Cardamom Bread
Braided using instructions at the bottom of the page
Cardamom bread is a type of yeast bread flavored with cardamom. Cardamom is a spice used in several Nordic countries in cakes, cookies, and biscuits, including traditional Christmas pastries in the cuisine of Finland and Sweden. Usually baked as a loaf or in a Bundt cake pan, this sweet, aromatic cake is topped with chopped walnuts or sliced almonds and vanilla icing, and usually requires about a day's worth of preparation. When the dough has risen, it can be braided to make it more decorative and festive.
Cardamom-flavored bread (Finnish: pulla or nisu; Swedish: kardemummabröd, kardemummabullar) is commonly eaten in Finland and Sweden along with coffee or tea. Serving pulla with coffee is a very common practice in both Finland and Sweden. In Sweden fika is the afternoon coffee break. Some sort of sweet bread is always served.
I found this suggestion on one website: “While it is traditionally served with coffee, cardamom bread is equally good when paired with a cardamom vanilla crème tea like our Vanilla Latte Tea. It’s also great served with Swedish glogg, a marvelous hot drink made of equal parts port wine, whiskey, and rum that is sweetened with sugar and mulled with spices, fruit, and nuts, then served in a glass with a portion of boozy nuts and fruit to spoon up when you get to the bottom. It’s a wonderfully decadent thing to serve with warm slices of cardamom bread.”
Pulla (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈpulːɑ]; Swedish bulle or kanelbulle) is a mildly-sweet sweet roll (pulla, bulle = roll) or dessert bread flavored with crushed cardamom seeds and occasionally raisins or sliced almonds.
Other types of pulla include small round ones that resemble English scones but have a sugar and butter topping, and larger cinnamon rolls called korvapuusti. The outside typically has a shiny brown glaze, formed by a coating of egg white, milk or a mixture of sugar and brewed coffee.
Braided loaves (pitko) are also formed; sometimes the braids are formed into a ring. The Swedish technique for braiding bread differs from that usually used in the US (see below). The braided strands or rings are typically coated with melted butter and then sprinkled with white sugar or almonds.
Cardamom bread is considered a traditional food among Swedish Americans.
Filled Braids:
Kanelfläta is a Swedish Cinnamon Braid. A cinnamon and butter mixture is spread down the center of the braid (see picture below for braiding technique).
Filling: 75 g (about 1/3 cup) softened butter, 75 g (1/3 cup) sugar, 2 tablespoon ground cinnamon, 2 tablespoon powdered vanilla sugar. Spread in center of braid before braiding.
Finish: 1 egg mixed with a little water, pearl sugar (or substiture granulated sugar). Pearl sugar is a popular finish for sweet breads in Finland and Sweden.
Bake at 200 degrees (Celsius, 392 Fahrenheit) for 15-20 minutes, being careful not to brown the bread too much.
Cherry Preserves Filling
Cardamom Bread
This is a recipe I found years ago, probably in a magazine, for a holiday bread. The cardamom adds an interesting, unusual flavor. Cardamom, a rich aromatic spice, has been highly regarded by bakers for centuries. Cardamom-flavored bread and buns (Finnish: pulla or nisu; Swedish: kardemummabröd, kardemummabullar) are commonly eaten in Finland and Sweden. Use the green cardamom for this (true cardomom), not the black, which is similar, but has a little different flavor.
FMM: I cut the recipe in half and this made a very large braid. I made the braid at the bottom of the page and it ran from corner to corner of my sheet pan. I added currants to the dough and topped the bread with sliced almonds after brushing with the egg wash. After it was baked and cooled, I drizzled it with Mom’s Vanilla Icing. It was excellent and made a nice holiday bread. I had looked at other recipes and they all used a lot more cardamom than this one, so I added a full teaspoon (for the half recipe) of ground cardamom. The amount seemed right on. Very nice flavor.
Sponge:
1 1/2 cup milk, scalded
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 pkg. active dry yeast
1/2
cup warm water (110 degrees)
3/4 tsp. ground cardamom [increase to 2 tsp.]
3 cups [bread] flour [7 cups total]
2 eggs, beaten (not in original recipe)
1 cup butter, melted
To Finish the Dough:
1 cup chopped nuts (hazelnuts are good) [or top the braid w/ sliced almonds]
1 cup dried fruit (raisins, currants, figs, apricots, etc.)
4 cups [bread] flour
1 egg yolk beaten with 2 Tbsp. water
Icing:
1 cup confectioner's sugar mixed with 2 Tbsp. hot water or milk
Mix together the milk, sugar and salt. Let cool. Sprinkle the yeast in the warm water and let proof. Add to the cooled milk mixture along with the cardamom, flour, beaten eggs (not in original recipe) and butter. Mix well, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk.
Beat down and add the nuts, fruits and enough additional flour to make a soft dough - dough will be sticky. Knead well until you have a smooth dough. Place in a greased bowl and cover with a tea towel. Let rise until double in bulk.
Punch down and form 2 round loaves. Place on a greased sheet, cover with a tea towel and let rise until double.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. When ready to bake, brush the bread with the egg yolk and water mixture.
Bake for 30 - 40 minutes until the bread is nicely browned and sounds hallow when tapped on the bottom. Let cool on a rack and ice with confectioner's sugar mixture, if desired.
