Class-dessert ID-47
Sub-bread Culture-Swedish Servings-20.00
| For dough: | For Filling: |
| 7/8 cups milk, optionally scalded | 1 egg whites |
| 2 Tbs sugar, granulated | 1/3 lbs almonds, ground--see directions |
| 1 tsps salt | 1/2 cups sugar, or slightly less |
| 2 tsps vanilla | 1/2 Tbs flour |
| 1/3 cups shortening, such as butter-flavored Crisco | 1/2 Tbs butter |
| scant 2 Tbs yeast, 2 packages or 2 cakes | 2 drops vanilla |
| 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, e.g., King Arthur unbleached | 1/2 Tbs milk |
| 3 1/2 Tbs dough relaxer, optional | For glaze and decoration: |
| 12 cardamom seeds, freshly crush--see directions | 1 egg white, beaten |
| 1 cups raisins, and/or other dried fruit, optional | 4 Tbs pearl sugar |
| Sliced almonds--a couple tablespoons |
Filling: Make filling and let it rest in refrigerator while making the dough.
Starting with 1 egg white, beat the white until thick. Slowly add the ground almonds (see note below), 1/2 c. sugar, 1/2 T flour, 1/2 T butter,
drop or two of vanilla. Add only enough milk to adjust the consistency. Optionally, add a tsp or so of almond extract. (I've made this without the
flour and it seemed fine.) Note: Almond pie and pastry filling may be found in
the baking supplies aisle of the supermarket. The variety I've seen has
coconut in it, which may or may not be to your taste.
Dough: For bread machine:
Set aside a large baking sheet--18" long if possible. For shorter
sheets, you may be able to place the braid on a diagonal.
Put first nine ingredients into machine. Set to dough cycle, 1 1/2 pound loaf. Start machine.
When machine signals, or just before end of the last kneading, add the raisins or other dried fruit.
At end of last kneading, turn off machine and turn out dough onto a floured surface. Let rest 5 mins.
Roll out the dough into a rough rectangle, about as long as your baking sheet, and about 12-13" wide. It may be a wise idea to gently move the
dough to the baking sheet before continuing, as it can twist and stretch and that will upset any marking or braiding you do first.
Mark the dough lightly into thirds along it's width (about 4 inches in from each long edge). In the center section, add the filling, leaving one inch
clear at each end. Using a knife or kitchen shears, cut each of the other two sections from the center section to the edge into 1-inch wide strips.
The cuts should match on each side; if you have ten cuts on one side, there should be ten on the other. Fold the ends over the filling, and bring the
dough strips across the filling on a diagonal, alternating from side to side like a two-stranded braid. Make sure the strips overlap those from the
other side.
Glaze, part 1: Brush the top with beaten egg mixed with 1 T water. You usually would cover
the bread at this time, partly to help keep it from drying out. The egg coating may serve as that cover. Put into a draft free warm place until
doubled in bulk.
Glaze, Part 2: Preheat oven to 375F. Brush the top with the egg and water mixture again.
Sprinkle first with sliced almonds and then a generous layer of pearl sugar. It may be easier to get the almonds and sugar to stick if you do only part
of the loaf at a time. You may want to put paper towels alongside the bread to
catch the spilling sugar. I find that gently dribbling the sugar from the side
of a closed fist gives the greatest control.
Bake 20-22 minutes or until golden brown. If the dough spreads out while rising, more than going up, bake less time, perhaps
18-20 minutes. In any case, watch carefully. tent with foil if it gets too
brown. Use an instant read thermometer if necessary (the center of the
bread--not the filling--should read at least 190 F, and preferably less than 205
F.)
Notes and hints:
Sara Brody's Dough Relaxer adds a few natural ingredients that help the bread rise and make it easier to roll out (so they say, though I didn't
notice much difference in that regard). It also seems to preserve the freshness for an extra day or so. It's available from the King Arthur Flour
mail order catalog.
Cardamom seeds come in several varieties, the most common being white and green. The white cardamom is a little larger and quite a bit more expensive
than the green, and doesn't have a noticeable difference in flavor. Being larger, when using white cardamom you can probably get by with 8-10 seeds
(actually, seed pods). At all costs, avoid pre-ground cardamom; it loses
it's essence very quickly.
Rather than tracking down ground almonds, I use a chopping machine and finely chop the heck out of sliced almonds. Invariably, there are some
larger pieces left behind that introduce a little crunchiness to the filling. One third pound is a scant 1 1/2 cups of the sliced almonds.
When doing the braid, you should end up with something looking about like this:
\ \ \ \ \ \ \
/ / / / / / /
Be sure the ends of the cross pieces are underneath the next piece that is brought over. (Kind of hard to show that here.)
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