Bread machine cardamom bread kinda like Swedish Bakery's

I've always loved the cardamom bread that the Swedish Bakery has: a nice, lightly sweetened braided loaf that goes insanely well with coffee. But I don't get to Andersonville that often.

Recently I redid my kitchen and some appliances that have not seen the light of day for years are out and ready to use. My old Panasonic bread machine, from 1997, has probably only been used about 10-15 times. I enjoy making bread by hand, but I thought I'd start using the machine as well.

I've been craving cardamom bread lately so I decided to see what I could come up with for the bread machine. There are various recipes on the web but I found one that had that ring of "I know what the heck I'm talking about" to it.

This afternoon I tried this recipe and the smell when the bread was cooking was incredible (if you like cardamom, that is). After letting it cool for an hour I tried it. Delicate texture, light, slightly crunchy crust, and a definite cardamom flavor. This one is a keeper. I'm not saying it's as good as getting a Swedish Bakery loaf, and I didn't take the dough out and braid it, but it's really, really good.

Notes: My bread machine is a Panasonic and I used the "Rapid Bake" option as the recipe suggested. Panasonic's rapid bake cycle is three hours which I believe is equivalent to many other machine's regular cycle. I used a little more cardamom than the recipe, maybe a few extra good dashes. That was plenty. I didn't do the end step where you glaze the bread. I found the bread sweet enough without the glaze and I'd rather enjoy the crust as is. I used King Arthur all-purpose flour.

Thanks, Grits--I might try that. I've got one of those machines too and only recently started using it again--I used it quite a bit years ago when I was only working part time. I've got a couple of really nice recipes if you or anyone else is interested. True bread bakers no doubt sneer at the old bread machine, but my family happily gobbles anything I make in it.

EvA wrote:I've got a couple of really nice recipes if you or anyone else is interested.

I'm definitely interested. I'd like to start using mine at least once or twice a week.

I used to buy this bread at a long-defunct bakery near where I worked. Thanks for this post - I had completely forgotten how much I loved it. Definitely will try to make this soon, but screw the bread machine. No reason this can't be made using traditional techniques.

Light cream? Is that like half-and-half? The only "cream" sold around here is "heavy" and "whipping".

Bill/SFNM

I've got a couple of posts (here and here) that use a cardamom-flavored dough that certainly could be baked as a loaf instead of being made into cinnamon buns, semlor, etc.

As far as knowing "what the heck I'm talking about", well, I'll let you decide.

Bridgestone absolutely, positively, unquestionably knows what the heck he is talking about. I'm going to have to try all of these. Cardamon-induced stupor.. here I come!

Bill/SFNM

Bridgestone wrote:As far as knowing "what the heck I'm talking about", well, I'll let you decide.

Jeez - that reads horribly...

I just noticed your comment, grits, about your Internet recipe searching technique and knew exactly what you meant! Here's hoping that I survive your litmus test.

Bill/SFNM wrote:Light cream? Is that like half-and-half? The only "cream" sold around here is "heavy" and "whipping".

My understanding is that half & half is not exactly the same as light cream, but can be substituted. I used half & half.

Bridgestone wrote:

Bridgestone wrote:As far as knowing "what the heck I'm talking about", well, I'll let you decide.

Jeez - that reads horribly...

I just noticed your comment, grits, about your Internet recipe searching technique and knew exactly what you meant! Here's hoping that I survive your litmus test.

That's funny because I already bowed down to your skill to look through your recipes to see if you had done a cardamom bread. Apparently I didn't look hard enough though. Thanks for the links!

Yeah, you see some pretty crazy stuff in some of these internet-posted recipes.

Some favorites of mine come from a 1992 cookbook called The Bread Machine Cookbook III by Donna Rathmell German. I’d especially recommend the Bean Flake Rye (really pumpernickel). Wish I could post this—it’s a real keeper—but I don’t want to violate copyright.

