Finnish Coffee Bread
By Charlie Burke
This moist and flavorful bread has been served in our home on Christmas
morning for many years, and our grown sons consider “Christmas bread” one of
our important family traditions. The origins of this particular recipe are obscure
– it is hand written in the back of a cook book published by, oddly enough,
Vincent Price in 1965 and is on the next page after my grandmother’s recipe for
fruit cake.
I’ve seen similar Scandinavian recipes over the years, all of which include
cardamom seeds. It is made only at Christmas in our home, but certainly would
be a welcome at any breakfast. This recipe is for six loaves. The baked loaves
freeze well and when wrapped in foil and heated in a 325 F. degree oven are
almost as good as when freshly baked. We enjoy giving the extras to neighbors
on Christmas morning,but the recipe can easily be halved.
9 cups all purpose flour – we use King Arthur
2 cups warm milk (not low fat)
2 packages dry yeast
¼ cup warm water (90 – 110 degrees)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 ½ cups sugar, plus extra for sprinkling loaves before
baking
2 teaspoons salt
¾ cup softened butter
Seeds from 20 cardamom pods, crushed
1 cup sliced almonds
Egg wash (1 egg white whisked with ½ teaspoon water)
Dissolve yeast in the water and cover with a dish towel until bubbles appear.
Mix sugar, eggs, salt, milk, butter, cardamom seeds and approximately 1 cup of
flour and beat until soft. Add yeast and the remainder of the flour and knead
until firm and smooth (Joanne uses the dough hook on her mixer, but certainly it
can be done by hand).
In a bowl covered with a towel, let dough rise until doubled in size. Turning
your oven on for a minute or two will warm it slightly and the dough will rise
well in the oven. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead
until smooth.
To shape, divide dough in half and divide each half into thirds, providing
dough for six loaves. Divide each loaf’s dough into thirds, and roll each third on
the work surface into “ropes” of equal length (they will be about 12 inches long).
Place the three ropes together and braid into a single loaf. Place each loaf onto a
buttered baking sheet, cover and let rise until doubled. The bread can be baked
at this time or the dough can be covered with towels, refrigerated overnight and
baked the next day.
Bake at 375 F. degree over for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
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