Swedish Vanilla Cardamom Bread

Ever since spending a few days in Sweden sailing the Gothenburg archipelago and devouring fresh smoked herring and cardamom-laced pastries the entire time, I’ve been meaning to try my hand at Swedish baking myself. This recipe initially came to me as a simple Swedish vanilla bread, but to me that was leaving out the most iconic flavor of Swedish baking, ground cardamom.

So I did us all a favor and made it Swedish vanilla cardamom bread 🙂

So I’ve been playing around with this recipe for a while, both in tweaking the flavors, but also in getting the texture to turn out correctly. The original recipe had way too much flour, which resulted in a much drier dough than I liked, and overall it’s taken some trial and error to perfect. But the time was worth it, and this recipe results in a lovely simple subtly-spiced bread. It’s not really sweet at all, just a nice snack at any point in the day.

Place the milk, butter (I cut it into pieces for faster melting), cinnamon, cardamom, and vanilla paste into a medium saucepan and bring up to just under a boil—a strong simmer. Turn off the heat and keep stirring as it as it cools a bit (otherwise the butter will form a skin on top). Set aside to infuse (and cool) for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Once the milk is cooled, place the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer (yeast and salt on opposite sides), fitted with the dough hook. Give it a quick stir, then add about half of the cooled milk mixture while the machine is on. Then add the 2 beaten egg yolks as well—make sure the milk isn’t still too hot or you’ll get scrambled eggs!

Continue mixing on a low-to-medium speed and add the rest of the milk mixture. Increase the speed a little and mix/knead until the dough comes together and looks smooth. You can decide if you should add up to an extra 50 grams of flour or not, but a sticky dough is what you’re after, you definitely don’t want it too dry.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap (tightly), and set aside for an hour, or until doubled in size. Once it’s risen, lightly flour a surface and knock the dough back with your knuckles (it removes the air), giving it a knead for just a minute.

Split the dough into three even pieces, and roll them into long ropes. Braid them together into a loaf, tucking the ends under, and then place it on a lined baking sheet.

Set aside for 45 minutes to prove again, covered with plastic again (you don’t want a draft getting in or it will form a skin on the dough). Once it’s risen again, preheat the oven to 425F/220C.

Brush the loaf with your beaten egg mixture, and place into the hot oven for 10 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 400F/200C and bake for another 25-35 minutes, or until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped on the base. You can use a thermometer to check the middle…it should be around or over 200 F inside.

DEVOUR.

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Note, I do recommend going to weight measurements, and that’s how I’ve tested it out and they’re must more precise; but I’ve left the cup measures in case you don’t have a scale

1 cup (250ml) of milk (at least 2%)
4 tablespoons (50g) of unsalted butter
2 teaspoons of vanilla bean paste (or extract if you don’t have paste); I use this one from Amazon
1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
~3 1/2 cups (400g) of all-purpose flour
Heaping 1/2 tablespoon of dried yeast
2 egg yolks, beaten
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 + 1/8 cup (75g) of granulated or caster sugar
1 whole egg, beaten for glazing

Place the milk, butter (I cut it into pieces for faster melting), cinnamon, cardamom, and vanilla paste into a medium saucepan and bring up to just under a boil—a strong simmer.
Turn off the heat and keep stirring as it as it cools a bit (otherwise the butter will form a skin on top). Set aside to infuse (and cool) for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, place the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook. Give it a quick stir.
Add about half of the cooled milk mixture while the machine is on, then the 2 beaten egg yolks as well. Make sure the milk isn’t still too hot or you’ll get scrambled eggs!
Continue mixing on a low-to-medium speed and add the rest of the milk mixture. Increase the speed a little and mix/knead until the dough comes together and looks smooth. You can decide if you should add up to an extra 50 grams of flour or not, but a sticky dough is great and you definitely don’t want it too dry.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap (tightly), and set aside for an hour, or until doubled in size.
Once it’s risen, lightly flour a surface and knock the dough back with your knuckles (it removes the air), giving it a knead for just a minute.
Split the dough into three even pieces, and roll them into long ropes. Braid them together into a loaf, tucking the ends under, and then place it on a lined baking sheet. Set aside for 45 minutes to prove again, covered with plastic again (you don’t want a draft getting in or it will form a skin on the dough).
Preheat the oven to 425F/220C. Brush the loaf with your beaten egg mixture, and place into the hot oven for 10 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 400F/200C and bake for another 35 minutes, or until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped on the base.
DEVOUR.