However, I did adapt my own Challah recipe (for the dough cycle) from another cookbook, Tom Lacalamita’s The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook (1993). (As you can see from the copyright dates, my exploration of bread machines dates back some time.) My version is sweeter (and tastier) than the original. Challah, after all, is supposed to be a luxury and a treat for the Sabbath.

I list the ingredients in the order one puts them into a Panasonic (dry ingredients first), rather than how most bread machine instructions specify (wet ingredients first). Allow a minimum of 4 hours from starting until taking the bread out of the oven. This recipe will fit in the smaller (1 lb.) Panasonic.

Bread-Machine Challah

3 cups bread flour
¾ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon honey
½ cup water
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast

Egg wash and topping:
1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon water
Poppy seeds or sesame seeds

Place all ingredients in bread machine in correct order for your machine and set to dough cycle. When dough cycle is complete, remove dough to floured board. Cut dough into three even pieces and roll each one into a long snake. Braid the three, tucking the end underneath. Place on a baking sheet covered with a piece of parchment paper and allow to rise in a warm place (either covered with a cloth or in a draft-free spot, like your unlit oven) for 1 to 1 ½ hours. Preheat oven to 375º and brush braided dough with egg wash. Sprinkle desired seeds on top (or no seeds at all). Bake for 30 minutes and cool on rack.

EvA wrote:I did adapt my own Challah recipe (for the dough cycle) from another cookbook, Tom Lacalamita’s The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook (1993). (As you can see from the copyright dates, my exploration of bread machines dates back some time.) My version is sweeter (and tastier) than the original.

I've been looking for a good bread machine Challah but again, the ones I saw just didn't look like they would be tasty enough. This looks great--thanks so much.

You're welcome! I hope it works well for you. I also have a bread machine round challah with raisins that I make at Rosh Hashanah (adapted from an old Trib recipe). Let me know if you are interested in that one as well.

EvA wrote: I also have a bread machine round challah with raisins that I make at Rosh Hashanah (adapted from an old Trib recipe). Let me know if you are interested in that one as well.

Oh yeah. Bring it on when you get a minute.

grits wrote:Oh yeah. Bring it on when you get a minute.

Here you go!

Holiday Bread-Machine Challah
(Adapted from Chicago Trib recipe of 9/1/94)

¾ cup raisins
hot water

3 ¼ - 3 ½ cups bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 - 5/8 cup water
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup honey

2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast

Egg wash:
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
sesame seeds (optional)

Soak raisins in hot water until they are plump; then drain and blot dry.

Put flour, sugar, salt, eggs, water, oil, and honey in machine (and yeast where your instructions tell you). Start with the smaller amounts of flour and water and set on dough cycle. Watch as the dough kneads to see if it forms into a ball rather than a wet dough. Usually you will need all of the flour to make the dough into a ball, especially if it’s a humid day. Add raisins to dough when kneading portion of the cycle is about 5 minutes from ending. If you add them earlier, they are chopped up (which isn’t bad either).

When dough cycle is complete, remove to floured board. You can braid this with three strands like a regular Challah. But I like to make a round Challah for the High Holidays. To do this, make one long coil that tapers at one end. Pick up the tapered, narrower end and let the thicker end rest in the middle of your parchment-covered baking sheet. Wind the coil around the thicker end, which becomes the middle of the Challah, and tuck the narrow end under the coil and press to seal. If you haven’t put quite enough flour in the dough, it will be hard to coil because rather wet, but it will still make a round loaf, just a bit flatter but equally tasty. Let rise in warm place until doubled, about 45 to 60 minutes.

Brush with egg wash and sprinkle on sesame seeds, if using, and bake at 375º until golden brown, 35 to 45 minutes. Cool on rack.

Leftovers make terrific toast and fabulous French toast.

Just discovered this thread. The timing is remarkable since I was just perusing one of my cookbooks last weekend and decided to make a recipe that sounded delicious: "Swedish Cardamom Coffee Cake." Why "coffee cake" when it was pretty clearly a loaf of bread (albeit with a sweet topping) is beyond me. Still. I made the recipe and it was fabulous. What's even more striking, given this thread, is that I commented to my wife that the texture and richness of the loaf reminded of nothing so much as challah! (A few more egg yolks, perhaps, but otherwise...)

