Yesterday, I decided to make some Finnish cardamom bread. Actually, I'd looked for recipes on Sunday, but hadn't really decided which one to use. So yesterday, I went online and decided that none of them sounded right, as far as I could remember having seen Jenni make it a year ago. Then I searched for Finnish recipes, and the best one I could find in an English translation.There was one problem: apparently they are not so concerned about exact measurements or directions as Americans are. The measurements were such as: a reasonable about of milk, seven handfuls of flour, etc. Oh, and there was no definites of "knead for so long, let rise for x-minutes, and then bake for half an hour." Nope - we had knead until approximately the right consistency, let rise until somewheres around double, then bake until golden brown.
Perhaps I am a little crazy to have gone ahead with this anyways. But I did. It was... interesting. And educational.
And it still turned out tasty and good. Nothing burnt, nothing doughy. My family says that it goes on the "Make-Again" list. I think that's pretty good for being approximation bread. Not sure if it's really how Finnish Cardamom Bread is supposed to be, but we could always just call it Laura's Approximately Finnish Cardamom bread.
Maybe - just maybe - I won't mind not have precise directions in the future. It depends: would that be around about reasonable?
Possibly.
ReplyDeletePost the recipe, neh? Please? Or something around it? ;-D
I love the look of this bread! I wish I had more time for bread-baking; I've had to take a break from it for awhile. :(
ReplyDeleteYes, vague recipes like this are funny. I've had lots of fun trying them out too....
One only kneads long enough to develop the gluten. So when it's stretchy enough, you're done. This is a bad explanation, but I think you can understand it. . . look at how the bread stretches before it's kneaded, and see how it changes. (My bread-baking friend taught me this.)
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