Makes 2 loaves
Vetebröd (Swedish Cardamom Bread)
from http://thisweekfordinner.com/
"My Swedish grandmother was a great cook. One thing she always served was vetebröd, which our family calls bulle [Swedish for bun]. Vetebröd [Swedish for wheat bread] is a traditional sweet Swedish yeast bread that has a very unique ingredient – cardamom. Every time I smell this cardamom bread I think of my grandma. This is definitely one of my strongest 'memory foods.' While this isn’t a traditional Christmas food, I only ever get around to making it at Christmastime.
Vetebröd can be baked in many different shapes. The recipe I have calls for simple buns, but braiding the bread is how my mom and I like to bake it. I decided to share our family’s special way of braiding the loaf. It’s a great little trick."
Makes 4 loaves - cut in recipe in half to make 2 loaves
2 1/2 cups milk
2 cakes compressed yeast OR 2 packets active dry yeast OR 4 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 cup sugar
8 cups sifted flour
1 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp salt
20 cardamom pods (or 3 tsp ground cardamom, which is what I use) [use just 1 1/2 tsp. in the dough if making rolls, like cinnamon rolls - see instructions below]
To finish the buns or bread [or bread could be drizzled with a Vanilla Glaze]:
1 egg, slightly beaten, for brushing on buns before baking
1/4 cup sugar, for sprinkling on buns before baking
1/3 cup finely blanched almonds, for sprinkling on buns before baking
Scald milk and cool to luke warm. Crumble yeast in bowl: add 1/2 cup luke warm milk and stir until yeast is dissolved. Add remaining milk and 1/4 c sugar. Beat in 3 C flour and continue beating until smooth. Cover and set aside to rise until double in bulk, 3/4 – 1 hour.
Add remaining sugar, cooled melted butter and salt. Break open cardamom pods – remove tiny seeds and crush thoroughly. Add cardamom and 4 1/2 C flour to yeast mixture. Place remaining 1/2 C flour on board or pastry cloth for kneading.
Turn out dough and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl. Cover with cloth and let rise until double in bulk, 3/4 – 1 hour.
To make buns:
Cut into even size pieces and roll into balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Brush with egg and sprinkle with 1/4 c sugar (rock sugar is really yummy) and almonds. Let rise until double in bulk, 30-40 mins. [Note:
Bake in moderately hot oven (400 degrees F) 12-15 minutes. (If you do the braid that I describe below, cook at 350 degrees for nearly 30 minutes, when the top is as dark as you want it, cover with foil until bread is done cooking.)
To make rolls, like cinnamon rolls:
For the filling for the rolls :
1/2 cup or so of butter, melted
Sugar
1½ teaspoons cardamom
Mix just 1½ teaspoons of cardamom in the bread dough. Divide dough into four even pieces. Roll each piece out into a rectangle, about 15" x 20". Brush rectangle with butter, then sprinkle evenly with sugar and cardamom (dividing the remaining 1½ teaspoons of cardamom between the four rectangles.
Roll the dough up so you end up with a 20" long roll. Slice off pieces so you end up with 12 pieces per rolled rectangle. Place rolls in buttered muffin tins with cut side up. Let rise until double in bulk, 30-40 mins. Brush with egg. Bake in moderately hot oven (400 degrees F) 12-15 minutes, until tops and bottoms are golden.
Drizzle rolls with glaze (see below).
Makes 48 rolls
See instruction below to make the braid
How to make the braided loaf:
Once the dough is ready to cut into pieces, you can instead roll out the dough to make a braid. This recipe will make four 12" braided loaves. Divide the dough into fours and form into a round, even ball. Smoosh the ball down into a rectangular-type shape (as best you can). Roll out to a large rectangle 12" long and as wide as you can get it, rolling the dough pretty thin (maybe 1/4" or so). The thinner the dough at this stage the better it will cook.
Score two lines to divide the rectangle into thirds (the lines should be 12", the length of the loaf.does that make sense?). These score lines are guides and should not be very deep. Cut lines perpendicular to your score starting at the score line cutting out to the edge (see picture). Make cuts appx. 1 inch apart. The cuts should be made down both sides, should line up and be even in number.
Begin your braid at one end. Fold the pieces across to the opposite score line and angled down to the next level of cut pieces. I sort of smoosh the piece down so it stays in place. Once you've braided all the pieces, tuck the last two pieces under each other so you have a nice finished end.
Letting the loaves rise and baking:
Follow instructions above for prepping to bake (including rising again). You can cook two braids per cookie sheet – the sheets are 12" wide, so the braid fits cross-wise. If you do have thicker braids that seem to be cooking too quickly on the outside, about halfway through the total bake time of ~30 minutes, cover the loaf with foil. This keeps the outside from getting too dark and it cooks beautifully.
While baking the bread topped with sugar and almonds is good…vanilla glaze is my favorite way to eat it.
Makes 4 12" braids
Vanilla Glaze (enough for 2 12" braids)
1 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp light corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
Milk or half-and-half or light cream
Mix sugar, syrup and vanilla together. Stir in enough milk/half-and-half/light cream to make drizzling consistency (a little goes a long way!).
I double this recipe to cover all four of my 12" loaves that yield from the recipe above.