So. The cookbook is an old classic, Nika Hazelton's The Art of Scandinavian Cooking from 1965. And here, in my inimitable reductive fashion, is the recipe. Not a bread machine recipe, but one that richly rewards the time. (And, for what it's worth, is easy to halve and works just fine.)

Coffee cake
1-1/4 cups milk
1 package dry yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
3/4 cup granulated sugar
6-1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup room temperature butter
1/4 tsp salt
3 egg yolks
2 - 3 tsp cardamom

Topping
2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs granulated sugar
1/4 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Scald milk. Only after it has cooled to lukewarm, dissolve yeast in milk, to which you add the water and 1 Tbs sugar. Beat in 3 cups of the flour; then cover and let rise until doubled (about 60-90 minutes).

Add the butter, remaining sugar, salt, egg yolks, cardamom, and 3 cups of flour to the dough. You'll have 1/4 cup flour left which you can use during the kneading stage, which is now. Knead until smooth and elastic and then put it into a greased bowl, turning so that the dough is greased on all sides. Cover and let rise until doubled, another 60-90 minutes.

Set oven to 375 now so that it's been sitting at that temp for a while before you actually use the oven.

Divide dough in half. Divide each half into thirds and roll each third into a rope about 16 inches long. Pinch the ropes together at one end, braid, and then pinch together at the other end. Put the braided loaf onto an ungreased cookie sheet and let rise a third time, about 45-60 minutes. Brush loaves with milk and sprinkle on topping. Then, bake for 25-30 minutes.

The smell is great--the taste is even better. And tell me that the bread (except for the cardamom) doesn't remind you of a good challah

Good luck!

I've got EvA's first challah recipe above rocking and rolling in the bread machine now. I do love making bread by hand--and I don't use a food processor or mixer or anything because I hate making extra dishes to wash--but it's awfully nice to just put the ingredients in at lunch and walk away for four hours on a busy day. (I mostly work from home.) The bread machine definitely fits into a certain schedule and/or lifestyle. My old boss was very into whole grains and eating healthily so he made all his own bread for his family in a bread machine every day.

Anyway, crazed by the different cardamom recipes and spurred on by Gypsy Boy's post, I added a tsp of cardamom to the challah. I hope this won't push it over the edge in terms of richness. I'll let you know how it turns out. This is probably the first Friday night challah my husband the secular Jew has had in years.

grits wrote:I've got EvA's first challah recipe above rocking and rolling in the bread machine now. I do love making bread by hand--and I don't use a food processor or mixer or anything because I hate making extra dishes to wash--but it's awfully nice to just put the ingredients in at lunch and walk away for four hours on a busy day. (I mostly work from home.) The bread machine definitely fits into a certain schedule and/or lifestyle. My old boss was very into whole grains and eating healthily so he made all his own bread for his family in a bread machine every day.

Anyway, crazed by the different cardamom recipes and spurred on by Gypsy Boy's post, I added a tsp of cardamom to the challah. I hope this won't push it over the edge in terms of richness. I'll let you know how it turns out. This is probably the first Friday night challah my husband the secular Jew has had in years.

I enjoyed that lifestyle back when my kids were young. Unfortunately now I'm tied to an office all day.
Hope it comes out well. Who knows, your husband might rediscover his roots...or, ask for challah every Friday night!

EvA wrote:

grits wrote:I've got EvA's first challah recipe above rocking and rolling in the bread machine now.
Crazed by the different cardamom recipes and spurred on by Gypsy Boy's post, I added a tsp of cardamom to the challah.

Hope it comes out well.

This came out really great. Another "keeper" for sure. I think next time I would decrease the yeast to maybe 1.5 tsp (it hit the top of the machine when it cooked) and, if I still wanted cardamom, increase the 1 tsp of added cardamom to 1.5 tsp.

I'm so excited to have a good bread-machine challah recipe! Thank you again.

