High Altitude Julekake (Norwegian Christmas Bread)
Soft and fluffy Julekake, made with yeast dough spiced with cardamom and fresh orange zest, sweetened with dried cranberries and apricots. This traditional Norwegian Christmas bread is wonderful toasted and buttered, or used for French toast and bread pudding.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Dough Hook
- Small Pullman Loaf Pan (9x4x4) (or two standard sized 9x5 inch bread loaf pans)
Ingredients
Dough
- ½ cup dried sweetened cranberries
- ½ cup dried apricots, chopped
- ½ cup water
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 1 packet (1/4 oz) instant/rapid rise or active dry yeast, preferably Platinum Superior Baking Yeast
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 4 cups bread flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tsp fresh orange zest
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter, very soft
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Egg Wash
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp milk
Instructions
Simmer the Dried Fruit
- In a saucepan, combine the dried cranberries, apricots and water. Bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and let the fruit soak in the water for several minutes.
- Drain the water, but save it for the dough.
Activate the Yeast
- In a saucepan, combine the milk and the water you soaked the fruit in. Heat the liquid over medium heat until it reaches between 110-115 F. If the temperature is hotter or colder, the yeast won't be properly activated.
- Remove the saucepan from the heat. Sprinkle the yeast and 1 tsp of the sugar over the milk mixture and stir it in. Let it stand for about 5 minutes, until it becomes foamy and bubbly.
Mix and Knead the Dough
- Meanwhile, in the bowl of your stand mixer, combine 3 cups of the flour with the rest of the sugar, salt, orange zest, cardamom and nutmeg. Add the milk/yeast mixture, butter, egg, vanilla, and the dried fruit, and stir together to form a soft, sticky dough.
- Attach the bowl to your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. Knead the dough for 10 minutes on medium low speed, gradually adding the remaining 1 cup flour. As the dough kneads and absorbs the flour, it will form sort of a "torpedo" of dough around the dough hook, and the dough will pull away from the sides of the bowl, although it may still stick to the bottom of the bowl. The dough should be soft, supple and spring back when gently touched.Don't add more flour than stated in the recipe, or your bread will end up too dense.
Let the dough rise.
- Lightly grease a large bowl and place the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size. It should take about 30-60 minutes.If your oven has a "bread proof" setting, use this. Otherwise, preheat the oven on to the lowest setting, then turn it off before you set the dough inside to proof.
- Prepare a small pullman loaf pan by brushing the bottom and sides lightly with butter. If you don't have a small pullman loaf pan, you can make two smaller loaves using two standard 9x5 inch bread loaf pans.
Shape and rest the dough.
- When the dough has doubled in size, lightly flour a clean work surface. Gently deflate the dough by scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then turn the dough out into the floured counter.
- Use a rolling pin (or just press the dough with your hands) to roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick, with a width that's equivalent to the length of your loaf pan. Roll up the dough into a log, and place it in the prepared loaf pan, with the seam of the dough facing down against the bottom of the pan, and the ends tucked down.
- Set the pan in a warm place to let the dough rest and puff up for about 20-30 minutes while the oven preheats. The dough should just reach the top of the pan. Note that this bread has significant oven spring, meaning it will continue to rise higher as it bakes.
- Instead of baking the bread in a loaf pan, you can also shape it into more traditional round free-form loaves. To do this, line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the dough into two equal portions, and shape each portion into a round loaf or boule. Place the loaves on the baking sheet, and let rest for 20-30 minutes while the oven preheats.
Bake the bread.
- While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- For the egg wash, whisk together the egg with 1 tbsp milk. Brush the egg wash over the top of the dough; this will give the bread a beautiful golden brown shine as it bakes.
- Bake the bread for about 50-60 minutes (for one large loaf) or 35-45 minutes (for two smaller loaves, until the top is a deep golden brown, and an instant read digital thermometer inserted into the center reaches 190-195 degrees Fahrenheit. If the top of the bread is browning too much before the center is cooked, lay a piece of aluminum foil over the bread to keep it from browning any more.
- Remove the bread from the pan and set on a wire cooling rack. Cool for about 1-2 hours before slicing with a sharp serrated knife. Julekake is fantastic eaten slightly warm or toasted, with butter or jam.
Notes
Store the bread in an airtight container or bag at room temperature for up to 3 days, or freeze the bread for up to 3-6 months.
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