Aunt Nan was always making Pulla (Finnish Cardamom Coffee Bread). It's great for dunking in coffee or toasting. And it smells wonderful while it's baking!
1 level teaspoon ground cardamom2 cup milk
1 pkg active dry yeast
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup softened butter
2 teaspoon salt
6 1/2 to 7 cup all-purpose flour
For glaze:
1 egg, beaten
Heat milk to lukewarm, add yeast and stir until dissolved.
In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until foamy.
Add milk, cardamom, 2 cup
flour, and beat until smooth and elastic.
Stir in softened butter, salt, and
enough flour to make dough stiff enough to knead.
Let dough rest about 10
minutes.
Knead on floured surface until smooth and satiny, about five to ten
minutes.
Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top, cover, and let rise
in warm place until light and doubled in size, about one hour.
On floured surface, divide dough into three parts.
For each third;
divide into three parts,
form each part into a strip
16 inches long,
braid three strips together, sealing ends,
place loaf on
greased cookie sheet.
Loosely cover loaves, and let rise until less than doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
Brush loaves with egg.
Bake at 375 degrees F until light golden brown,
about 20 to 25 minutes.
Cardamom, sometimes called Grains of Paradise, is a pungent, aromatic herb first used around the eighth century, and is a native of India. It was probably imported into Europe around A.D. 1214.
Today, cardamom is cultivated in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Mexico, Thailand and Central America.
The spice known as cardamom is the fruit of several plants of the genera Elettaria belonging to the family Zingiberaceae, whose principal member is Elletaria Cardamomum. The plant it self is a perennial herb with a thick, fleshy rootstock which sends up flowering stems from 6 to 12 feet high.
Cardamom is usually purchased either in seed pods:
In its "decorticated" form, that is, taken out of the seed pods: or, the seeds are ground into a powder. This last is the most common form in which cardamom is sold.
Cardamom is used in a variety of cuisines today, primarily in and around the
Indian subcontinent and in Scandinavia.
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