I was looking for Christmas Recipes other than cakes and cookies to try this year.And thats when I asw this Julekake/ Julekaga or Norwegian Christmas Bread Recipe.This was already a proven recipe as it was given in the ‘We knead to Bake’ challenge and many of our fellow bloggers have tried it already and posted, that gave me extra confidence to bake it.I always had fear trying yeasted bakes and that was only till Padma introduced me to instant dry yeast, and now I love to try yeasted bakes and find every opportunity to bake them.
This Julekake bread came out so soft, with the cardamom flavour and tutti frutti it reminded me of our local bakery’s thenga bun(coconut bun) just the flavour alone and we all loved it so much.
Norwegian Christmas Bread Recipe
Preparation Time:60 minutes | Cooking Time : 30 mins | Makes:10 slices
Recipe Category: Snack | Recipe Cuisine: World | Reference : DiverseKitchen
Recipe Category: Snack | Recipe Cuisine: World | Reference : DiverseKitchen
For the dough:
Maida – 1 and 1/4 cup
Instant dry yeast – 1 tsp
Sugar – 1/8 cup
Luke warm water – 1/8 cup
Luke warm milk – 1/4 cup
Butter – 2 tbsp(25 gms)
Salt – 1/8 tsp
Cardamom – 2 powdered
Tutti Frutti – 1/4 cup
Raisins – 2 tsp
For glaze:
Milk -1 tbsp
Sugar – 1 tbsp
Method:
- Take 1 tbsp sugar from 1/8th cup of sugar.In a bowl add 1 tbsp sugar along with luke warm water and milk.
- Add yeast.Set aside undisturbed for 10mins.It will become frothy, this shows the yeast is active.
- Now add remaining sugar,then add butter.I transferred this to a big mixing bowl, whisk it well.
- Add flour along with cardamom powder and salt. Mix well and knead it to a smooth nonsticky dough.Adjust with adding flour if the dough is sticky.Roll the dough to a large round, sprinkle tutti frutti and raisins.
- Then roll it up, and bring the egdes to form a round ball like shown below.
- Knead the ball slightly and place it in oil greased bowl.This is a good way to knead the fruit into dough.Keep covered and set aside to rise for an hr or until it is almost doubled.
- After an hr or so punch down the dough and knead well.Then place it in a baking tray and slightly flatten it.
- Brush it with milk.Set aside for 30-45mins, I left it for 30mins.Preheat oven at 180 deg C for 10 mins.Sprinkle sugar on top and bake in oven at 180 deg for about 30mins.If you find the bread browning too quickly, cover it with foil after about 15 minutes in the oven to avoid further browning.
Cool it on a rack. Let it cool completely before you slice it.
My Notes:
- The only mistake I did was while letting to rise my top was not smooth and I kept it as such to bake so had an ineven top.I should have kneaded it well in step 7 so that there are no cracks on top.Only lookswise it had cracks, the top was soft not crusty.So I recommend kneading the dough well to have a smooth finished top without cracks.
- If you want you can make an icing made with 1/4 cup icing sugar and few tsp of milk.Ans just pour the icing over the bread once it is completely cool.But in that case reduce sugar in the dough else the bread will be very sweet.
- Grease the baking pan with oil / butter.
- Place in a well oiled bowl while setting to rise.
- Sprinkling, rolling and kneading ensures proper ditsr knead in fruit into bread dough.
- Cool down the bread completely before you slice them.Always use a serated knife to slice.
- I loved the sugar topping and the crunch it gave while biting so recommend adding it.
Samu Sivarajan says
December 14, 2015 at 9:58 amlooks lovely.. I think we can have as long weekend breakfast.. Thanks
meigancam01 says
December 14, 2015 at 5:46 pmThis so delicious and tasty.!!
Thanks for sharing such amazing recipe of bread!!
Great way to start christmas preparation.
Anuradha Prem says
December 15, 2015 at 6:16 amlooks yummy..
lekha reddy says
December 15, 2015 at 8:35 amHow much is 1/8 cup?
SHARMILEE J says
December 15, 2015 at 12:38 pmIt is half of 1/4 cup
Sreeka says
December 16, 2015 at 1:05 amWhat is Tutti frutti? Does it mean mixed fruits?
I love your recipes.Can you convert cups into grams? or please include a metric converter.
Thava says
December 17, 2015 at 4:06 amI tried n it came out well… Thanks a lot
Unknown says
December 18, 2015 at 9:43 amLooks soooooo yummy. Planning to buy an oven for baking. I have Morphy Richards mwo 20ms, using it only for reheating. Any suggestions?
harshitha reddy says
December 22, 2015 at 2:50 pmHi.. Can I try this as a saltybread by skipping d sugar n replace tutifruti with nuts? Will that work out…
SHARMILEE J says
December 23, 2015 at 3:16 amYes it will work out
Pauline says
December 17, 2017 at 7:20 pmI am going to make it for Christmas breakfast and going to add some nuts.Thanks for the recipe.