This Swedish Braided Cardamom Bread recipe is a traditional holiday loaf that’s a delicious enriched dough that’s topped with pearl sugar. This puffy braided dough is perfect when paired with warm coffee.
I’m leaving you with this beautiful braided Swedish Braided Cardamom Bread from Melissa’s new book, Scandinavian Gatherings.
This beautiful holiday Swedish bread is laced with fragrant cardamom and topped with crunchy pearl sugar (here’s a link if you want to make your own!). A lot of Scadinavian countries actually make lots of desserts with cardamom.
Spices in Scandinavian Baked Goods
When I was in Copenhagen a few years ago, a woman, who was an ardent baker, told me that people in Scandinavia used A LOT of spices because years ago it was indicative of how much money you had. The more spices you used, the more money you had. Spices came from far away places and it signified that you could afford such spices. Interesting fun fact, eh?
That’s why you’ll find cardamom cookies and cardamom breads with a really liberal amount of spice added to them. And I’m absolutely down.
How to Make Swedish Cardamom Braided Bread
- Warm and combine the milk, sugar, butter and yeast. This will make the yeast all foamy and perfect.
- Pour the wet mixture into the bowl of a stand-up mixer with the hook attachment.
- And then add some of the flour, salt, ground cardamom and egg.
- Next, add 1 more cup of flour and it’ll all come together.
- Transfer the dough to a well oiled bowl and let it rise for 1 hour. As a result, it’ll double in size.
- Punch down the dough and knead it for about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Divide the dough into 6-equal pieces.
How to Braid the Dough
Braided dough seems a lot harder than it looks. It’s truly not that difficult. You divide the dough into six (because we have two loves). And then you braid those strands into three. It’s a wonderfully soft dough that is super easy to handle.
I made it on a day when I was doing a million things. But when it was done baking, I sat down, watched Real Housewives and ate a piece of this Swedish Braided Cardamom Bread while sipping some warm tea. Just like Scandinavians intended!

Swedish Braided Cardamom Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 2 packets active dry yeast or instant yeast
- 6 cups all-purpose flour divided
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
- 2 large eggs divided
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
- 2 tablespoons Swedish pearl sugar
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, combine the milk and sugar; whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Add the butter, and heat over medium low, stirring gently, until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat.
- Allow the milk mixture to cool to the temperature of a warm bath (not hot!), and stir in the yeast. Allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes to make sure the yeast is active and alive. You should see bubbles on the surface (don't be alarmed if it's not super foamy), and the mixture should grow in volume.
- When you are certain the yeast is working, in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, add the milk mixture. Add 2 cups of the flour, and the salt, cardamom, and 1 of the egg. Mix until combined.
- Add 3 more cups of the flour and stir until it is completely incorporated. Add the remaining 1 cup of flour a little at a time until the dough forms a ball and is no longer super sticky when lightly touched with your finger. You might not use the entire cup of flour.
- Transfer the dough to a large, lightly oiled bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
- Punch down the dough, knead by and for 1 to 2 minutes on a well-floured surface, and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Divide the dough into six equal portions. Roll each portion into a skinny rope about 15 inches long. Line up three dough ropes side by side on the counter in front of you. Pinch one end of the rope together, then gently braid the three ropes into a loaf. When you reach the end, pinch the remaining dough together and tuck it under the loaf slightly. Repeat with the other three dough ropes to make a second loaf.
- Place each loaf on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and let it rise for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- To make an egg wash, in a small bowl, whisk the remaining 1 egg and the milk together. Brush the top and sides of both braided loaves with the egg wash, then sprinkle each loaf with 1 tablespoon pearl sugar.
- Bake the loaves until browned on top, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool before slicing.
Notes
Nutrition
If you make this recipe, let me know on Instagram!
Looking for more breakfast recipes? Here are some favorites:
The recipe is fine but I take issue with the lay out of this page, not only do I have to read a novel to get to the recipe but then the step by step comes first and the ingredient list is way down the page. Can’t you do like everyone else and put a “jump to recipe” link.
If you look at the very top of the page there is a “jump to recipe” link. It’s literally under the “Title, published, last updated”
My husband is Swedish and the Swedish Bakery up North closed after many years shipping him this bread for the Holidays. I baked this today and it’s absolutely delicious. I followed the recipe exact and the bread turned out perfect. While the dough was resting my husband said the aroma was taking him back to his childhood when his Nona made this during the holidays. Thank you for sharing.
This is my first year ever making homemade bread (breadmaking has intimidated me my whole life and now I absolutely love it)! This was one recipe I really looked forward to trying, and it turned out fantastic! I did make a couple of my own changes– because I’m trying to cut back on processed sugar, I substituted 1/2 cup of all-natural maple syrup in place of the white sugar (still added the pearl sugar on top, though… couldn’t resist!). Because the substitution was liquid, I cut back on the milk to only 1 and 3/4 cups. And, looking at some of the other reviews, I decided to add more cardamom than what the original recipe calls for. I added 2 and 1/2 teaspoons of cardamom, but looking back I probably could have even added 3! Definitely set aside a lot of time to make this recipe, since this was nearly an all-day process! But it was so enjoyable and the bread turned out beautiful AND delicious!! Definitely adopting this recipe as a new Christmas tradition!
wonderful!!
when making this loaf is it ok to refrigerate the dough after the first rise and divided into 6 diffrent balls? I was hoping to bake this say around 2 in the afternoon but i will be gone all morning. was hoping to just refrigerate for about 5 hrs or so. any tips?
Have made your cardamom bread twice now… turned out perfectly and delicious! Thank you for sharing your great recipe!
this is about as close to the real swedish recipe I have that I’ve seen online!
Made the cardomin bread. This recipe is wonderful.
Going to make tomorrow. Can you bake in loaf pans?
awsome the bread is soft
Best recipe ever!!! I did spread softened butter, cinnamon/sugar and raisons on the dough ropes before rolling into skinny ropes. I used a total of 5 1/2 cups of flour; 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamon. Absolutely delicious!!
Fabulous bread! So light and fluffy, and I know friends will be impressed when I gift them loaves. Thanks.
Good recipe but cooks for more like 30 minutes, not 20, and needs more cardamom for sure.
I’m baking two loaves on Wednesday, traveling on Thursday, and serving on Friday. Better to bake and freeze and take it, or just form loaves and freeze and bake on Friday?
Has anyone done this in a loaf pan? If so how long did you bake it for?
I made this recipe and it was absolutely delicious. The outside was gold and the inside spongy and real light. Perfect