Finnish Coffee Bread

For some reason I had never made this recipe before. Probably just too many cookbooks and not enough time..

I was paging through my Farm Journal bread cookbook and looking for something a little different for Sunday breakfast. We are eating alot of eggs now, our chickens are laying close to two dozen a day…That sounds like alot until you figure that my 15 year old eats 4 for breakfast, my husband eats 3 or 4 for breakfast and then everyone else eats 1-2…This morning my son in law ate SIX. Adding that to the baking that is done means that those lovely, organic, FREE free range eggs go very, very fast.

Anyway…I was paging through the cookbook and thinking that there must be something I hadn’t tried and I saw this recipe for Finnish Coffee Braid. I have, over the past year or so, developed an infatuation with cardamom as a spice and so I decided to try it.

The bread is very light and soft, almost airy, with just a faint hint of sweetness and cardamom. I did add raisins and they were good but I think next time I would add orange peel instead.

You can shape it in either round loaves or braids. The braids were very pretty- I took pictures and hopefully can get my photo software installed on this computer tonight and get the pictures up.

I brushed the unbaked braids with an egg yolk wash and then sprinkled with almonds. It made great toast as well as just a breakfast bread for slicing. I thought it went slightly stale very fast, so unless you are going to eat it all the first day freeze the second loaf, or plan on using it for french toast..which I imagine would be fabulous.

Finnish Coffee Bread

2pkg active dry yeast

2 c warm water

1 egg, at room temp

6-7 c flour

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/3 c sugar

2 tsp salt

1/4 c melted butter

Thin Confectioners glaze made from 1c confectioners (powdered) sugar and enough cream to make it runny.

Sprinkle yeast in warm water. Let stand for a few minutes.

Blend in egg, 3 c flour, cardamom, sugar and salt (and 1 c raisins if you are adding them). Beat at medium speed 2 minutes, until smooth. Add butter and enough remaining flour to make a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl.

Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, maybe 8 minutes.

Turn into greased bowl and allow to rise in a warm place until double, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down and let rest 10 minutes.

Turn out on to a lightly floured board and divide in half. Cut each half into 3 equal parts.

Braid loaves, using 3 strips of dough for each braided loaf. Pinch ends and place in greased loaf pans. Brush with a wash of 1 egg yolk and 1 tsp water, and then sprinkle with almonds if desired. Let rise about 45 minutes.

Bake at 400F for 40-50 minutes. Cool loaves slightly, remove from pans and drizzle icing over the top.

2 loaves