December 7, 2019

Vegan Santa Lucia Buns with Saffron and Cardamom

A chilly December morning breaks with warm vegan Santa Lucia buns, “S”-shaped golden buns scented with saffron and cardamom, sweetened with raisins, and studded with two raisins on each end. If you want to celebrate advent, bringing light into darkness, or just have some delicious spiced buns, this is a vegan version of a Swedish tradition to celebrate Santa Lucia.

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About Santa Lucia

Santa Lucia is known in English as Saint Lucy, but I always use the Latin version- I feel it has a better ring to it. Her name, Lucia, means light, and she is the patron Saint of the blind. She lived in the late 200AD with her mother, who was gravely ill and so arranged a marriage between Lucia and a pagan. Lucia was devote in her faith, and prayed to Saint Agatha to cure her mother, after which she convinced her mother to allow her to break off the engagement use her dowry to help the poor. Legend has it that she brought food into the catacombs where early Christians where hiding, and in order to have her hands free to carry food, she affixed lit candles to a wreath that she wore on her head. She was later reported to be a Christian, and was sentenced to death.

Santa Lucia Day Symbolism

Although I myself am not a religious person, I do live some of the story of Santa Lucia. Santa Lucia’s feast day is celebrated on December 13th, which used to be the date of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. As the days become shorter, especially in Scandinavia where Santa Lucia day is celebrated, the lack of sun can start to feel like you’re constantly living in darkness, with no light or hope brightening the days. Santa Lucia, with her crown of candles, feeding the hungry, is a beautiful symbol for the hope and light you need to carry in your mind as the long winter days plunge you into darkness.

Santa Lucia Day Buns and Traditions

Santa Lucia day is celebrated across Scandinavia, where she is dressed in a white robe, a red sash, and a wreath with candles in her hair. It is common both in schools and in homes for young girls to dress up as Santa Lucia, and distribute saffron Santa Lucia buns while singing songs. I went to a Waldorf school, where we celebrated every year with the second graders bringing songs and Santa Lucia buns to the school, carrying candles and stars, and led by Santa Lucia herself (who looked a lot like me my senior year). Santa Lucia buns are called Lussekatter, which translates into something like “Lucy cats”, and is meant to symbolize an curled up cat (no one really knows why), while the raisins on each side symbolize eyes (as Lucy is the patron saint of the blind).

Looking for Festive Foods? Try one of these recipes!

About Some of the Ingredients

This recipe uses mostly normal, run of the mill baking ingredient, but there are a couple I wanted to talk about in a little more detail, in case you’re unfamiliar with them, or if you want to know why they are used.

Aquafaba

Our vegan Santa Lucia buns are in part thanks to aquafaba, that magically egg-replacer that comes in every can of beans. Chickpeas are the most common to use for aquafaba, and that’s what we used in this recipe. If you’ve never used aquafaba before, I recommend checking out my vegan whipped cream post, as I go into more detail about it there.

The Spices

The traditional spice for these buns is saffron, and they are often referred to simply as saffron buns. It adds a golden color, and a subtle saffron flavor that works well with the raisins on the buns (and the raisins we infused in our milk, which as far as I know is not super traditional). I know saffron is expensive, but if you live near a Trader Joe’s (at the time of this writing) they sell it for about $6. The other spice I added was cardamom, which is not unheard of but also not completely out of tradition. I added it because my mom told me to, and there really isn’t much of a better reason than that. It adds some of those lovely warming spices, that doesn’t overpower the saffron but works really well along with it.

Potato Flour

In addition to all-purpose flour, we added a little potato flour to our recipe. It helps to give the rolls a little more moisture and stops it from staling fast. It also adds a hint of the warm, potato flavor that compliments the saffron and cardamom flavors. I got mine from Bob’s Red Mill, a company that I like more the more I learn about them. Their recipe for Santa Lucia buns was actually my jumping off point when I developed my recipe.

Making Vegan Santa Lucia Buns

While these buns aren’t hard to make, they do take some time. First, infuse your milk with saffron, cardamom, and raisin. After a few minutes, blend it and strain through a fine sieve- this should cool the soymilk enough to add you’re yeast. Set aside, and start mixing your dry ingredients. A stand mixer with a dough hook is helpful, as we’re going to be doing about 10 minutes of kneading here. After it’s all kneaded, give it an hour to rise in a warm place. Punch it down, divide into pieces, and let the dough rest a little longer to relax the gluten. Shape the rolls, and let them rise again as the oven preheats- use an agave and soymilk “egg wash”, and bake.

These are best the day they’re made, but if you’re going to have them afterwards heat them for about 20 seconds in the microwave to soften and warm them.

Vegan Santa Lucia Buns with Saffron and Cardamom

Cook Time: 18 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Yield: 12 buns

Vegan Santa Lucia Buns with Saffron and Cardamom

Ingredients

1 cup soymilk plus 1 tbsp.(or other plant milk), divided
½ cup raisins, plus 24 additional ones, divided
½ tsp. saffron threads
1 tsp. ground cardamom
1 tbsp. active dry yeast
4 ½ cups (565g) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (62g) potato flour
1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt
½ cup coconut oil or vegan butter, melted
1 can of chickpeas, only the liquid (aquafaba) needed
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Vegetable oil, for greasing
1 tsp. agave nectar

Instructions

Combine 1 cup soymilk, ½ cup raisins, saffron threads, and cardamom in a small saucepan. Heat, stirring frequently, until the milk begins to steam but don’t let it boil. Remove from the heat and allow to steep for 5 minutes, before adding all the milk, spices, and raisins in a blender and blending until smooth. Use a mesh strainer to strain the milk, pushing as much through the strainer as possible. You’ll want to have about a cup of flavored soymilk. To that, add your yeast and set aside.
Place the all-purpose flour, potato flour, sugar, and salt in a stand mixer and combine. While it’s running, add the flavored soymilk, melted butter, ½ cup of chickpea aquafaba (this is the liquid inside the can of chickpeas), and vanilla extract. Once it’s all come together, use a dough hook attachment to kneed your dough for about 10 minutes (or kneed by hand if you prefer/want a workout).
Grease a large bowl with a small amount of vegetable oil, and place the dough in the bowl to rise in a warm place for an hour (I set my oven to 100°F and let it rise in there). It likely won’t double in size, but that’s fine. After 60 minutes, punch down the dough and divide into even pieces on a clean countertop. This recipe makes 12 buns, each weighing about 95 grams. Make them into small log-shaped pieces, and then set aside for 10 minutes to let the gluten relax.
Shape the buns by rolling one of the logs out into a rope, around 15 inches long. Take each end of the rope in both hands and twist on opposite sides to create an “S” shape. Take two raisins, and press them gently into the center of each side of the “S”, and transfer the shaped bun onto a baking sheet (either greased or lined with a silicone mat). Repeat with all of the dough
Place the baking sheet on top of the oven, and preheat it to 375°F (190°C). While the oven preheats, mix the remaining tablespoon of plant-based milk and the agave in a small bowl, microwave for a few seconds, and mix together. Brush the soymilk agave over the buns right before you place them in the oven. Bake for 18 minutes or so, remove from the oven, and let cool a couple minutes before eating. Store in an air-tight container, and eat ASAP. If eating the day after or longer, reheat for 20 seconds in the microwave before eating.

https://veryveganval.com/2019/12/07/vegan-santa-lucia-buns-with-saffron-and-cardamom/