Finnish Coffee Braid

This recipe is taken directly from the Sunset Cookbook of Breads, a quirky little book I got at the library sale.

1/2 C butter ( 2 sticks)
2 1/4 tsp yeast (1 envelope)
3 T warm water (105-115)
2 eggs, beaten
1 C milk, scalded and cooled
1/2 C sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 - 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
Zest of one orange*
5-6 C flour
1 egg yolk
1 T milk

Melt butter and set aside to cool. Dissolve yeast in warm water. In a large mixing bowl, combine beaten eggs, milk, sugar, salt, cardamom, grated orange peel, yeast mixture & butter. Stir in enough flour to make a fairly stiff dough. Knead until smooth. Shape into a ball and place in a greased bowl; cover. Put in a warm place & let rise until nearly doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

Punch down and divide into 2 equal portions, then divide each portion into thirds. Roll into strands until about 24 inches long. Cross the strands in the center, and braid out. Form braid into a ring and pinch ends together. Place on a greased baking sheet. Repeat for second braid. Cover lightly with waxed paper and let rise in a warm place until nearly doubled, 2 - 2 1/2 hours.

Paint each braid with a mixture of egg yolk beaten with 1 T milk. Bake in a 350° oven for 30-45 minutes or until a medium brown. Let cool on wire racks. Wrap airtight. Can be frozen if wrapped in foil.

*I use 1-2 tsp of dried zest from Penzey's, in 3-6 tsp water.

Christmas Yummies

Somehow I just knew Blogger was going to put my pictures in the wrong order! So in the above picture you see the delicious Christmas dinner we enjoyed. Honey-glazed ham, homemade rolls, and Harvest Green Beans. With Martinelli's to drink, natch.

The picture below shows part of Christmas breakfast. My husband and I have a traditional Christmas breakfast, as I suspect most do. Ours is bacon, eggs & orange juice. We made an addition this year. My husband treated us to the bacon and eggs...

...while I provided the cinnamon rolls. This recipe is very handy as you make the rolls the night before and then pop them in the fridge. Half an hour to warm up in the morning and half an hour to bake and you've got fresh, gooey cinnamon rolls without having to wake up early! The dough is very rich and eggy. Yum! We decided these are now part of our traditional Christmas breakfast.

Pre-frosting.