Sweet Bread, Finnish Style

Photo: Minttu

Ingredients

litres milk

50 grams yeast

2 teaspoons salt

2 dl sugar

2 teaspoons cardamon (not the pods, but open them and use the bits inside)

1 egg

14 dl wheat flour

100 grams butter

Preparation

Add yeast to hand warm milk.

Mix with salt, sugar, cardamon and egg.

Add flour little by little, whisk more at first to mix some air in to the dough.

Knead until it feels alive in your hands, say maybe 10 minutes or so.

Add soft butter towards the end of kneading.

Let rest in a warm place, covered with a tea towel.

When the dough size has doubled, knead it softly to remove the airbubbles, for couple of minutes.

You can be creative as how you mold the dough, plaited loafs, boy- or girl-shape, cinnamon buns or simple ball. Brush with egg and maybe some sugar before baking at 225 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes or so. If you're doing a loaf, it will take longer.