative. In Sweden they would typically form fat swirls of dough, S-shapes, cats, or the initials of loved ones. One plump cat broke when its skinny tail tore free. The key is to use fairly similar amount of dough for each shape, so they cook evenly. Cover with towels and let sit 25 minutes to allow the yeast a final chance to rise.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush beaten egg over the tops of the buns, and decorate sparingly with raisins. Think one to two raisins per bun. Interesting note, my family only has golden raisins around so my sister in law, Sabrina, dug out a handful of dark raisins from the bran cereal. Bake for 20 minutes or until puffy and begin to darken. Cool and serve. Sing some holiday songs, its nearly Christmas.

Lost and Found Oatmeal Cookies

Oats, butter, dried fruit, nuts, booze, coconut, this cookie has it all

I have 10 or so systems for keeping track of recipes I plan to cook. Tearing out pages from magazines and newspapers was my favorite before print died. Favorite-ing on Photograzing, Tastespotting, and from Flickr Groups are the easiest way to forget a recipe. Epicurious has a pretty good recipe box that Ive successfully been using while browsing food ideas for years. Emailing myself recipes and making simple text documents saved to my computer are the only way I can search for old recipes. If I can remember 1 or 2 ingredients in the missing recipe, technology will do the rest.

And so with a little determination and digging in every possible spot this oatmeal cookie recipe, lost for 3 years, has come back to me! It was on my Mac as part of cocktail party menu, copied from an online version of the Gourmet 2001 recipe. I substitute dried fruit for chocolate. The proportions of this cookie are great, and coconut always adds the oooh factor. Ooh being saturated fat. I discovered the importance of soaking dried fruit with this recipe. Ive brought these healthy cookies to lots of house warming parties, birthdays, and more because they go well with everything and stand as a meal on their own when a group gets together.

Lost and Found Oatmeal Cookies

1 1/2 cups finely chopped mix of dried fruit

(raisins, cranberries, figs, apricots, dates, etc.)

1 tablespoon brandy or rum (optional)

hot water

2 sticks (1 cup) butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp molasses

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup flour

2 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups finely shredded unsweetened coconut

3/4 cup almonds chopped

Mix dried fruit, booze, and hot water in a bowl and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Strain fruit, pressing to remove excess fluids, and set aside. The juices that drip off the the fruit are excellent with a little bit more brandy. Yum.

Combine butter, sugar, and molasses and beat with a mixer until fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add in vanilla, baking soda, and salt, and beat for another minute. Add flour and mix until just combine. Add oats, shredded coconut, soaked fruit, and almonds. Mix until just combine. Chill for 2 hours or up to days covered in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drop cookies in 1/4 mounds on to cookie sheets, keeping 2-3 inches between each. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling racks.

Great for dunking in coffee, tea, or milk!

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Jamming

From last Wednesday to this Tuesday I brought cookies to several offices of clients and many of the people who make my life easier all year long. I made 5 varieties of cookies, piparkakut, buckeyes, sugar cookies, chocolate cookies with candied bacon and these jam thumbprints. Without a doubt the most coveted and devoured cookies were jam thumbprints. I was glad. Theyre mine too, since childhood. A classic combination of rich butter cookies coated with nuts (or coconut, or neither) with a dab of jewel like jam in the center. Pretty and pleasing on multiple levels.

I grew up eating the cookies with red currant jam. The tart jam suits the rich cookie with a pure ruby color. Im far too experimental for traditions. I filled mine with mulberry preserves that I canned this summer. The chunky preserves dont sit flat or fill the thumbprint indent well. The flavor is great and under-sweetened, as like it. I had a revelation just a few days ago. If I dont need to use jam in the cookie, then I dont need to use walnuts or pecans on the outside either. Apricot jam and pistachios, nutella with hazelnuts, coconut with lemon curd. Nothing is stopping me from banging out a whole series of thumbprints with a unique touch. Next year! or maybe next month. These are good cookies.

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

2 sticks of unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, yolks separated from the whites
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1/2 pound nuts, chopped medium fine
jam

Cream butter with sugar for 5 minutes until pale and fluffy with a standing or electric mixer. Add egg yolks and blend another minute. Add vanilla and salt, blend again. Add half the flour and lightly blend until just combine. Add the remaining flour and carefully stir by hand until just combine. Shape dough into a disk, wrap in waxed paper, and chill for 3 hours to overnight. The dough can frozen for up to a week before baking.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Divide the dough into 24 sections. Roll each section into a 1 inch ball. Divide balls larger then 1 inch into extra cookies, you may have a few. Lightly whisk remaining egg whites in a bowl.

Cookie set up

Time to decorate and form the cookies. Its a good idea to organize all of the remaining ingredients. I like to place the formed dough balls on a plate in a row next to the beaten egg whites, and chopped nuts all near the baking sheet. Roll dough balls in the egg whites. Place in the chopped nuts and cover with nuts. Dont roll the ball in the nuts. That will cover the nuts in egg whites, and prevent them from sticking to your dough balls. If that happens, which it does, press the nuts into the cookies gently with your palms.

Birds nests? No, cookies.

Continue coating all the dough balls. Place the nut coated dough balls on a cookies sheet about 1 inch apart. Now the fun part. Press straight down with your thumb through the top and center of the dough ball to make an indentation. Bake for 10 minutes until pale to light golden, but set. My cookies often spread, causing less of a thumbprint. Im not sure if its the recipe, or the way I treat my ingredients. Anyways, you may need to reform your thumbprint by pressing down again. Act quickly, dont burn yourself.

Someone want to give me a new cookie sheet for Xmas, this one is done!

Use a small spoon to scoop up some jam. Scrape/push the jam with another spoon into the thumbprint center of all the cookies. Place back in the oven for 2-4 minutes until the cookies are golden, and the jam has melted/settled into the cookie. Remove from oven and cool on racks.

There are alternatives to my jam filling technique described above.
A) Bake the cookie with the jam in the cookie from the start. I find this cooks the jam giving it a weird skin.
B) Drop the jam into the cookies as they come out. This only sort of works in my experience. Often the jam doesnt melt into the thumbprint.
C) Melt the jam ahead of time, and spoon into the cookies as they come out. This is equally effective as my method, but creates an extra pan or bowl to clean. Not my style.