Saffron Friday

Friday's breakfast: A slice of saffron cake and coffee. This cake is light and fluffy and very easy to make. And of course it has saffron, one of the most exotic and addictive spices I know.

The other day I brought some home-baked saffron buns to a friend who was recuperating in the hospital. As she broke one apart to eat, the scent of saffron filled the air.

“Oh,” I said, taking it in. “It smells like Christmas!”

Of all spices, I think saffron is the one I like the most. Now that I’m no longer in Sweden, where saffron is strongly associated with Christmas when used in baked goods, I reach for it far more frequently. This year my son and I perfected the saffron bun (or “lussekatt”, which I wrote about here), creating evenly colored, soft, and moist buns that aren’t too sweet. By now, however, I think we’re pretty much over baking those buns, but I don’t feel quite as done with saffron. Each time I use it, it amazes me with its exotic, soft, sweet scent and it’s beautiful gold red color. Saffron feels very luxe.

When I was a child and baked with my mom, she always told me that saffron was the most expensive spice in the world, more expensive than gold. I was very impressed. In those days in Sweden, you had to ask the cashier for saffron, you couldn’t just pick it off the shelf in the grocery store. It came in a small stamp-sized package referred to as “envelope”.

“May I please have an 'envelope' of saffron?” you’d have to say.

And the cashier would pull it out of a little box for you.

Saffron comes from a purple flower called saffron crocus, which is native to Greece or Southwest Asia. I read that today Iran accounts for about 90% of the world’s saffron production. A closer look at saffron revealed the following:

I’m certainly not the only one being enamored by the spice: Cleopatra is said to have put saffron in her baths, to enhance lovemaking.

Saffron is the color of choice for Buddhist monks, who wear golden yellow robes and have done so since Buddha died.

The word saffron comes from the Arabic word “zafaran”, which means yellow.

It takes around 75,000 crocus flowers to make one pound of saffron spice.

Saffron was used to scent the public halls and baths in Rome back in its days of glory.

If you fiddled with saffron during mediaeval times and diluted it with other spices (such as turmeric, which is also yellow), the punishment was severe: You’d be burnt alive.

Do you remember the song Mellow Yellow by Donovan? I’m just mad about saffron/Saffron’s mad about me.

Saffron is a natural antibacterial and is supposedly good for treating stomachaches, coughs and bronchitis.

On the frescoes of the Knossos palace on the Greek island Crete, young girls and monkeys (!) can be seen picking flowers for saffron.

On the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, saffron pancakes have been a local delicacy since the 19^th century. They are made on rice porridge, whole milk, eggs, sugar, almonds, and flour, and you serve them with whipped cream and jam. It’s a dessert served on special occasions such as weddings and even birthdays

A couple of days ago, I tried my hand at the fragrant saffron cake pictured above, for something lighter than the saffron buns. It’s quite lovely and very easy to make.

Ingredients:

200 g butter

1 cup 2 oz cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup 6 oz all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 g powdered saffron (I’m fairly sure I used more than that)

1 cup milk

Confectioner’s sugar, if you want, for decoration

Pre-heat oven to 347F.

1. Grease a springform pan.
2. Melt the butter and let it cool.
3. Beat eggs and sugar until frothy. Add the saffron, the melted butter and the milk. Mix flour and baking powder and add that to the batter also.
4. Pour the batter into the greased pan and bake on the lower rack in the oven for about 45 minutes.
5. Optional: Decorate with Confectioner’s sugar right before serving.

Have a wonderful weekend and see you again on Monday!