Saffron in Sweden: A Cherished Spice
Saffron imparts color and flavor to these Swedish holiday breads and cakes.
By
Credit: Todd Coleman
The reddish orange and famously expensive spice known as saffron—which consists of the painstakingly harvested stigmata of the Crocus sativus flower—imparts its golden hue and faintly spicy flavor to a number of feast breads and holiday cakes in Sweden. Saffron first arrived in Sweden via trade with Asia in the 1300s and was traditionally reserved for holiday baking because of its extravagance.
There are a number of ways bakers extract color and flavor from the spice. Many steep the delicate strands in warm milk before adding flour and eggs to make their dough. Others grind the spice with sugar crystals. Some mix saffron with a bit of sugar and vodka to create a distilled extract. Always, the trick is to use the precious spice sparingly.
Quite a few of the saffron-spiced sweets, like Julkaka med saffran, a raisin-studded Christmas cake, date back centuries, but there are also new saffron desserts, such as chocolate chip biscotti (saffranskorpor med choklad) that have become popular in recent years. Lussekatter is a mildly sweet saffron bread baked in a variety of shapes, including braided or spiral buns and a cake-like version called almogekaka.
Saffron is commonly paired with almonds and dried fruit, as in the mandelkaka, a rich, buttery almond–saffron cake.
How can you have 2 pictures of the spided bread in your magazine and not print the recipe? Very frustrated and confused!!
Faux Pas", in a publication such as yours, as to inherently overlook that your readers would not only read the article, see the photograph, and ultimately desire the recipe for the pictured "Julkaka med saffran".
Utterly proposterous!
How do you make this up to your readers? May I suggest that you be so kind as to send a fully prepared "Julkak med saffran" to all those that have voiced there consternation. As well as sending each the recipe, alas we won't care for the recipe in the next issue, as it is pertinent to us all now during the holiday.
You created the need and the want for us all to try this, it is only fair!