Home All Recipes Appetizers and Beverages Bread Salad Soup Main Dish Side Dish Desserts Candy and Snacks Miscellaneous

2 cups hot milk	4 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup warm water	2 Tblsp cardamom spice
2 Tblsp dry yeast	3 cubes margarine or butter
2 cups sugar	10 cups white flour
2 tsp salt	Raisins optional

Combine sugar, salt, cardamom, and raisins in bowl. Pour in hot milk and stir to dissolve sugar and salt. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Beat eggs and add to milk mixture, stirring well. This cools the mixture so you can add the yeast. Add margarine/butter a little at a time. Add flour. Work with your fists and knead the dough until it's smooth. Let rise until double. Make three ropes to braid into each loaf. (I don't remember how many loaves this makes! I'm guessing 2.) After braiding, let loaves rise for 1/2 hour. Beat 1 egg until foamy and brush tops of loaves with egg. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Sprinkle with sliced almonds and sugar. When we were kids our neighbor from Finland would make this for us. We loved it! She never would give us the recipe. Years later, my sister got it from a roommate. It makes a festive looking bread for Christmas; also if you decorate it with candy mint leaves and Red Hots, it looks like holly.