Julen Brød

God jul!

It just is not a Norwegian Christmas without Julen Brød. For those of you who have no idea what that means, it is Christmas bread. That is pretty easy to figure out though. Norwegian is the closest language to English that I have found outside of the English speaking world. Norwegian recipes have a special place in my heart in the same way that German ones do. Actually, it’s all Feno-Scandinavian recipes and German recipes.  Anyways, if you do not like fruit cake, you may not like this. I do, but that is just me.  This is another recipe that is in metric units that you will need to convert. I will convert the temperatures on this one for you. So that will be less work.Enjoy!

Ingredients

·         7 g active dry yeast

·         235 ml warm water, about 110 degrees to 115 degrees

·         100 g sugar

·         1 egg

·         55 g butter or margarine, softened

·         3 g salt

·         2 g ground cardamom

·         470 g whole grain flour

·         70 g raisins

·         120 g diced citron or mixed candied fruit

Directions

·         In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water

·         Add sugar, egg, butter, salt, cardamom and 470g flour and mix well

·         Stir in raisins, citron and enough remaining flour to form a soft dough

·         Turn onto a floured surface

·         Knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes

·         Place in a greased bowl, turning once to greased top

·         Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

·         Punch dough down and divide in half

·         Shape each portion into a flattened ball

·         Place in two greased 9-in. round baking pans

·         Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour

·         Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown

·         Remove from pans to cool on wire racks.

Fry Bread

So, it is almost time for Encampment, Pow Wow for those who don't know what Encampment is. In other words, I am posting a traditional Native American recipe. I have been working my butt off. As such, I shall make a quick post to give you the recipe for fry bread. It's really easy to make. Here you go. Have fun and enjoy.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of flour

• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2/3 cup of hot water

Direction

• Mix the ingredients together
• Let dough set while heating oil to fry the bread in
• Pinch off pieces of the dough and place in the hot oil
• Fry until golden brown on one side
• Turn bread and fry until golden brown

Pulla

Sorry for the sporadic updates. The semester is winding down here and I have a ton of work to do. Also, I am getting ready to submit another book for publication and work. As such, my time to get on here is hit and miss. I have a ton of recipes to upload and the one I am uploading today is probably one of my favorites. Pulla, for those of you who do not know, is a Finnish bread. Pulla is a sweet bread, so it is not good for making sandwiches on, but it is delicious for breakfast and tea snacks. An interesting thing is that cinnamon rolls, are actually a modified Pulla recipe. :P So, next time you eat a cinnamon roll, you are really eating a bit of a Finnish bread. Just remember that. So, on with the recipe!

Ingredients

• 2 cups of milk
• 1/2 cup of warm water (110 degrees F)
• 1 package of active dry yeast (.25 oz)
• 1 cup of white sugar (vanilla sugar is preferred, but not required) 
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom (cardamom is one of the most expensive spices you can buy. It is possible to substitute a mix of nutmeg and cloves to get a similar taste if you do not wish to spend $15-$20 for a small container of it)
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 9 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 egg beaten separate from the others
• 2 tablespoons of white sugar (vanilla sugar is preferred, but not required)

Directions

• Warm the milk in a saucepan until it bubbles and then remove from heat
• Dissolve the yeast in the warm water 
• Stir in the warm milk, 1 cup of sugar, salt, cardamom, 4 eggs, and approximately 2 cups of the flour
• Beat until the dough is smooth and stretchy
• Add 3 cups of flour and beat until the dough is glossy and smooth
• Add melted butter and stir well until it looks glossy once again
• Add remaining flour until the dough is stiff
• Turn dough out of bowl onto a floured surface and cover with the bowl for 15 minutes
• Knead the dough until it is smooth
• Place in a lightly greased mixing bowl
• Roll the dough over so that the top is greased as well
• Cover with a cloth and let rise until doubled or about 1 hour
• Punch it down and let rise until doubled again
• Turn bread out onto a floured surface and divide into 3 parts
• Divide each of these into 3 more parts
• Roll out into 12 inch strips
• Braid three strips into a loaf (This means you will end up with 3 loaves)
• Place onto greased baking sheets and let rise for 20 minutes
• Brush each loaf with the 1 beaten egg
• Sprinkle with remaining sugar
• Bake at 400 degrees F for 25- 30 minutes

Keep in mind that it is very easy to burn sweet breads. Since it is Easter time, I figured I would share this Easterish recipe with you. It is fairly simple, in terms of bread recipes. I can think of numerous others that are much more complicated. It is important that the water you put the yeast into is between 108-112 degrees F. If you get too far from it, it could mess up the recipe. I hope you enjoy this recipe! Happy Baking!