Never A Frown With Golden Brown

December 26, 2023

Hello & Hello Again!

Every so often on this blog, we take a break & share a #recipe instead of talking about art. You can find a complete list of the recipes at the end of this article. Would you like to share a recipe in a future blog post? Let me know!

We’re making Bulle- Swedish braided sweet bread!

This recipe takes time, but it is worth it! I love this amazing bread so much when it is freshly baked, either plain or with jam.

Recipe makes 3 loaves this size

Ingredients

1 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter
2 ¼ teaspoons (1 package) yeast, dissolved in a small amount of warm water
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup sugar (I use raw sugar, but brown works too)
1 tablespoon ground cardamom
4 ½ cups AP flour Also:
1 egg, beaten well
¼ cup sugar, optional

Instructions

Warm the milk enough to melt the butter in it. Set aside to cool.
Whisk 2 eggs & sugar together thoroughly in a large bowl, then whisk in salt
Gently mix the milk/butter mixture into the eggs/sugar/salt. (Warning: If the mixture is too warm, it will cook the eggs!)
Gradually mix in 2 cups of flour
Mix in the yeast & cardamom
Keep adding flour to the dough until it reaches a good handling texture. This is how you test for a “good handling texture”: Press the dough gently with a clean finger. The dough should stick to your finger as you start to pull it away, stretching a little, but then snap back to the dough ball instead of staying on your finger.
Cover the bowl of dough with a clean cloth, & set it somewhere warm to rise until it is double in size, usually 2-3 hours.
Remove the cloth from the bowl & punch down the dough. This means punching in the middle of the risen dough, releasing some of the air
Working on a floured surface, separate the dough into 3 equal sections.

Each section will make 1 loaf of bread. Repeat the following with each section:

Cut into 3 equal pieces.
Roll each piece out into a “rope” of dough, try to keep all 3 as close in length/diameter as possible
Braid the 3 ropes into a loaf. It’s just like braiding hair: if you don’t know how, there are a billion tutorials online. If you want to get fancy, you can braid more strands. This will affect your cooking times- my instructions are for a 3-strand braid. If you try a more complicated braid, let me know how it goes!
Grease 3 baking sheets or put parchment paper on them.
Put each loaf on its own baking sheet, covered by a clean cloth, & set to rise in a warm place until it is double in size, usually 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 350°F (177°C).
This is where the ingredients from the “Also” section come into play. Just before they go into the oven, brush the beaten egg over the risen loaves & sprinkle with sugar. Brown sugar burns if used in this step, so use raw/white sugar. If you have no raw/white sugar, just use the beaten egg for this last bit.
Bake loaves for 20 minutes, until golden brown. If your oven is too small to bake them all at once, put in unbaked loaves in your fridge while waiting so they don’t rise too much.
Let cool completely before cutting

Finish Them!

My favorite ways to eat this bread are plain or with a bit of lingonberry jam, alongside a cup of coffee.

Past Recipes

Vegan cake
Plum tea.
Wolfe3D shared his favorite pizza recipe in my first collaboration!
Brownies (very good for beginner bakers!)
Lemon Bars on an Olive Oil Shortbread Crust
Peanut Butter Bread

We’ll get back to talking about art next week. Is there an author or topic you want me to cover? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!

Karin Wanderer Learns