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Swedish Tea Ring
1 cup scalded milk 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup sugar 6 tablespoons shortening 1/8 cup finely chopped nuts 1 yeast cake softened in 1/4 cup warm water 3 1/2 cups flour 1 egg Add the scalded milk to the salt, sugar and fat. When lukewarm add the yeast. Add one-half the flour and beat well. Let rise until very light. When light add the egg and the remaining flour and beat well. Let rise. Divide the dough into two parts and shape each in a long, round piece and form two circles, placing the circles on a baking-tin. Brush with white of egg and sprinkle with finely chopped nuts. With a large pair of scissors cut toward the center of the ring, but not quite to the center, at intervals of two inches, placing the cut section each time flat on the tin, giving it a petal-like appearance. When light, bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees-400 degrees F.).
A plain sweet yeast dough shaped into two rings and snipped with scissors into overlapping petals. Nothing here is difficult, but the yeast and a couple of the measures need translating.
- The yeast cakeOne compressed yeast cake equals one packet of active dry or instant yeast, about 2 1/4 teaspoons. Soften active dry in the 1/4 cup of warm water (105-110F) as written; instant can go straight into the flour.
- Scalded milkScalding is usually explained as inactivating something in raw milk, described variously as an enzyme or a whey protein, that weakens gluten. With pasteurized milk it is no longer necessary, but heating the milk is still the easiest way to melt the shortening and dissolve the sugar and salt. Cool to lukewarm before the yeast goes in, as the recipe directs.
- 1/8 cup nutsThat is 2 tablespoons. The nuts are listed in the ingredients but used only at the end, sprinkled over the egg-white wash.
- ShorteningSix tablespoons of any solid fat works. Butter gives better flavor and a softer crumb; vegetable shortening gives a slightly drier, longer-keeping bread. The recipe specifies only "shortening," which at the time could mean butter, lard or a vegetable fat.
- OvenThe stated 350-400F is a wide range. 375F for 20-25 minutes, until the rings are deep gold and sound hollow underneath, is a safe choice; toward the top of the range watch the nut topping, which browns quickly.
- Rising timesThe recipe gives none. Expect roughly an hour for the sponge to become "very light," an hour for the full dough, and 30-45 minutes for the shaped rings, longer in a cool kitchen. Judge by volume and by the dough holding a dent when poked, not by the clock.
- The scissor cutsCut toward the center but not quite to it, at the two-inch intervals given, laying each cut section flat on the tin as directed. Do this after shaping and before the final rise, as the recipe has it, while the dough is still firm enough to hold its shape.
- YieldTwo rings; the number of petals depends on how large you shape each one and follows from the two-inch cutting intervals. Best the day they are baked.
The Swedish tea ring belongs to a family of ring-shaped sweet breads associated with Scandinavian-American baking in the Midwest, where it was a familiar sight at church suppers and in bakery cases through the first half of the twentieth century. Many later versions roll the dough around cinnamon, sugar and raisins before coiling it, and the scissor cuts show off that spiral; this earlier form leaves the dough plain and relies on the egg wash and chopped nuts for finish. New Delineator Recipes came out of the Butterick publishing house, whose Delineator magazine ran a test kitchen aimed at the home cook.