vegan braided cardamom bread with slivered almonds

Another recipe modified from the Savory Way, in this case quite heavily, in order to make it vegan and adapt to my tastes and what I have on hand. I love having this bread on hand as a quick (once it's baked) snack or breakfast, loaded with earth balance or even a dab of honey. 

VEGAN BRAIDED CARDAMOM BREAD 

Ingredients: 

1 ½ cups soy milk

½ cup earth balance

1 ½ tsp ground cardamom

½ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

grated zest of 1 lemon, or a couple tablespoons of lemon juice

a ¼ oz package active dry yeast

6 tbsp cornstarch or ground flax seed mixed separately with 6 tbsp cold water for dough

6 cups or more all-purpose flour

2 tbsp cornstarch / flax seed mixed with 2 tbsp cold soy milk or water or melted earth balance for glaze

½ cup slivered almonds, approximately

sugar for topping

Heat the soy milk with the earth balance, cardamom, sugar, salt, and lemon zest. Stir occasionally until the earth balance is melted and the sugar is dissolved. When the mixture has cooled to lukewarm, gently stir in the yeast and let the mixture stand for 10 minutes or until the yeast is nice and foamy.

Add the first cornstarch/flax seed mixture to the milk and yeast mixture. Next begin adding the flour, whisking it in to make a smooth batter until it becomes too thick; then change to a wooden spoon and continue adding flour until it is again too thick, at which point you can turn the dough out onto a floured surface and begin kneading. Work in more flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Knead for at least 7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and shiny; then set it aside in a bowl that has been slightly filmed with earth balance or a flavorless oil. Rub a little of the earth balance or oil on the top; then cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and set it aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. When the dough has risen, turn it out onto the counter.

Braid into one big loaf. Glaze with the second cornstarch or flax seed mixture, press in the pine nuts or almond slivers, and sprinkle the surface with the sugar. Loosely cover the bread and set aside again to rise until about doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

While the bread is rising, preheat the oven to 350F. Just before putting it in the oven, check to see if the dough has expanded so that some areas are now unglazed and unsugared. Brush more glaze on these areas and cover them with a sprinkling of sugar and more almonds / pine nuts. Bake the bread until is a deep golden brown on top, about 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool before eating. 


PS: this bread was also on the lovely baking is hot!