Christmas Finnish Coffee Bread

by Charlie Burke
Copyright 2004

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 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.

To bake, pre heat the oven to 375 degrees. Brush each loaf
with the egg wash and sprinkle with the sugar and almond
slices. Bake 25 - 35 minutes until they are nicely colored.
The bread tastes best warm and can be reheated in foil.
Although several steps are required in this recipe, it is
not difficult. Sharing the rolling out of the dough and the
braiding of the loaves with children is fun and may start a
new holiday tradition in your family.

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An organic farmer and avid cook, writer Charlie Burke is the
vice president of the New Hampshire Farmer's Market
Association (www.nhfma.org). His column & recipes appear
weekly in The Heart of New England's newsletter...
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