I'm giving this recipe 4 stars as it is. With these changes I'd say it's 5 stars. I've made this bread 5 times now. It does need more cardamom 1 tsp works well. I also use less flour about 2 3/4 cup. And I use 1 tsp of salt. I learned that the hard way. The first few times I made it it would fall in the middle then I researched bread making and I learned that the salt keeps it from falling in the middle. Now I love making this bread and giving it as gifts it's really delicious.
This bread is wonderful. I tripled the amount of cardamom and used 1/2 cup less flour than called for. This bread is aromatic, tasty, and perfectly risen. I baked it in the bread machine, and it is a beautiful loaf. It has a nice, crunchy crust.
Also good kept in the bread machine the whole time, under 1.5 lb, light crust setting. Yum!
I made this using my KitchenAid mixer and found that I'd made a mistake dumping in all the flour called for it could have used maybe as much as half a cup less. It was way too stiff and the resulting loaf wasn't as light as I prefer. I made some deep slashes in the dough before proofing in the pan and after baking brushed all over with butter. It was a very pretty bread and the flavor was simple; mildly sweet. But the cardamom didn't show thru like I'd hoped.
Excellent light moist texture. I made 12 rolls. On the advice of several reviewers here I doubled the cardamom and I feel it was a mistake to do so. That much cardamom gave it a medicinal taste. Perhaps it was because the bottle of cardamom was brand new so it was more potent - don't know for sure. Shame on me - I should have followed the recipe as written the first time since I believe that subtlety works so much better in bread products than in-your-face spice does. As written this recipe is most likely just about perfect.
I made 12 rolls and baked them for 22 minutes in a 350 oven. I could have taken them out at 20 minutes. They got a bit too brown. These were crusty on the outside which is good but I thought they could use a little bit more salt.
Worked out pretty well. Maybe needed a tad less flour. I added a full tsp cardamom and probably could have even gone stronger. Mildly sweet and good with carrot and leek soup.
I used 2 tsp. freshly ground cardamon seeds which gave it a nice aromatic but not overwhelming flavor - very good texture and taste.
Made this Bread several times and have gifted some loaves. Everyone says it is excellant.
