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Swedish Bread
2 1/2 cups scalded milk 1/2 cup melted butter 2/3 cup sugar 1 egg, well beaten ¼ 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 four 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.
Swedish Tea Braid. Cut off three pieces of mixture of equal size and roll, using the hands, in pieces of uniform size; then braid. Put on a buttered sheet, cover, let rise, brush over with yolk of one egg, slightly beaten, and diluted with one-half tablespoon cold water, and sprinkle with finely chopped blanched almonds. Bake in a moderate oven.
Swedish Tea Ring I. Shape as tea braid, form in shape of ring, and proceed as with tea braid, having almonds blanched and cut in slices crosswise.
Swedish Tea Ring II. Take one-third Swedish Bread mixture and shape, using the hands, in a long roll. Put on an unfloured board and roll, using a rolling-pin, as thinly as possible. Mixture will adhere to board but may be easily lifted with a knife. Spread with melted butter, sprinkle with sugar and chopped blanched almonds or cinnamon. Roll like a jelly roll, cut a piece from each end and join ends to form ring. Place on a buttered sheet, and cut with scissors and shape (see illustration). Let rise, and proceed as with Tea Ring I. 1 cup scalded milk 1/3 cup butter 1/3 cup sugar 1/3 teaspoon salt 1 yeast cake 2 eggs
The ingredient list has come through in two garbled fragments — one at the top, one at the bottom — so read both before starting and reconcile the amounts. The method itself is a straightforward three-stage sponge dough, and the shaping instructions are the real value of the entry.
- Reconciling the two ingredient listsThe list printed at the end (1 cup scalded milk, 1/3 cup butter, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 teaspoon salt, 1 yeast cake, 2 eggs) supplies the milk and yeast the method actually calls for, and 1 cup of milk fits the method's "one-half cup milk... remaining milk." Neither list gives flour. The fragment at the top (2/3 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon almond extract) may belong to this recipe or to a neighbouring one; the page as transmitted does not settle which sugar, egg and salt quantities were intended, so treat the almond extract as optional.
- "14 teaspoon salt"This is a broken fraction, 1/4 teaspoon. The end list gives 1/3 teaspoon. Either is under-salted by modern taste for seven cups of flour; 2 teaspoons is closer to what a present-day baker would use.
- Yeast cakeA cake of compressed fresh yeast; sizes varied by maker and date, with 0.6 oz among the commoner ones. One packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry or instant yeast is the usual substitute, and the sponge stage makes the substitution forgiving.
- The flour totalAdding the stages gives 1/2 + 4 1/2 + 1 1/2 + 1/2 = 7 cups against only 1 cup of milk, 2 eggs and 1/3 cup butter. That is far too dry to come together. Hold back at least two cups and add flour only until the dough is soft, slightly tacky, and pulls away from the bowl — this style of enriched Scandinavian dough should stay noticeably slack.
- Scalded milkScalding is usually explained as inactivating substances in raw milk that weaken gluten. With pasteurized milk it is generally reckoned unnecessary; simply warm it to about 110F. If you do scald, cool it to lukewarm before it touches the yeast.
- Oven temperature"a moderate oven" is generally taken as somewhere around 350-375F. An egg-washed, sugar-enriched braid this size takes roughly 25 to 30 minutes; the almonds and the glaze will brown well before the interior is done, so tent with foil if the top darkens early.
- Rising timesThe book gives none. Expect 45 to 60 minutes for the sponge, about an hour for the bulk rise, and 30 to 45 minutes for the shaped loaf. Judge by volume, not the clock.
- Tea Ring II, the scissor cutsAfter joining the ends, snip through the ring from the outside almost to the center at roughly 1-inch intervals, then turn each cut section flat on its side. This is what produces the familiar fanned wreath; the referenced illustration is not reproduced here.
- YieldSeven cups of flour is a large batch — enough for one braid plus a tea ring, or three modest rings. Divide the dough before shaping rather than trying to handle it all at once.
Enriched, cardamom- or almond-scented yeast doughs shaped into braids and wreaths are the backbone of Scandinavian coffee baking, and the American form usually descends from Swedish *vetebröd* or *vetekrans*. The appearance of a recipe like this in print reflects the scale of Swedish and Norwegian immigration to the United States in the decades before 1900, when such breads moved out of immigrant kitchens and into general domestic instruction as "tea" breads — sweet enough for an afternoon table but leavened with yeast rather than baking powder. The three-stage sponge method, with a small batter of flour and milk set to rise before the main dough is built, is often said to have been common practice in an era when yeast was less reliable.