I love baking bread, even though I am only just beginning to get the hang of it. I have tried making some different kinds with reasonable success (I think). I was looking for something new to try out when I came across an announcement on Sticky Date for baking a bread with a spice (Bread and Spices). This seemed a good idea and I searched the net for some ideas. I wanted to see if I could find something different.
I finally decided on was Cardamom Bread. Cardamom is a spice that is almost always found in Indian kitchens. We use it in a lot of sweets and desserts and some regular cooking too. But cardamom in bread seemed unusual.
Cardamom bread is a sweet yeast bread of Scandinavian origin which is good served at breakfast, with coffee, or as a light dessert, according to Wikibooks. The Swedish Cardamom Bread, Finnish Pulla or Nisu and the Pakistani Taftan are some examples. Today, cardamom bread is baked in various parts of the world and is part of Christmas baking in many of them.
More information on cardamom can be found here
I decided to work with Mike Swanson’s recipe but made some changes. I had run out of butter so I used oil instead. I also couldn’t resist substituting some of the flour with whole wheat flour. Here is the recipe I used.
Cardamom Bread
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup warm milk
- 2 tsps dry active yeast
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp powdered cardamom
- 2 tsp sugar for sprinkling on ,loaf
Instructions
- Mix the warm milk and a tsp of the sugar. Mix in the yeast. Mix and keep for 10 minutes to proof. Add all the other ingredients and knead well into a dough by hand or with a hand mixer. The dough can be a bit sticky so lightly oil your hands. Cover and keep aside to double in volume.
- Then push the dough back and divide into 3 long strips and rest the dough for 10 minutes. Pinch together the strips at one end and braid, folding both ends under neatly. Place on a greased sheet, cover to prevent drying out and allow to rise (takes about an hour).
- Brush with water and sprinkle the 2 tsp sugar over the top evenly. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes till the top is nicely brown.
I'm Aparna and My Diverse Kitchen is my ovo-lacto vegetarian food blog where you'll find recipes, food stories & photography. I've been blogging since 2007 and believe the kitchen, and the dining table (by extension) is really the heart of a home. 
So simple and delicious looking bread, must have smelled like Heaven in your kitchen while baking it!:))
How unusual, must have been a great treat!
Now that is what I call a bread YUM! I will have to give this a try sometime it sounds delicious, great post. 🙂
i second Asha’s comment….so simple and am sure if all you were left with were crumbs…it was fabulous tasting….goes into my must try….
I love the flavour of caradom. So will love this bread. Looks gr8
Those braids look fab. Cardamom in breads is so unusual.
I can really smell that bread 🙂
I would definitely say that this a “must” try if you like baking bread. Hope you all give it a go.
looks gr8!!…..thanx 4 sharing….
what A lovely breadd looks delecioussss
Thanks, Swaroopa and Sagari. My pleasure.
Aparna, thanks for participating with this beautiful braided bread. The roundup will be online soon!manuela
Hi Aparna,the roundup for bbd#04 is now online. Thanks again for your entry!!manuelahttp://bakinghistory.wordpress…
The bread looks beautiful!
Thanks a lot, Susan and Manuela.
What a fantastic recipe…I have to try it out! 😀
I have tasted success in bread making(literally!!)recently and am searching more bread recipes like there is no tomorrow:-) . This sounds really easy(oh, did i say that too soon??) and yumm.. I will give this a try for sure!!
The directions call for oil, but the ingredient list doesn’t mention oil. Should I include it?
I’m very sorry about that. The recipe calls for 1/4 cup oil. I have now included it in the list of ingredients.
AMAZING!!!