Aunt Gracie's Bread

The recipe for Aunt Gracie's bread has been in my little recipe box for many years, but I had never tried it. The recipe has a lot of variability.  I think that discouraged me from trying initially. I didn't want to make the wrong decision.

Finally, I looked around at other similar recipes.  It is simply a sweet bread with cardamon seeds. 

From the suggestions, this is what I chose.

3 cups of milk

1 package if yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup of warm water

3 TB of butter

2 eggs

1 1/4 cup of sugar

1 rounded TB of salt

1 tsp of cardamon seeds

9 cups of flour

Heat milk, add sugar, salt and butter.  Stir until dissolves. When lukewarm, add dissolved yeast. 

Add 3 cups of four and eggs, stir well. 

Add 3 cups of flour and stir well. 

Add last 3 cups of flour, one at a time mixing until flour is well blended. Add cardamon seed with last cup of flour. Knead until non sticky but shiny. Let rise two hours or until double in size. Punch down and shape into four braided loaves.  Loaves can be placed on baking sheets or in loaf pans. Let rise 2-2 1/2 hours covered with a towel until doubled. Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes. 

I made four loaves.  Each had four strands for a four strand braid. Two went into glass loaf pans and two on a cookie sheet. They tasted great and just like my parents remembered.