h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone have a favourite recipe that doesn't use rapid rise yeast? I have regular old active dry yeast or self raising flour.

Sorry, no - how about going for something flat instead, like saffron pancake?

Famous (in Sweden, at least) local (Gotland is Sweden's biggest island) delicasy:
http://www.hub-uk.com/foodpages08/recip0365.htm

For Christmas, we make saffron buns - but I haven't heard of saffron cake before. What does the recipe look like?

This is the one I tried, and ended up with a housebrick http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/saffroncake_91341.shtml

There are several others out there which often call for rapid rise yeast, but I only use regular old active dry when I bake bread. I might try that one again, either with sachet of rapid rise, or I'll let the milk cool down to about 110F and wake up some active dry yeast in it. I think it might need more yeast too, being such a heavy dough.

I like the idea of saffron buns.

http://www.gretchencooks.com/recipes/628_Lussebullar_Santa_Lucia_Buns

It's what we Swedes serve when we scare the Noble Prize winners into thinking they died and went to heaven...

Darkness, young women all dressed in white, only light from burning candles waking you up at bleep'o'clock in the morning...

Sounds like heaven to me

I'll have a crack at those at some point, when I can sit down and convert the measurements and figure out the right amount of dried yeast.

Where on earth do you find saffron threads? I haven't seen any for years.

Your local mega mart should have some in the herbs and spices dept, or, like anything else in the world these days, you can get them on the interwebs.

Not cheap though. Something for a special occasion... like being woken up at stupid o'clock by scantily-clad women bearing cake

My local Wally World definitely doesn't have any. Nor does the regular grocery store. I wanted some a couple of years ago for something. Oh. Paella. I get so tired of having to mail order everything.

In Sweden, saffron is so expensive they don't put it on the shelves any more - you have to buy it directly from the cashier who keeps it in her (most of the time it's a 'her') cash box.

One Christmas my brother gave me a most impressive and delicious braided saffron wreath that he had baked himself filled with - uh - my dictionary says almond icing, but it's not icing, more like a thick cream - and sprinkled with pearl sugar on top. It was yummie!

Oh, and here's an example of a Luciatåg (literally 'Lucia train'):

http://www.orebro.se/images/18.c41b01e116cd05290680001842/Luciatåg_800.jpg

A bit of a mystery how we in Sweden came to celebrate an Italian saint, but stuff happens....

She's got candles on her head And not a fire extinguisher in sight! Someone call the health and safety officer, we can't allow that!!!

Do you see that she has a white cloth covering her hair beneath those candles? It has been drenched in water and then just enough water squeezed out to prevent dripping, so still rather wet.

When I was a girl scout, we *always* had live candles in the 'crown' of Lucia, and we never had any accidents. Of course, the poor girl that got picked out to be Lucia has to hold her head very, very still.

There are cheap plastic crowns with 'candles' running on battery, but they look as cheap as they are.

I'm sorry, but drenched sheet or not, pictures like that are just encouraging young children to stick a candle in the nearest hat, put it on their head and burn the whole house down!

I thought kids weren't allowed on h2g2?

They might see it as they're passing by the PC on their way to bed... or Scouts... or ballet class or... whatever it is that kids do