I have never baked with cardamom before, mostly because it was super expensive in Pennsylvania when we lived there and we were on a student budget. Well a month or so ago my husband stumbled over some at an Asian market we really like and it was within our budget so he grabbed some for me. The recipe wants you to get actual cardamom pods and then remove the seeds and crush them. Well what I was working with the actual seeds, and they were super hard, I tried putting them in a bag and using a rolling pin to crush them without success. So I just threw them in whole...wasn't the worst thing, but the bread would have definitely been better with them crushed. I got thinking and decided a pepper mill would work awesome, so I'm going to look for one that comes without pepper in it.
Anyway, this bread is SO tasty! Loved it! I am also in love with bread braids a lot lately so I've been making a lot of them.
Oh and one note: this recipe is HUGE! It makes four loaves. You can give a couple to friends or stick them in the freezer.
So to begin...
In a large bowl: 4 cups boiling water, 1 2/3 cups instant non fat dry milk (I ran out of dry milk and hadn't made it to the store so I just used 2% and heated it up, I didn't get it to a full boil just because I didn't want to burn it and it worked fine)..anyway to continue...4 Tablespoons (1/2 a stick) of unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon of salt, 1 cup of sugar. Stir until the butter melts and let sit until lukewarm..somewhere around 15-20 minutes.
Pour 1/2 a cup of warm water into a small bowl (or mug as I like to use) and add 2 tablespoons of active dry yeast and a pinch of sugar (or drizzle of honey/agave nectar) . Let stand until foamy.
Remove the seeds from 10 cardamom pods and crush with a rolling pin on some waxed paper (or if you have dried seeds grind them through your pepper mill, in total it's about 1-2 teaspoons)
Add 4 cups of flour (in total you will use 12-14 cups of flour), the cardamom, and yeast mixture to the milk/butter mixture. Beat until smooth and creamy, 1-2 minutes. Switch to a wooden spoon and add the remaining flour 1/2 a cup at a time until the dough is soft and shaggy and clears the side of the bowl.
Then comes the fun part when you round up four of your favorite neighborhood children to knead for you..5-8 minutes! LOL, just kidding. We do love these kids though. The best was when they started chasing my kids with their sticky hands. Awesome.
After kneading place the dough in a greased container, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let raise until double. About 1 1/2 hours.
Either put in your pans, or braid. Let raise about 40 minutes.
Twenty minutes before baking preheat oven to 350 F. Then bake on the center rack for 40-45 minutes.
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