My favorite birthday cake is this one, and it’s my birthday towards the end of October. It is excellent and incredibly juicy without being soupy. My daughter uses a pencil, whereas I use a straw. Each is effective. So that the three milks can absorb, prepare it the day before.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 40 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 1 loaf |
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons softened butter
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 (.25 ounce) envelope active dry yeast
- 3 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 2 egg whites, slightly beaten
- pearl sugar, or other decorative sugar
Instructions
- Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
- When the dough cycle has finished, divide into three equal portions. Roll each piece into a rope 12 to 14 inches long. Lay the three ropes side by side, then braid together. Tuck the ends underneath, and place onto a greased baking sheet, cover loosely with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in bulk.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Brush the braid with beaten egg white and sprinkle with pearl sugar. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 283 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 53 g |
| Cholesterol | 36 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 8 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 195 mg |
| Sugars | 10 g |
| Fat | 5 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
My family loved this bread. It was 2/3 gone 20 minutes after taking out of oven. We could tell there was a spice added but it was very subtle. I may try again and add more cardamom. Also, I didn’t have pearl sugar and didn’t want to wait so I possibly went overboard sprinkling with granulated sugar! Hahaha. Pearl sugar is on the list for next time. Good recipe
So delicious! I made this the whole Christmas season and nearly wore out my trusty thrift shop bread machine! For authenticity, use the fresh-ground cardamom – use less if you’re not sure cardamom is for you – and the pearl sugar. But there are no baking police, so make it your own! For the second rise, I put the shaped loaf into my microwave, where it’s generally warmer in winter and draft-free, and let it rise for around 45 mins, until it’s nice and puffy (totally depends on how active the yeast is). I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do – I’ve replaced my previous recipe we love it so much!
Delicious. This bread is slightly sweet, with a soft center and crisp crust. Tip: save the egg white from the egg yolk you put in the bread and use it (instead of 2 additional egg whites) to eggwash your bread. I didn’t need two egg whites. Overall, very easy and quick yeast bread to make with a good result. Braided breads like this also present well.
We have so many Swedish Foods that are sweet…my family appreciates a BREAD like this instead of sticky sweet breakfast coffeecake on Christmas morning. The cardamom flavor is perfect. I do put thin-sliced almonds on top.
This is very close to the coffee bread we used to get from the Swedish bakery in Chicago. I found that bread flour seems to work better than all purpose flour. Also, to prevent it from getting too dark, I cover with foil half way through baking. Yummy stuff!
Really easy to make and yummy to eat. Love the cardamom taste!
Very easy, time saver from doing it the way my mom did when I was a child. Love cardamom flavor!
I made this recipe entirely in my breadmaker. It turned out perfectly! I will definitely be making it again. Thank you for sharing! Perfect amount of cardamom, too!
like several people here, I subbed a mix of spices instead of cardamom because I didn’t have any. I’m sure with cardamom it’s divine, but I’m really impressed with the texture of this bread. it’s soft and fluffy and totally addictive. great presentation as well. I let mine rise a long time…a few hours… since my kitchen was kind of chilly, then lightly heated it in an open oven set on low for a few minutes to really ramp up the yeast. it rose beautifully when baking as well. perfect recipe. I think this will be my new go-to for sweet bread.
Very good. I made this for my dad, who is Swedish, and he loved it.
OK, thank God for reviews because I never went with the 3 tsps. of cardamom. 1 tsp. is plenty of flavor for this recipe. Aside from that, this IS my go to recipe for Swedish braided loaf. Coming from a large Swedish family who had a restaurant and catering business, this is the recipe that tastes most like the bread my Nana always made. I also use bread machine yeast, (2 1/4 tsps.) Comes out nice every time.
Very good just like my mom made, using the bread machine makes this so easy.
Used this recipe several times, always turns out great! Depending on who’s eating it I may use cinnamon instead of cardamom.
made this for a meeting with the women and everyone wanted the recipe thanks for making me feel like a pro….. anytime we have a huge get together with alot of people I make these and they always disappear…. never any left over’s
Yum! I just bought a jar of ground cardamom for the first time and decided to try this recipe as my first experiment with the spice. I didn’t have any sugar in the house, so I used Sweetleaf Sugar Leaf which is a mix of cane sugar and Sweet Leaf Stevia. I used just a little over 1/4 cup to substitute for the 1/3 cup sugar. I also added about 1/8 teaspoon to 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. When the dough came out of the bread machine it seemed a bit dry, although it could have been my fault since I forgot to check it during the initial 10 minutes in the machine to see if I should have added more milk. I wet my hands just a tad as I rolled out the three dough ropes to add a little bit of moisture. I let it rise for about an hour on top of my stove as the oven preheated. Seemed to take a while to rise since the dough was so dense. Brushed it with half of the egg wash half way into the rise and then brushed it again with the egg wash at the end of the rise. Sprinkled more of the Sweetleaf stevia/cane sugar on top before baking in the oven. Bread looked beautiful as it baked, but took about 15 minutes longer than specified in the recipe to cook fully. In the end the bread turned out marvelously delicious despite all of my worries. My kids even liked it. Looking forward to eating a slice in the morning with my coffee! Will definitely make again!
Made this several times for company. Always a winner.
Since I don’t have a bread machine, I warmed the milk before adding the yeast to it. I then used my KitchenAid mixer to complete the process of mixing and kneading. After about 10 minutes I had a beautiful smooth ball of dough. The dough was very easy to work with; it makes a gorgeous loaf of bread that slices and toasts easily. I used the suggestion of another reviewer and put the loaf in a previously warmed oven to rise. Heat oven for one minute at 400 degrees, then turn off. Immediately place loaf in oven until double in size. So happy to be adding this recipe to my collection!
Love, love, love! I misplaced my original recipe that I cut out of the Chicago Tribune about 15 yrs ago. Thank goodness I found this version – I loved being able to put everything in the bread machine and only having to do the braiding and second rising. I also didn’t have ground cardamon on hand but had 6 – 8 cardamon pods which I ground fresh. It yielded about 1 tsp vs the 3 tsp the recipe called for but it was very potent thanks to the fresh grinding; the cardamon flavor came through loud and clear. The old recipe also made 3 loaves so it’s nice to be able to just make one at a time with this one.
Loved it just the way is reads. My mom who is part Swedish and grow up eat her moms bread said “It is just like mom made”.. Big hit at Easter dinner..
I followed the recipe, including the 3 tsp of cardamom, and I am loving the result. I have no idea whether this is authentic, but it is delicious, and this is good enough for me. I used brown sugar and milk on top.
If you like cardamom, try to find cardamom seeds and grind your own. So much more flavor than the pre ground. Try Asian food stores if your grocer doesn’t have them. Thanks for the recipe for the bread machine.