Sharis Kitchen Swedish Cardamom Toast Biscotti
Delicious and easy
Baking time about 1 hour total - 35 min first bake, 26 min second bake 350 degrees
- 1 c Butter
- 1 1/2 c Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 c Sour cream
- 3 3/4 c Flour
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 2 tsp. crushed cardamom seed or ground cardamom (MTT – ground works fine for me)
(from 2- 4 T pods, place in non-terry kitchen towel & use meat tenderizer to open paper-like pods, then hands to remove husks and get seeds, use electric coffee grinder, tenderizer or wooden potato masher to crush seeds)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 or jelly roll pan. Get out an additional pan to have ready for second baking, line with parchment paper or lightly grease.
Mix all ingredients in order listed. [MTT note - makes a sticky dough, but don’t add more flour, just use spoon and light touches of hand to spread] Spread on lightly greased 9x13" (or jelly roll) pan in 2 long strips.
Bake in 350-degree oven for 30 - 35 minutes, or until golden brown. [MTT note - loaves expand and may slightly bake together, just use knife to cut along seam.]
Use a large sharp knife (or tableknife works just fine) to cut each strip into half-inch to 1-inch wide pieces (about width of thumb).
Lay each piece on its side on a lightly greased/ parchment-paper lined baking sheet. [MTT note - cookie spatula helps turn and place pieces; you can reuse the original sheet for the 2nd baking.] (You’ll need 2 lightly greased or parchment-paper lined baking sheets to hold all the cut pieces.)
Place pans on top & bottom racks in oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Rotate pans, top rack to bottom & bottom rack to top. Continue baking until slices are golden brown, about 6 - 7 minutes more. [MTT note - no need to flip each piece, bottom of each browns also.]
Remove toast from pans. Cool on racks. Makes about 30 pieces.
From recipe book “Always on Sunday”, by Eleanor Ostman, St Paul Pioneer Press food columnist. Recipe appeared in her column June 30, 1991. “Shari’s Kitchen was a small cafe in Two Harbors, MN., at Carousel Antiques on Hwy 61. Despite the “Swedish” name of these toasts, proprietor Sharon DeLeo said she got the recipe from a Finnish friend in Ely. (Paul Bergman purchased Shari’s Kitchen in 1998 and today it’s the Vanilla Bean Café.)”
Crushed vs ground cardamom - From an online site: You can make such recipes with ground cardamom, but you won’t get the same bite of flavor with the ground that you do with the crushed cardamom. You bite into the seeds and get a nice burst of flavor with the crushed cardamom.
