FRASER ELISABETH TAN, PHD

Cardamom Bread

This is one of Peggy's favorite bread recipes. We all look forward to it at the holidays!

VEG

Ingredients

  • 2 c warm milk
  • 3/4 c sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 large tbsp yeast
  • 1/4 c butter + 1/4 c shortening, melted
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 heaping tsps fresh ground cardamom
  • ~7-7 1/2 cups bread flour
  • 1 egg mixed with 1 tbsp water
  • Swedish pearl sugar

Directions

  1. Mix all ingredients until a fine smooth dough forms.

Combine the sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk to combine.

Warm the milk in the microwave (about 1:30 on High). Mix to even out any hot spots.

Add the milk to the sugar mixture and whisk to combine.

Melt the butter and shortening together; stir to combine.

Slowly whisk the butter/shortening into the mixture in the bowl.

Crack the eggs into the now empty measuring cup (to make sure they’re good).

Add the eggs and whisk to combine.

Freshly grind cardamom pods into a fine powder.

Add to mixture and whisk to combine.

Place bowl on stand mixer. Add three cups flour and mix with the dough hook on low until combined.

Add flour in increments until a smooth supple dough forms.

Depending on your dough, this can take anywhere from 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 cups of flour.

  1. Let rise until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

Spray a large Pyrex bowl with nonstick spray.

Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead by hand for a minute.

Move dough to greased bowl, turning to ensure the grease covers the top of the dough.

Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel.

The dough will rise above the rim of the bowl, so don’t use a snap on plastic lid.

  1. Punch down and let rise again.

This takes roughly an hour.

  1. Punch down. Divide dough in half, and each half into thirds. Make two loaf braids and fit into greased bread loaf pans.

To ensure even loaves, divide by weight, not just by eye.

Make sure the braids are not much longer than the loaf pans themselves when braided; otherwise they will get squished in the pans and the individual strands will not rise evenly.

Optionally, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, let come to room temperature and rise for a bit before baking.

  1. Let rise to the tops of the pans.

  2. Heat oven to 360°F.

Baste loaves with egg/water mixture and sprinkle with pearl sugar.

Bake 35 minutes.

  1. Cool in pans for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool fully on a cooling rack.

If you leave them in the pans too long they get soggy.

Notes

  • Makes two big loaves (10x5x3 pan - 1.5 lb) or three normal loaves (8.5x4.5x2.75 pan - 1 lb)
  • Yes, that does read 360°. I have had trouble in the past with the bread being a little underdone in the middle, especially the large loaves. It’s hard to overcook this bread, so err on the side of more time rather than less - if the tops are browning too quickly, you can cover them with foil.
  • Each slice contains approximately 7.5g sugar.
  • I followed this guide from Deb to make this into fantail rolls. Because this recipe is double that one, I divided the dough into quarters, and when I rolled it out and cut and stacked, the layers seemed thin. However, they rose to fill the muffin tins nicely. It made 24 rolls. I forgot to pull apart the layers as Deb mentions; I’ll try this next time. I baked them at 375° for 15-20 minutes, as per the guide, not per the bread recipe.

Source: guide