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Swedish Bread
2 1/2 cups scalded milk 1 yeast cake Flour 1/2 cup melted butter 2/3 cup sugar 1 egg, well beaten 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon almond extract Add yeast cake to one-half cup milk which has been allowed to cool until lukewarm; as soon as dissolved add one-half cup flour, beat thoroughly, cover, and let rise. When light, add remaining milk and flour and one-half cups flour. Stir until thoroughly mixed, cover, and again let rise; then add remaining ingredients and one and one-half cups flour. Toss on a floured cloth and knead, using one-half cup flour, cover, and again let rise. Shape as Swedish Tea Braid or Tea Ring I or II, and bake.
A sweet, enriched sponge dough built in three stages, flavoured with almond in the Scandinavian manner. The book assumes you will turn to its braid and tea-ring entries for shaping, and gives no oven setting at all.
- Yeast cakeOne early-1900s compressed yeast cake is roughly equivalent to one packet of active dry yeast, about 2 1/4 teaspoons. Proof it in the half cup of lukewarm milk as written; instant yeast can be mixed straight into the flour but you lose the sponge check for liveliness.
- Flour quantityNo total is given, which is normal for the period, and the second addition is garbled as printed. Counting the stages as they stand you will use somewhere around 5 cups (roughly 600-750 g) of all-purpose flour; add the last of it by feel until the dough is soft but no longer sticky.
- Scalding the milkModern pasteurised milk does not need scalding to keep, but heating it to just below the boil and cooling it still improves the crumb by denaturing whey proteins that otherwise slacken the dough. Cool to about 110F before it touches the yeast.
- The sponge stagesThe hinge of the recipe is patience across three risings before shaping. Each "let rise" wants roughly doubled bulk, about 45 minutes to an hour in a warm kitchen; the butter, sugar and egg go in only at the third stage because fat and sugar slow the yeast.
- Butter temperatureMelted butter should be cooled to barely warm before it is added. Poured in hot it will kill part of the yeast and the final rise will stall.
- Almond extractA teaspoon of almond extract is assertive by modern standards. Bakers using today's supermarket extract may prefer half that, or half a teaspoon of extract with a little grated cardamom, which is the more usual Swedish seasoning.
- OvenThe original sends you elsewhere for baking. A rich, sugared dough of this kind bakes at 350-375F, about 25 to 30 minutes for a braid or ring, until deep gold and 190F at the centre.
- YieldThe quantities make two good braids or tea rings, or roughly 18 to 20 individual buns.