This Swedish Coffee Braid was a Christmas tradition in my family. Mom would make many batches, store them in the freezer — drying the hell out of the bread, necessitating coffee to simply return moisture to your mouth — and then pass loaves out to neighbors as presents.
My mom learned this recipe from my grandfather’s sister, Jenny.
Four of Bengt Mortenson’s children, including Jenny and Bernard Gottfrid (my grandfather), emigrated from Sweden before the First World War. According to my father, Bernard Gottfrid was born in Laholm near the southwest coast of Sweden, north of Malmo.
Mom translated Aunt Jenny’s instructions of a “handful of this and a pinch of that” into cups and teaspoons.
She gave the recipe to my cousin Joan (author of the children’s book, Elim: The Determined Athlete) during a visit to Alaska in 1973. If she hadn’t, the secret would be lost to the ages (or the internet). Mom painted up tons of china and was well known in porcelain painting circles. So, along with the recipe, Mom gave Joan a china painted mortar and pestle — decorated with forget-me-nots, Alaska’s state flower — for grinding the cardamom seeds. My dad’s brother PG (which stood for Pretty Groggy, a moniker a teacher pinned on him and stuck) called cardamom seeds “mouse poops.” Joan says pre-ground cardamom seed works fine and she uses two teaspoons because, “all of us love the smell of cardamom baking and the stronger taste is fine by us.”
Nowadays, we use an electric bread maker to prepare the dough instead of kneading it. [Ain’t bread makers great?] When the bread is hot, it’s the tastiest thing on earth. You can put butter on it, though mom would consider such a thing to be sacrilegious.
Merry Christmas.
Swedish Coffee Braid
2 cups milk
1/2 pound butter [ay caramba! no wonder it tastes great]
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 pkgs yeast
1-2 tsp, peeled, crushed cardamom seed
7 cups sifted flour
Scald milk and cool to lukewarm (105-115F). Dissolve yeast in warm water (1/2 cup 105-115F). Beat sugar and butter together, add eggs, pour in warm milk, and combine. Add dissolved yeast and cardamom seed. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic on a well-floured board (about 200 times).
Let dough rise in a warm place about two hours. Form dough into ropes and braid them loosely. (3, 6 or 9 ropes whichever size braid you want). Do not stretch. Begin braiding at centers.
Place braids on greased cookie sheets and let rise for about an hour.
Brush with egg yolk mixed with a little water and sprinkle with nuts and sugar. [I do not remember nuts or sugar being on any that I ate and I ate a lot of it.]
Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
Nullius in Verba 