Ingredients

PRE-DOUGH
• 3 packages (21 g) active dry yeast
• 300 ml unsweetened soy milk or dairy milk
• 150 g granulated sugar
• 400 g bread flour

MAIN DOUGH
• 400 ml unsweetened soy milk or dairy milk
• 400 g whole wheat flour
• 1 vanilla pod or 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 - 2 g saffron
• 150 g granulated sugar
• 250 g vegan butter, softened (can use dairy butter also)
• 3 g (1/2 tsp) salt
• 500 g bread flour

TO FINISH
• Raisins or Zante currants
• Water, glühwein, or rum
• Sugar syrup (optional)

Preparation

PRE-DOUGH
Pour the yeast into a stand mixer bowl. Warm the milk somewhat - no more than 110-115ºF - and pour it over the yeast. Stir until the yeast is entirely dissolved. Add 1/2 tsp sugar.

Add the rest of the sugar and bread flour. Run the mixer at medium-high speed with the dough hook/wheel until the dough is soft and has long gluten threads, about 10 minutes. You should be able to pull the dough into a thin sheet.

Cover the bowl and let rise about 60 minutes. The pre-dough can also rise in the fridge overnight or from morning to night.

Mix the soy milk and the whole wheat flour for the main dough and let the flour bran soften until the pre-dough has risen. (This will prevent the bran from cutting the gluten threads and also allow more flavor to develop in the whole wheat flour.)

Pull a little on the pre-dough to see if it's done - if it's full of small bubbles and has grown about 50% it's ready.

MAIN DOUGH
Split vanilla pod (if using) and scrape out the seeds. Put the saffron in a mortar together with some sugar and pulverize it with a pestle. Stir together vanilla and saffron, then pour the saffron-vaniall mixture over the pre-dough.

Add the butter, whole wheat flour-milk mixture in pieces, sugar, salt, and remainder of flour while the mixer is running.

Let the machine knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Don't skimp on this, because it's key to the result. The dough should be stretchy and feel a little soft but come off the sides of the bowl. If you're unsure, let it run a few minutes extra.

Then cover the bowl and let the dough rise for an hour alternatively in the fridge overnight.

SHAPE DOUGH INTO SYMBOLS
Soak the raisins in the water, glühwein, or rum. Flour laminate countertops and wooden baking tables very lightly. (The butter keeps the dough from sticking much.) Marble and granite counters don't need flouring.

For the simplest ‘boars’ or ‘horses’:
Divide the dough into 5 parts, and continue to roll each fifth 'sideways' into 10 further parts. If you have a scale, 50 g is a good amount. Roll each part into a small ball against the table or between your palms.

Roll each ball into a thin roll, then curl up the roll into an ’s’ shape for a ‘boar’ or ‘horse’. Crossing two ’s’ shapes gives a golden wagon, a sun wheel. Many shapes have been made traditionally, and you can invent your own. For inspiration, see https://media.lindasbakskola.se/2016/11/skrmavbild-2016-11-16-kl.-13.48.21-860x554.png

Place buns with 1 cm spacing on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, cover with a tea towel, and let them rise for 20 minutes before baking.

For larger breads
Shape a larger piece of dough, or combine several smaller pieces of dough into a large ritual loaf.

Place loaves with 1 cm spacing on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, cover with a tea towel, and let rise for 10 minutes before baking.

BAKE
Press down soaked raisins or currants into each curl of whatever shapes you made.

Bake buns at 430ºF for 8-15 minutes and loaves at 400º F for 15-20 minutes, slightly away from the heat source. If your oven has top heat, the rolls will turn golden brown when done; if it has bottom heat, they will not, and you will have to check for slight springiness and a bit of a crust when tapped. When they are done, take out the bread and brush with sugar syrup. Let cool on a rack.

Serve lukewarm with coffee or glühwein. Often served together with gingerbread, another old ritual bread. It is said that gingerbread cookies make you kind - and you can't go wrong with more kindness, right?



History of Saint Lucia Buns
Magical ritual bread has been baked for at least a thousand years as a winter solstice offering in Sweden. It has been found in Viking graves, and has been made in many shapes throughout the centennia, but has always been seen as magical.

Specially decorated saffron bread saved until the planting of the next year's crops was called sowing bread and was thought to bless the harvest when scattered across the fields. 

In some places, it was baked into the shape of a swaddled baby as a fertility charm (lindebarn). 

Magical 'picture breads' were baked long before saffron reached Scandinavia. Once saffron arrived, however, its price and yellow color lent itself naturally to adding to the picture breads to make saffron sun bread.

In old times, saffron was so expensive that people could only afford to brush their sun bread with saffron. Today, thanks to jet airplanes, we can add fresh whole saffron threads into the whole dough!