Saffron Bread

This recipe is by now traditionally connected to the county of Cornwall, but it was not always so. The crocuses whose stamens are saffron were cultivated throughout southern England, just as they were in continental Europe and further afield. Medieval cooks loved the golden colour, as well as the heady flavour. By the Victorian period, however, Cornwall and the south west were particular strongholds of the taste. They called it ‘cake’ rather than bread, but it was cooked as bread or buns, n