Grits,

Glad you liked it. I use that much yeast because I use the dough cycle and braid and bake in the oven. I'll have to try the cardamom soon.

Evy

My husband says he'd prefer the challah without the cardamom unless it's specifically for breakfast/coffee.

The texture of the bread was fantastic with 2 tsp yeast (I cut it down a bit from yours to start), so I think I'll try 1.75 tsp yeast next time (tomorrow or Monday). I don't want to mess with that nice light texture too much.

I didn't use bread flour, I used King Arthur all-purpose, which I think made it rise more also.

grits wrote:My husband says he'd prefer the challah without the cardamom unless it's specifically for breakfast/coffee.

The texture of the bread was fantastic with 2 tsp yeast (I cut it down a bit from yours to start), so I think I'll try 1.75 tsp yeast next time (tomorrow or Monday). I don't want to mess with that nice light texture too much.

I didn't use bread flour, I used King Arthur all-purpose, which I think made it rise more also.

I tried the challah a few more times and 1.5 tsp yeast seems to work best when I leave it to finish in my machine. The challah has been a huge hit, Evy!

So glad you and your husband like it, Grits!

Evy

grits wrote:

grits wrote:My husband says he'd prefer the challah without the cardamom unless it's specifically for breakfast/coffee.

The texture of the bread was fantastic with 2 tsp yeast (I cut it down a bit from yours to start), so I think I'll try 1.75 tsp yeast next time (tomorrow or Monday). I don't want to mess with that nice light texture too much.

I didn't use bread flour, I used King Arthur all-purpose, which I think made it rise more also.

I tried the challah a few more times and 1.5 tsp yeast seems to work best when I leave it to finish in my machine. The challah has been a huge hit, Evy!

Since I don't really feel like saving the egg whites and I hate to throw them out, I tinkered again and used 3 eggs and only 1/4 cup water. That actually came out a little better when finished in my machine--it was less crumbly and had a nice springy texture.

Oh, I've realized since some of my comments that using all-purpose flour makes the bread rise more, not less, since there is more protein in bread flour. Duh.

After tinkering, here's what I've been making.

Bread-Machine Challah from Evy (tinkered with for bread machine finish and all-purpose flour)

3 cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon honey
¼ cup water*
3 large eggs

1 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast (or a little over a half packet)

Place all ingredients in bread machine in correct order for your machine and bake per bread machine manual. Cool for one hour before slicing.

*edited later to lower amount of water

Grits,

Next Friday afternoon I'm at home--it might be this week, actually--I will try your variation but braid and bake it in the regular oven.

Evy

EvA wrote:Grits,

Next Friday afternoon I'm at home--it might be this week, actually--I will try your variation but braid and bake it in the regular oven.

Evy

That will be interesting. I would think the braiding would make a pretty big difference in the outcome. Maybe if I got off my tush and braided the dough once in awhile I would know more about this. It's just so nice to pop all the stuff in at noon and have bread ready for dinner.

So I did a bake-off of my own today. I tried a recipe that I had been doing all by hand and then baking in a soaked Romertopf clay pot lined with parchment paper. There is a little more on that method in another post if anyone is interested.

Anyhow, I used the same recipe in my bread machine. The crust is much lighter, and there was only one rise instead of two so the flavor is not as good, but still the bread is quite tasty. I had a small piece just to see how it turned out and ended up sneaking down and cutting off another piece. My husband hated the crunchy crust from the Romertopf so he'll probably like this better.

Semolina Bread
1 1/4 cup semolina flour
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp oil (if using all water for liquid, I'd use olive oil)
1 1/4 total liquid (I used 1 cup buttermilk and 1/4 cup water today but you can play with this)

1 1/2 tsp yeast

Add ingredients in the order for your bread machine. You could play with the amount of flour and semolina too.

P.S. This is pretty much the recipe I use for pizza dough, except with a little more oil, and only using olive oil and water. I do a refrigerator rise on the pizza dough so that it is ready after work. If anyone wants the pizza dough recipe let me know. I used to make homemade pizza every Monday night after work. I need to get back into that.