Cardamom Braid
Hello! Welcome to the very first entry in my quest to master the art of Midwestern cooking. Each week I will be trying out and rating a new recipe from one of the several church cookbooks I own. These babies are packed with everything from "Frozen Cherry Salad" to "Chop Suey Casserole." This week, however, I decided to tackle a delightful sounding bread - Cardamom Braid.
This recipe comes from my copy of Aal Church Cookbook (1872-1972) which was given to me as a wedding present by a family friend who was also the lunch lady at my elementary school. Aal Church is located in Hillsboro, North Dakota, a.k.a. the town on the way to Fargo with the Burger King. I used to go to the dentist there! (at the dentist's office, of course, not at the Burger King.)
Now, on to the recipe, which is credited to Mrs. A Austin.
Cardamom Braid
1 pkg. active dry yeast
2 3/4 to 3 cups flour, sifted
3/4 tsp. ground cardamom
3/4 cup milk
4 tbsp. butter or margarine
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
Combine yeast, 3/4 cup flour and cardamom. Heat together milk, butter, sugar and salt until warm, stirring occasionally to melt butter. Add to dry mixture in mixing bowl. Add egg. Beat at low speed with electric mixer for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Beat 3 minutes at high speed. By hand, stir in enough of remaining flour to make a moderately soft dough. Turn out on lightly floured board; knead until smooth and elastic, 5 to 8 minutes. Place in lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface. Cover, let rise until double, about 1 1/4 hours. Punch down. Turn out on floured board, divide dough into thirds. Form into balls. Let rest 10 minutes. Roll each ball into 16 inch long rope. Line up 1 inch apart on greased sheet. Braid loosely, beginning in middle. Cover, let rise for 40 minutes, until almost double. Brush with a little milk. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake in moderate oven at 375° for 20 to 25 minutes.
I really haven't made many breads in my day, much less a braided bread, so I was a little concerned about the level of difficulty. However, the directions were fairly easy to follow, despite being a bit wishy-washy on the flour amount.
It definitely didn't come out looking perfect, but hey, I knocked on the bottom of it like they do on Bake-Off and it sounded...good? It also smelled amazing. Throw some strawberry rhubarb jam on there and you've got a delightful afternoon snack. The cardamom is pretty subtle, so if you wanted to eat this bread on its own, a touch of orange zest in the dough and maybe a little more salt wouldn't hurt next time. Still, I was pretty pleased with the outcome.
Final Rating: 4/5 would make again for afternoon tea