Swedish Saffron Buns with Vanilla Filling
My friend Lisa and I spent New Year’s in a cute little cabin up in Northern Sweden. And when I woke up on New Year’s Day to -25°C I decided it would be the perfect day to bake some buns! And since I was in Sweden, I knew I wanted to make Swedish saffron buns.
Swedes use saffron in a lot of their desserts, perhaps partly because saffron is cheaper in Sweden than in Norway (of course saffron is never cheap, but it’s so expensive in Norway). This time I decided to make traditional saffron buns with vanilla filling. And because I didn’t have a pizza or pastry wheel, I used a rolling pin and knife to form these into flower shapes.
Baking these buns was the perfect way to warm up on this frigid day in Kangos, Sweden. I loved filling our cabin with the sweet smell of saffron and vanilla, and we ended up snacking on these buns for days. And then at night the northern lights made an appearance!
Tips
I start off this dough by melting the milk, and saffron in a saucepan. You then need to wait until the milk mixture cools to lukewarm before adding the yeast. If you’re short on time you can heat up half of the milk with the butter and then add the rest of the cold milk at the end, so that the mixture cools more quickly.
Add the flour slowly, as you may need a bit more or less flour. You don’t want to use more flour than necessary, as then the dough can become tough instead of light and fluffy. I usually turn out the dough onto a floured counter when it’s still a bit too sticky to knead, and then I add a bit more flour as I start kneading it by hand.
Knead the dough for about ten minutes, until it’s nice and elastic. Then cover and let rise until it doubles in size.
While the dough is rising you can prepare the vanilla custard filling. If you don’t want to make the vanilla filling from scratch you can use vanilla pudding instead.
Once the dough has risen, you can roll out and form these buns in a variety of ways. Since all I had at the cabin was a rolling pin, I decided to roll the dough out into ovals and make flowers. I did this by rolling the dough into an oval, and piping (or spooning) a strip of vanilla filling across the top of the oval.
Then cut about six “petals” into the bottom half of the oval.
And then roll the oval down into a long cylinder, from top to bottom.
Finally, curl the cylinder into a circle and place it on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Be sure to leave plenty of room between each bun, as they’ll still puff out a bit.
Forming the buns will take a while, so their second rise can be shorter – about 15 minutes.
Once they’ve risen again, brush them with egg wash and sprinkle them with pearl sugar, or whatever coarse sugar you may have.
You can order Swedish pearl sugar on Amazon here.
Bake the buns for about ten minutes, until the tops and bottoms are golden. They may bake more quickly, especially if yours are on the smaller side, so keep checking after about seven minutes. You never want to bake buns for longer than necessary, because then they run the risk of drying out!
You can switch the recipe from US measurements to metric by clicking from “US Customary” to “Metric” under Ingredients.
Swedish Saffron Buns with Vanilla Cream Filling
Equipment
- 1 Rolling Pin
- piping bag (optional)
Ingredients
Buns
- 14 tbsp butter
- 2 cups milk
- 0.05 oz saffron
- 4 tsp instant yeast (or 50 g fresh yeast)
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 7 cups all purpose flour
Vanilla filling
- 1 and 1/2 cups milk
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla sugar (or extract)
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 tbsp corn starch
Decoration
- 1 egg
- pearl sugar
Instructions
Buns
- Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the milk and saffron. Pour the mixture into a large mixing bowl and let it cool to lukewarm.
- Add the yeast and once dissolved add the egg, sugar, and most of the flour. Mix the dough in the bowl until it comes together enough to turn out on a counter and knead. Add the rest of the flour if necessary. Knead for about 10 minutes, until the dough is soft and elastic.
- Cover and let the dough rise for about 30 – 45 minutes, until the dough is double in size.
Vanilla filling
- Heat the milk and half of the sugar in a saucepan. Add the vanilla.
- Mix together the rest of the sugar and the flour and corn starch in a bowl. Add the egg yolks and egg and whisk together until smooth.
- Once the milk mixture starts to bubble pour about half of it into the bowl with the egg mixture, whisking quickly the entire time. Then return the saucepan to the heat and pour the egg and milk mixture from the bowl back into the saucepan, whisking the whole time. Let the custard cook for 2 minutes, whisking the entire time. By the end it should be quite thick and harder to whisk.
- After 2 minutes remove the custard from the heat and pour into a clean bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, placing it directly touching the top of the custard. Let the custard cool while the dough finishes rising.
Assembly
- After the dough has risen, turn it out onto your counter and roll into a long cylinder. Cut it into about 35 – 40 even slices.
- Roll the dough into balls and then use a rolling pin to roll each out into an oval.
- Pipe or spoon a strip of vanilla filling (alternatively you can use vanilla pudding) across the top of the oval (long side). Make 6 – 8 cuts in the bottom half of the oval (see video) and roll the oval into a cylinder. Then curl it into a round bun.
- Set the buns well spaced on a baking sheet and let them rise again for about 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 430°F (220°C). Whisk the egg and brush each bun and sprinkle with pearl sugar. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes until light golden brown.
1 Comments
Lisa
January 29, 2025 at 2:03 pm
These were such a perfect New Year’s treat! 🥰