YoSafBread

You didn't expect me to try for a Smith's pun for every post title, did you? Although, ten points if you get this one.

I recently joined a really great forum called The Fresh Loaf. It's full of bread enthusiasts of all skill levels, and I am excited to be part of their community. The people there have a lot to offer, in terms of doughy knowledge and bready wisdom. One of their posted recipes is for Saffron Buns. This inspired my bread this week to be good and saffrony.

I'm sort of fascinated by saffron, to tell the truth. It's the world's most expensive spice, coming in at a couple thousand dollars per pound at most grocery store prices. (Trader Joe's sells a nice little jar for about five bucks. I'm not sure how much is in the jar, but it can't be more than a few grams.) The bright red threads are essentially the stamen from a certain type of crocus flower. One flower will yield only three threads, once per year, hence the high price tag. Now, given this fact, I really only made the bread because my coworker Melissa donated some saffron to the cause. She gets a good hunk of the final product, of course.

I don't know how to describe the flavor of saffron, because to me it has more of an aroma than a taste. The first time I experienced it was when my brother and I made saffron rice in 2004, as a way to become a bit more cultured before I visited India that summer. We agreed that it smelled much like an inflatable plastic wading pool. The plastic smell still gets me, but I can now recognise other aromas, floral ones and planty ones and the like. And it all still fascinates me.

Oh, and don't forget the brilliant yellow color you get from saffron. You have to infuse your liquids with the saffron before you use it. So what I did, taking a cue from Hank Sawtelle, was to infuse some melted butter (30g) with the saffron for 30 minutes, before pouring that into hot milk for further infusion. He quotes Harold McGee in saying that some of the saffron pigmentation is fat soluble, so I figured the butter would help the process along and all. After infusion, the liquid was used for a preferment. This pic is the sponge, all bubbly and ready to go. Look at that color! Fort Knox bread over here, or something.

In addition to the saffron, I added the rest of the ground cardamom from my Christmas bread, and a handful of zante currants. Zante currants, I learned, have actually nothing to do with the tasty berry known as the black currant (or its red or white cousins). Zantes are really just a type of raisin, specifically a raisin made from a type of grape casually known as the "champagne" grape.

So it's apparent that I'm deviating a bit from TFL's saffron bun recipe... But I'm ok with that. I took their recipe as an inspiration, I guess. My recipe is sort of more like a saffron - cardamom poor man's brioche. 30% fat, about 12% sugar, 30% eggs (mostly yolks, mmmmm). And again, done by hand, because I'm a glutton for punishment, ha.

My plan was to make 24 rolls at 65g each. I don't have sheet pans large enough for this (because our oven is tiny), so I figured I would just put them in muffin tins. But when I scaled out the dough, 65g looked way too small. I doubled them up, which I later regretted. Here are the buns, all proofed and all. I called my roommate in after the oven spring hit, and he described them as "comically large." Next time, I'd shoot for 90g.

Now, I don't have a problem with them being larger than expected. However, the size did mean that the bottoms portions inside the muffin cups began to burn before the balloony tops were done. Booo. All was not lost, you just have to not look at, or eat, the bottom portion of the crust :]














See? Not too bad. (Don't look at the bottoms!!!) The taste is unmistakably saffron, and the smell that flooded the kitchen during baking was absolutely amazing. And the color! Haha!!

Eating-wise, they're a bit heavy. I'm not sure if they were underproofed or what, but I thought I did that part correctly. Half of one is definitely enough for one person.