The Susanne

..from my French balcony

Isn’t it lovely? Just washed the cur­tains and all mould­ings in my flat. Feels fant­astic! And then a couple of Christ­mas Anchovies on a rye crisp bread for lunch… Simply heavenly.

One of the joys of being not quite an adult yet is being able to go home to the parents’ house to use the wash­ing machine. Six loads of wash­ing and much mummy-​pampering later I return to my own ‘home’ feel­ing ten years younger. Or maybe 24 years and a few months, as when this pic­ture was taken…

The offi­cial cakes of St. Lucy’s Day, these are expens­ive but so deli­cious they are def­in­itely worth it! This recipe is from the Nor­weigan food guru of olden times, Ingrid Espelid Hovig and yields about 30 Lussekatter.

175 g mar­gar­ine or butter
5  dL milk
50 g yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 dL sugar
1 g saf­fron, finely ground
1 egg (plus 1 more for egg wash)
1 1/2 dL rais­ins (plus more for dec­or­at­ing)
1 1/2 L plain flour

Melt the margarine/butter, add the milk and heat to 37 C (40 C if using dried yeast). Mix the yeast with a little milk in a large mixing bowl, then add the rest of the milk, salt, sugar, saf­fron, egg and raisins.

Then add the flour until the dough is nice to work with and lets go of the mixing bowl.

Sprinkle with flour, cover with a cloth and set to raise for 30 minutes.

Knead the dough for a few minutes, until nice and springy.

Shape into ‘Lussekatter’ (inver­ted ‘S’ shapes) and place on lined cookie sheets to raise again, until doubled in size, about 30 minutes. Brush with egg wash.

Bake the Lussekat­ter in the middle of the oven at 225 C for 5 to 10 minutes. Let cool or eat imme­di­ately. Mmmmm!