Eggless Julekake | Julekage- Norwegian Christmas Bread
Julekage, traditional Scandinavian Christmas bread. A rich, flavorful bread served at Christmas in many Scandinavian countries, particularly popular in Norway and Denmark
Servings 6
Calories
Equipment
- Convection oven
- Measuring cups and spoons
Ingredients
- 2.5 cups bread flour
- 1.5 teaspoon instant yeast
- 3.5 tablespoon butter
- 3 tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup warm milk
- ½ cup candied fruit I used dried cherries & berries
- ¼ cup golden raisins
- 1 tablespoon milk plus a teaspoon of oil mixed for brushing the bread
- 2 tablespoon chopped almonds & Pearl sugar for topping
Instructions
- Take bread flour, instant yeast, sugar together in a bowl. Mix well to combine. Warm milk in microwave for 20 seconds add butter to the milk.
- Now slowly add this milk mixture to the flour mix. Using a spatula start mixing the flour.
- Temperature of the liquid added is more important while making bread dough. Too hot or too cold it will kill the yeast. One way to know whether the temperature is correct, is to touch the liquid with your finger, it should be hot and not scaling hot, that is correct temperature.
- Once both the flour and milk is incorporated well. Take the flour on to a kneading surface and knead well to form a smooth elastic dough.
- Nowt o add the dried fruits to the dough. Stretch the dough roughly into ar ectangle, spread the dried fruits on it and now roll the dough into a jellyroll and knead it to form a dough.
- Let the dough rest in a well oiled bowl for an hour or until it doubles
- ·Take the dough on to a flat surface, punch down the extra air and knead the dough for a minute again and shape it into a boule/ball.
- Grease a flat baking tray and lay it with parchment. Lay the prepared boule/ball on a prepared baking tray. Let the dough rest another 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180C. Brush the bread with milk-oil mix and bake it for 30 minutes or until the top turns golden brown.
- Let the bread sit in the oven for 2 minutes, take it out of the oven and let itcool in the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack and let it cool completely. Slice and enjoy warm along with tea.
- Any leftover bread, can be tightly cling-wrapped and stored on the kitchen counter for a day. I have never stored it outside for more than one day. If storing for more days i prefer refrigeration.