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filled st lucia buns with cardamom sugar

St Lucia Buns (Lussekatter) with Cardamom Filling

St Lucia buns, or lussekatter in Norwegian, are tasty saffron buns that Scandinavian's make for St Lucia's Day. This recipe is a modern twist on lussekatter with a buttery cardamom sugar filling.
5 from 7 votes
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Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Norwegian, Swedish
Keyword: buns, cardamom, Christmas
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Resting Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Servings: 40 buns
Author: Silvia

Equipment

  • Rolling Pin

Ingredients

US Customary - Metric
  • 3/4 cup butter or margarine
  • 2 cups milk
  • 4 tsp instant yeast (or 50 g fresh yeast)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 tsp saffron
  • 1 tsp cardamom
  • 1 egg
  • 6 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 egg (for egg wash)

Cardamom sugar filling

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3 tbsp vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
  • 2/3 cup butter (softened)
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom
  • 1 dl raisins (optional)

Instructions

  • Melt the butter in a saucepan on the stove. Add the milk. Heat until lukewarm.
  • Pour milk and butter mixture into a large mixing bowl and add yeast.
  • Add salt, sugar, saffron, cardamom, and optional 1 egg and raisins, mixing thoroughly. Adding the egg makes the dough easier to work with.
  • Slowly add flour while mixing continuously (you can do this with an electric mixer or by hand). The dough may be sticky, but you don't need to knead it, just mix it well.
  • Mix until dough pulls from the sides of the bowl. Cover and let the dough rise in a draft free place for about 30 minutes.
  • Sprinkle flour on counter and knead dough for 5 minutes. You may need to add extra flour if the dough is too sticky to knead. Roll the dough into a large square.
  • For the filling, mix together the butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and cardamom. Spread the mixture across the square of dough, and fold one third of the square over, and then fold the other side of the dough over the folded part (like folding a letter - see video). Then roll the dough out a bit more so you get a taller (not longer) rectangle.
  • Cut the dough into 1/2 inch (1 cm) wide strips (cut along the shorter edge of the rectangle so you get short strips, not long ones).
  • Shape the strips into lussekatter (the S shape is easiest - see video). Decorate with raisins as desired. Cover and let rise for about 30 minutes.
  • Set the formed lussekatter on a greased baking pan, or on baking paper. Cover and let rise until they are doubled in size - about 30 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 435°F (225°C).
  • Bake buns for 7 - 10 minutes, until golden brown on top.
  • After baking, brush with melted butter and dip in sugar.

Video