Commonly eaten on Christmas morning, Swedish cardamom bread is a rich and aromatic sweet bread made with butter, egg, milk and cardamom, of course. To meet the demand around the holidays, Ralf and Ben Nielsen of Copenhagen Bakery & Cafe in Burlingame use ground cardamom for their oval loaves. But Ben, the baker, encourages confident home bakers to braid their dough and use a mortar and pestle to grind their own cardamom pods. That way you’ll get a mix of fine and coarse cardamom for delightfully crunchy bites in every slice of bread.

Swedish Cardamom Bread

Ingredients

16 ounces water

1 egg, beaten

2 ounces yeast

4 ounces sugar

1½ ounces salt

2 ounces milk powder

4½ ounces butter

2 pounds bread flour

1½ ounces crushed or ground cardamom

1 beaten egg for the egg wash

Crystal sugar for decoration

Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients — except the egg wash and crystal sugar — with your hands, kneading for 8 to 9 minutes. You can test to see if it’s enough with the “window pane test,” stretching a small ball of dough until it becomes thin and almost translucent, but doesn’t break.

Cover the dough with a clean cloth or dish towel and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes. Divide the dough into three to four loaves. On an oven-safe tray, knead dough into round loaves, seam sides down. Let the loaves proof in a room-temperature oven for another 30 minutes or so.

Beat egg and brush dough with egg wash on the top and sides. Sprinkle with crystal sugar.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until light golden brown. Let cool on rack. Bread will stay fresh on counter for up to two days. Or you can store in zipped plastic bags and keep in the freezer.

— Courtesy of Ben Nielsen, Copenhagen Bakery & Cafe