Cardamom Bread

Here's the bread recipe that I used for our Fakesgiving dinner senior year. This recipe has been a requirement at every holiday meal in my house for as long as I can remember. The technical name for the bread is Swedish Sweet Bread with Cardamom. If you spread cranberry sauce on it, it is awesome :)

Ingredients

6 cups flour (preferably bread flour)

2 packages of active dry yeast

2+ tsp cardamom

2 tsp salt

2/3 cup sugar

1 cup butter

2 eggs

tap water

Method

Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and cut in the butter (butter should be room temp or cool, but NOT cold) until even. Add eggs. Add water a little at a time and mix with hands until a ball forms. Roll ball around bowl at least 25 times. Put ball in a plastic bag removing all air and put into a glass or metal bowl. Keep warm and allow to rise for about 30 minutes or until the size has doubled.

Knead the bread out and allow to rise again the same way. Knead again and braid loaves and place onto cookie sheet; allow to rise once more while covered with a towel.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Brush top with butter upon removal from oven and serve warm!