Finnish Cardamom Bread

I discovered cardamom a few years ago and fell in love with it so I was excited to try this bread. It makes three loaves but it's quite easy to make. Now, I'm not sure how bakers make beautiful braided breads that are smooth and even and so forth but I'm fairly pleased with the way these came out. :)

Finnish Cardamom Bread

1/4 C warm water

3 Tbsp yeast

2 C luke-warm milk

3/4 C sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbsp salt

1 tsp ground cardamom

6-7 C flour

Melted butter

Powdered sugar

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup warm water, yeast, a pinch of flour, and a pinch of sugar; set aside. In mixers bowl, combine warm milk, eggs, sugar, salt, and cardamom. Add yeast mixture and 5 cups flour; mix well. Gradually add more flour to the dough until you have a smooth, elastic dough. Cover dough and let rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size, about 1-2 hours.

Punch dough down. Divide into 3 parts. Separate each part into 3 balls and shape each ball into a rope. Braid 3 ropes together and place on greased baking sheets. (You will have 3 braids.) Cover with plastic wrap that has been sprayed with non-stick spray and a clean towel and let rise until doubled.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from pan to cool on a wire rack and brush immediately with butter. Dust with powdered sugar. Once bread is cooled, dust again with powdered sugar.

If you prefer, you can omit powdered sugar and frost the cooled bread and sprinkle with cherries and nuts.

(Apparently, the secret to this bread is not to use too much flour.)

Yield: 3 loaves