A warm, sweet, mouth melting, yellow little saffron bun richer than gold. Starting on the 1st of December, we will now be selling freshly baked saffron buns at Fika. Find out why we eat them, how you can get your hands on our Saffron Bun Deluxe and why it’s called the devil’s bun.
By Caroline Brandelius, 20 November 2019
The golden bun, once a devil
Saffron buns are a sweet Christmas bun spiced with saffron and a true favourite for many Swedes. It takes 150 000 flowers of Crocus Sativus to make 1 kilogram of saffron and that’s why saffron is more expensive than gold per gram.
The saffron bun originally called Lusse-cat is named after the devil Lucifer. The story goes back to the 1600 century when people believed that the devil showed up in a shape as a cat. Lucifer is said to be afraid of the light so they baked catlike buns with saffron, a bright colour to keep the devil away. It was common to give saffron buns to children in protection of the devil. Today the bun is associated with celebrating Saint Lucia the 13th of December and many Swedes believe that the name Lusse-bun comes from Lucia.
How to make Saffron Buns
A saffron bun is made out of a sweet dough spiced with saffron. The trick is to bring out the saffron flavour and to make the buns moist. To do that you can put the saffron in melted butter or grain it with some sugar. Some people like to put sour cream and use room temperature butter rather than melted butter when making the dough.
Saffron Buns in August
Today saffron bun means Christmas and its something you would have with your fika in December or for Advent. Each year these popular Christmas buns are baked and sold earlier and earlier. It seems like the craving for a warm yellow saffron bun is too powerful to resist, to be able to wait all the way to December. This year a local newspaper in Stockholm “Söderort Direkt” wrote about a grocery store that started selling saffron buns in August. And it seems to be popular, they are selling around 1 000 saffron buns a day!
Keep calm eat saffron
The reason why Swedes are so obsessed with saffron buns could also have another explanation. Saffron is actually very calmative, antidepressant and anti-inflammatory. Maybe that’s why Swedes crave this heart-warming buns months before Christmas, but like anything else a balance “lagom” is always best. Saffron could also have bad side effects if you eat too much. If you eat over 10 gram you can get saffron poisoning which results in vomiting and dizziness. But then you have to eat around 50 buns a day, so there is no need to worry. Be calm and indulge in this yellow delicious little Christmas treat.
Be the first to try our Saffron Bun Deluxe aka Lusse Semlan
We are proud to present this year’s most exciting pastry in Australia. Imagine the combination of a moist fluffy saffron bun filled with sweet crunchy almond paste and whipped cream. This is a Saffron Bun Deluxe inspired by the Swedish traditional pastry “Semla”. This combination will be something you have never tried before and we can’t wait to serve you one!