One can't plunder on an empty stomach.
When I'm out at Dad's, I make it a point to go into the "big city", often taking the long way on the ferry to get there. I enjoy the ride, it brings back a lot of memories of trips made back and forth here, some good, some painful, yet all, part of an abundant past.
Oh, look, trapped on the ferry with the Snap On Tool Truck. Score!!!
Once I get to town (ok, I only bought two things), I do a little wandering. Having such a high population of Scandanavian folks, there are some really incredible bakeries in the area, including this one.
These are made from scratch every morning. It's always fun to get a couple and some of their good coffee and just go sit along the river and watch the seals (no, not the Navy kind).
But, excellent bakeries aside, no one makes cardamom bread like my Mom and Grandma did. Grandma immigrated from Sweden at age 18 and after moving to Minnesota, married a Norwegian logger from an immigrant North Dakota family, eventually settling in Montana, where my Dad's parents homesteaded. The rest is wonderful family history comprised of bad puns, gun poweder and baking powder biscuits..
From them I inherited an appreciate of certain recipes that just say "home", if only to me. Liver sausage, those baking powder biscuits, a recipe from 1900 called only "Killum Quicks", pork with potato pancakes and lingonberry sauce and apple pie cake, baked in a pie pan and served with ice cream. But when I visit, I always make sure Dad has a loaf of cardamom bread to tear apart with a bit of butter and some good coffee. The recipe is not Mom's, as it was never written down, but this adaption comes close.
Green and black cardamom are used as flavorings in both food and drink, as cooking spices and as a medicine. Cardamom has a strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic, resinous fragrance. The smell while it bakes is just incredible.
Green cardamom is one of the most expensive spices by weight but little is needed to impart the flavor. Ground Cardamom can be found in any spice aisle at the grocery (though I get mine at Penzeys). If you wish to buy and use whole Cardamom seeds for more intense flavor, a generally accepted equivalent is 10 pods equals 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of the ground. If you buy the pods, store them whole, because once the seeds are exposed or ground, they quickly lose their flavor.
In my Mom's Swedish/Norwegian kitchen it was used as a flavoring in waffles, cookies, many Nordic breads and even her bacon pancakes.. Cardamom bread is most commonly served around Christmas, and I believe is Finnish in origin (known as "pulla) but in our household, we enjoy it on any chill morning when family gathers.
Cardamom Bread
There's a reason none of the low carb diets were written by Scandinavian folks.
When I'm out at Dad's, I make it a point to go into the "big city", often taking the long way on the ferry to get there. I enjoy the ride, it brings back a lot of memories of trips made back and forth here, some good, some painful, yet all, part of an abundant past.
Oh, look, trapped on the ferry with the Snap On Tool Truck. Score!!!
From them I inherited an appreciate of certain recipes that just say "home", if only to me. Liver sausage, those baking powder biscuits, a recipe from 1900 called only "Killum Quicks", pork with potato pancakes and lingonberry sauce and apple pie cake, baked in a pie pan and served with ice cream. But when I visit, I always make sure Dad has a loaf of cardamom bread to tear apart with a bit of butter and some good coffee. The recipe is not Mom's, as it was never written down, but this adaption comes close.
Green and black cardamom are used as flavorings in both food and drink, as cooking spices and as a medicine. Cardamom has a strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic, resinous fragrance. The smell while it bakes is just incredible.Green cardamom is one of the most expensive spices by weight but little is needed to impart the flavor. Ground Cardamom can be found in any spice aisle at the grocery (though I get mine at Penzeys). If you wish to buy and use whole Cardamom seeds for more intense flavor, a generally accepted equivalent is 10 pods equals 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of the ground. If you buy the pods, store them whole, because once the seeds are exposed or ground, they quickly lose their flavor.
In my Mom's Swedish/Norwegian kitchen it was used as a flavoring in waffles, cookies, many Nordic breads and even her bacon pancakes.. Cardamom bread is most commonly served around Christmas, and I believe is Finnish in origin (known as "pulla) but in our household, we enjoy it on any chill morning when family gathers.
click to enlarge, I know you want to
Cardamom Bread
There's a reason none of the low carb diets were written by Scandinavian folks.
