Xmas Walk

Christmas in three days! I cannot wait.

There's little old-fashioned town nearby always puts up lights on the first of december. They have an annual christmas walk where everyone goes down to enjoy the lights, listen to music, buy treats, and do a little shopping. All of the stores stay open late so you can browse and there's some sort of performer on every intersection. Unfortunately, the juggler that normally comes has stopped showing up much to my disappointment, (He was awfully cute. And funny too.) but the lights are still as gorgeous as ever.  These pictures are from the park since it was difficult to get pictures of the town while on the crowded streets.

That last picture of the angel? Yeah, well that was a real person. She moved when I got close to her and basically gave me a heart attack. We also stopped by the used bookstore I like to frequent. They have a cat! A bookstore with a cat. What more could I ask for?

We also made Lussekatter. (A Swedish saffron bread) They're my absolute favorite thing to bake around christmas and I alway look forward to it.

If anyone wants here's a quick version oft her recipe we use. You'll need one of those big electric mixers unless you want to make bread the old fashioned way...

Ingredients

17 deciliters flour. (Swedish flour is different, but we've found that bread flour works the best here.)
1 packet saffron
2 packages yeast
2 deciliters sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
14 tablespoons butter
5 deciliters milk

1) Preheat the oven to 435.
2) Using a mortar and pestle grind up the saffron. Combine all of the dry ingredients in the mixer. Only use about 12 deciliters of the flour.
3) Melt the butter in a pot. Add the milk. Using a thermometer, let the temperature rise to 47 C.
4) Add the liquids to the dry ingredients and mix. Add the egg. Add as much flour as needed until the dough isn't sticky.
5) Let the dough rise covered for about 35 minutes. Roll out pieces of the dough into long ropes. Form s shapes and curl the ends into spirals.
6) Insert raisins into each end. Let the dough rise covered another 30 minutes. Glaze with egg and bake 8-12 minutes until golden.

And that's that! I hope you all are having a great holiday season (Whatever you may celebrate) and I'll be back after Christmas.  To wrap this post up, here's what I wore to the Christmas walk.