Swedish Cardamom Bread

We made this bread for the second time last night. I've been wanting it for a while, but couldn't find the recipe we'd used before. Figured I should post it on here in case the same problem happens again. It's delicious and really easy to make! Cardamom is on the expensive side, but you don't use a lot at a time so it lasts.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup Butter or Margarine
• 1 Cup Milk
• 1/2 Cup of Sugar
• 1 Tsp. Salt
• 2 Tsp. Ground Cardamom
• 1 Pkg. of Yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)
• 2 Eggs
• 4 Cups of Flour

Method:

Dissolve yeast in approximately 3 tablespoons of warm water, cover and let it foam up for 15 minutes. Meantime, put butter and milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil. As soon as it boils, turn off heat and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, add sugar, salt, and cardamom. Then add simmering milk to dry mix, add eggs, then add the yeast. Mix well. Then add aproximately 4 cups of flour to liquid ingredients until mixture begins to pull away from sides. Cover and let rise in warm area until it doubles.

After it doubles, take dough out, knead it and divide into halves. Then divide each half into 3 parts. Roll each part into balls, then roll balls into even strands. Take one greased cookie sheet and braid strands together on sheet side by side to make two separate loaves. Cover and let rise until loaves double. (After a half hour of waiting my taste buds won out and I just cooked it. Rose fine in the oven.)

Lightly brush on a mixture of egg yolk and 2 tablespoons of water on top of loaves. Bake on 350 for 20 minutes.