Norwegian Christmas Bread is a spongy delicious sweet bread made by baking a blend of flour, butter, sugar, tutti frutti in a pie shape. Norwegian Christmas Bread is a must try at home for its taste and for the joy of baking. Norwegian Christmas Bread is a treat for the family on special occasions.
I was looking for Christmas Recipes other than cakes and cookies to try this year.And thats when I asw this Julekake/ Julekaga or Norwegian Christmas Bread Recipe.This was already a proven recipe as it was given in the ‘We knead to Bake’ challenge and many of our fellow bloggers have tried it already and posted, that gave me extra confidence to bake it.I always had fear trying yeasted bakes and that was only till Padma introduced me to instant dry yeast, and now I love to try yeasted bakes and find every opportunity to bake them.
This Julekake bread came out so soft, with the cardamom flavour and tutti frutti it reminded me of our local bakery’s thenga bun(coconut bun) just the flavour alone and we all loved it so much.
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📖 Recipe Card
Norwegian Christmas Bread | Julekake
Ingredients
For glaze
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Instructions
- Take 1 tablespoon sugar from 1/8th cup of sugar. In a bowl add 1 tablespoon sugar along with luke warm water and milk.
- Add yeast. Set aside undisturbed for 10mins. It will become frothy, this shows the yeast is active.
- Now add remaining sugar ,then add butter. I transferred this to a big mixing bowl, whisk it well.
- Add flour along with cardamom powder and salt. Mix well and knead it to a smooth non-sticky dough. Adjust with adding flour if the dough is sticky.
- Roll the dough to a large round, sprinkle tutti frutti and raisins.
- Then roll it up, and bring the edges to form a round ball.
- Knead the ball slightly and place it in oil greased bowl. This is a good way to knead the fruit into dough. Keep covered and set aside to rise for an hour or until it is almost doubled.
- After an hour or so punch down the dough and knead well. Then place it in a baking tray and slightly flatten it.
- Brush it with milk. Set aside for 30-45mins, I left it for 30mins.
- Preheat oven at 180 deg C for 10 mins.
- Sprinkle sugar on top and bake in oven at 180 deg for about 30mins. If you find the bread browning too quickly, cover it with foil after about 15 minutes in the oven to avoid further browning.
- Cool it on a rack. Let it cool completely before you slice it. Enjoy Norwegian Christmas Bread with the family!
Notes
- Knead the dough well to have a smooth finished top without cracks.
- If you want you can make an icing made with 1/4 cup icing sugar and few teaspoon of milk. And just pour the icing over the bread once it is completely cool. But in that case reduce sugar in the dough else the bread will be very sweet.
- Grease the baking pan with oil / butter.
- Place in a well oiled bowl while setting to rise.
- Sprinkling, rolling and kneading ensures proper distribution of fruit into bread dough.
- Cool down the bread completely before you slice them. Always use a serrated knife to slice.
- I loved the sugar topping and the crunch it gave while biting so recommend adding it.
How to make Norwegian Christmas Bread
- Take 1 tablespoon sugar from 1/8th cup of sugar.In a bowl add 1 tablespoon sugar along with luke warm water and milk.
- Add yeast.Set aside undisturbed for 10mins.It will become frothy, this shows the yeast is active.
- Now add remaining sugar,then add butter.I transferred this to a big mixing bowl, whisk it well.
- Add flour along with cardamom powder and salt. Mix well and knead it to a smooth nonsticky dough.Adjust with adding flour if the dough is sticky.Roll the dough to a large round, sprinkle tutti frutti and raisins.
- Then roll it up, and bring the egdes to form a round ball like shown below.
- Knead the ball slightly and place it in oil greased bowl.This is a good way to knead the fruit into dough.Keep covered and set aside to rise for an hr or until it is almost doubled.
- After an hr or so punch down the dough and knead well.Then place it in a baking tray and slightly flatten it.
- Brush it with milk.Set aside for 30-45mins, I left it for 30mins.Preheat oven at 180 deg C for 10 mins.Sprinkle sugar on top and bake in oven at 180 deg for about 30mins.If you find the bread browning too quickly, cover it with foil after about 15 minutes in the oven to avoid further browning.
Cool it on a rack. Let it cool completely before you slice it.
Expert Tips
- The only mistake I did was while letting to rise my top was not smooth and I kept it as such to bake so had an ineven top.I should have kneaded it well in step 7 so that there are no cracks on top.Only lookswise it had cracks, the top was soft not crusty.So I recommend kneading the dough well to have a smooth finished top without cracks.
- If you want you can make an icing made with 1/4 cup icing sugar and few teaspoon of milk.Ans just pour the icing over the bread once it is completely cool.But in that case reduce sugar in the dough else the bread will be very sweet.
- Grease the baking pan with oil / butter.
- Place in a well oiled bowl while setting to rise.
- Cool down the bread completely before you slice them.Always use a serated knife to slice.
- I loved the sugar topping and the crunch it gave while biting so recommend adding it.
Samu Sivarajan
looks lovely.. I think we can have as long weekend breakfast.. Thanks
meigancam01
This so delicious and tasty.!!
Thanks for sharing such amazing recipe of bread!!
Great way to start christmas preparation.
Anuradha Prem
looks yummy..
lekha reddy
How much is 1/8 cup?
SHARMILEE J
It is half of 1/4 cup
Sreeka
What is Tutti frutti? Does it mean mixed fruits?
I love your recipes.Can you convert cups into grams? or please include a metric converter.
Thava
I tried n it came out well… Thanks a lot
Unknown
Looks soooooo yummy. Planning to buy an oven for baking. I have Morphy Richards mwo 20ms, using it only for reheating. Any suggestions?
harshitha reddy
Hi.. Can I try this as a saltybread by skipping d sugar n replace tutifruti with nuts? Will that work out…
SHARMILEE J
Yes it will work out
Pauline
I am going to make it for Christmas breakfast and going to add some nuts.Thanks for the recipe.
Susanne
What is tuiti fruiti please. I’m from Australia and we don’t know of it
Sharmilee J
Tutti frutti is a colorful chewy candied fruits, made using raw papaya