Lazybones buns

Luilakbollen

200 grams/7 oz/1½ cup flour
salt
1 dl/½ cup milk
12 grams / 0.5 oz yeast
50 grams / 2 oz. butter
75 grams / 3 oz. currants
25 grams / 1 oz. raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
molasses or ‘stroop’

For 10 buns: Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk. Pour the flour and salt into a bowl, make an indent in the top and pour in the liquid. Add cooled-down but still liquid butter. From the centre, mix it in the flour, till the dough is nice and smooth. Set aside for 15 minutes to let it rise.

Wash the currants and raisins and pat them dry with absorbant paper. Mix them in with the dough, together with the cinnamon and make the dough into ten balls.

Put the balls on a greased cookie sheet, press them down a bit and with a pair of scissors cut make four equally-spaced cuts along one side. Allow the buns to rise for another 15 minutes.

Brush lightly beaten egg on the tops and bake the buns in a preheated oven at 225ºC / 440ºF for about 15 minutes until they are golden brown and done. Serve the luilakbollen warm with stroop or molasses.

(Luilak these days is a very localized custom - Amsterdam and surroundings - on the Saturday morning before Pentecost. Children and teens rise very early to play pranks on those considered to be ‘lazybones,’ by ringing their doorbell and then run away. Before ringing the bell they tie the doorknob to another fixed object, and make all kinds of noises to awake people. In earlier times they would chant and parade noisily through the streets, bang on pots and pans, use rattles and sticks. The person in the family who slept in the longest that Saturday morning, by tradition was expected to treat with these buns).