Cardamom Bread

I just made this bread on Wednesday. I have probably 10 other recipes that are aging nicely on my hard drive--and will eventually be posted--but by special request, I'm posting this one first. I can't remember where I found the recipe, so I don't know who to credit (not that I followed it exactly anyway), but this is what I did:

Cardamom Bread

(makes one loaf)

1 1/4 cups water or milk (plus 2 T if the dough appears to dry)

4 T butter

1 heaping teaspoon active active dry yeast

1/3 cup sugar


1 1/2 t ground cardamom


4 cups flour (I used 3 cups all purpose flour and one cup whole wheat)

1/4 t salt


1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add water. Let cool down until luke warm and add yeast.

2. Combine flour, salt, cardamom, and sugar. Mix and add butter mixture. Knead the dough until it is elastic and doesn’t stick anymore (ca. 8 minutes). If you want to add a half cup or so of raisins, this is the time to do it, but I was all out of raisins.

3. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest until it has doubled its size (ca. 1 hour). On a lightly floured surface knead for another 1-2 minutes.

4. Shape your bread. There are an innumerable amount of ways to do this. Easy option: grease a loaf pan shape the dough into a smooth loaf (you know, tuck the ends under, etc). Or make a braid like I did: Divide dough into three even portions. Roll or spin to make logs about 12 inches long. Pinch one end of each log together and loosely braid the strands. Bring the end of the braid up to the top of the braid. Press together and tuck underneath the loaf so it's round. Sprinkle with flour. Move to greased or lined baking sheet. Cover with a damp kitchen towel (or a plastic bowl if you're worried about lint or sticking to the dough or whatever) and let rise until doubled in size (approx. 1 - 1.5 hours).

5. Preheat oven to 375°F. Periodically (once or twice during the bake) dump a cup of water on inside of oven door to steam. Bake for approx. 40 minutes total or until a candy/meat thermometer inserted into bread reads 200°C. Let cool before slicing.