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How to Make Vetebrod Easter Bread
57K views
Apr 19, 2025
In this video I show you how we make Vetebrod each year for Easter (sometimes other times of the year too!). This is my great aunt's recipe and I have very fond childhood memories of it. Ingredients: 4 c. all purpose flour 1/2 c sugar , divided 1/2 c (one stick) butter 1/4 tsp salt 1 1/3 c lukewarm milk (105 degrees) 2 heaping teaspoons ground cardamom 1 beaten egg for an egg wash
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0:01
welcome to Cooking 100-year-old Recipes
0:03
i'm Stephanie in this video we are
0:06
actually cooking one of my family's
0:09
125year-old recipes it's a Swedish bread
0:13
called Veter and I'm going to show you
0:16
how to make it and how to make this easy
0:19
fishtail style braid with the simple
0:22
soft and delicious dough let's get
0:24
started
0:27
and so for this recipe it's a really
0:29
basic kind of enriched lightly sweetened
0:32
dough we're going to need flour white
0:35
sugar a little bit of salt
0:39
cardamom milk one egg a half stick of
0:43
butter which I'm going to melt and cool
0:45
and then two and a/4 teaspoon of good
0:48
fresh active yeast
0:51
i'm going to start by putting my yeast
0:53
in with a little bit of
0:56
the stuck in here with just a little bit
0:58
of the lukewarm milk give it a tiny bit
1:01
of a head start i'm not going to fully
1:03
bloom it but I want to make sure that it
1:05
has some contact with something
1:10
warm a minute
1:14
there and then measure in my
1:18
flour so it's four cups of
1:37
flour and then 1/4 cup of the sugar
1:41
and this little scoop that I keep in
1:43
here is 1/4 of a cup for my sugar so put
1:47
that in and then we'll use another 1/4er
1:49
cup later on and it says to do the
1:54
paddle attachment now of course when my
1:57
uh relative great relatives were making
2:00
this they did not have a
2:02
KitchenAid so this was more so done by
2:06
hand and then I'm going to start to
2:09
bring it together
2:12
slowly before adding in the um rest of
2:17
the
2:44
Right so it's almost smooth so this is
2:48
the first part of the process it's still
2:51
It's like a sticky cake batter almost
2:54
looks let me pull it
2:56
up almost like cottage cheese it's not a
3:00
smooth batter yet but this is the
3:02
initial kind of proofing time of the
3:05
batter so I'm going to scrape it down
3:07
and then cover it with a towel
3:19
and then I'll come back with the
3:20
kneading hook with uh the rest of the
3:22
ingredients after but first things first
3:26
just let
3:27
this should be loose enough for it to be
3:31
able to rise so it's not too compacted
3:33
that the air can't airate the
3:36
dough so there's going to be two rises
3:39
for this
4:16
i'm going to give it about 45
4:20
minutes while this batter rises here's a
4:24
cozy bit of spice history for you
4:27
cardamom along with cinnamon cloves and
4:30
other baking spices did not originate in
4:33
Europe these bold fragrant flavors were
4:36
first traded from regions like India and
4:39
the Middle East but thanks to the
4:41
farreaching voyages of Viking explorers
4:44
they made their way north between the
4:47
8th and 11th centuries the Vikings
4:50
traveled vast trade routes connecting
4:53
with Arab and Eastern merchants they
4:56
brought back not only treasures but
4:58
spices including cardamom ginger and
5:01
clove which slowly became kitchen
5:03
staples in northern and central
5:06
Europe over time these helped shape some
5:09
of Europe's most beloved traditional
5:12
bakes think Springerly cookies from
5:15
Germany flavored with anis and stamped
5:18
with intricate designs or feoose spiced
5:22
holiday cookies loaded with cloves
5:24
cinnamon and nutmeg giving it a
5:26
delicious gingerbread flavor swedish
5:29
cardamom buns are soft and aromatic or
5:33
speculous from Belgium and the
5:36
Netherlands crisp spiced and perfect
5:39
with coffee you also know these as a
5:42
biscoff or maybe you buy it currently in
5:44
modern times known as cookie butter
5:49
so when you're baking with these warming
5:50
spices like I'm using in this recipe
5:53
you're carrying on a rich tradition that
5:55
spans centuries and continents one
5:59
delicious bite at a time now let's get
6:02
back to the vetro all right it's been 45
6:05
minutes let's see how we're looking yes
6:08
puffed up
6:10
nicely so from here I'm going to put in
6:14
my
6:15
um Where's my dough ho oh
6:19
and now the dough is going to get
6:22
flavored so at this point it is the
6:24
half2 cup of melted and cooled
6:43
butter 1/4 teaspoon of salt
6:59
the remaining sugar so it's another 1/4
7:02
of a
7:08
cup and then the all important cardamom
7:16
and it's two full
7:34
teaspoons and I'm going to just kind of
7:37
gently let it mix until it's combined
7:40
really really well
7:44
i'm going to stop and if it looks too
7:46
wet I'm going to add more flour if it
7:48
needs just a little bit
7:53
more i think it's all right just needs
7:56
more mixing the four cups should be
7:59
enough but sometimes you know it needs a
8:01
little
8:05
extra and then I'll let it go so that it
8:08
actually starts to knead and develop
8:10
that gluten a bit
8:14
more i'm going to check again see how
8:17
we're
8:18
doing it's not too
8:22
sticky it needs a little more kneading
8:25
though i'm going to um let it go for a
8:27
total of six minutes i've already done
8:30
nearly four i'm going to do another two
8:33
see how smooth it's looking
8:38
certainly you can knead by hand of
8:41
course my great aunt did not have a
8:44
KitchenAid mixer back in the 1920s when
8:47
she was making this she used a flower
8:49
sack type towel and did a lot of her
8:52
pastry work on that
9:09
it's come out of the bowl pretty
9:16
smoothly then
9:21
again cover with my towel and put it in
9:24
a warm place for another Oh
9:30
maybe 40 minutes again like I did before
9:34
see how it looks i'll I'll see lots of
9:36
bubbles and this should come up almost
9:38
to the top of the
9:40
bowl it's been about an hour
9:45
and looks gorgeous smells so fragrant
9:49
nice still soft dough there's a little
9:51
if you can see there's a little wiggle
9:53
not quite like Jell-O but there's a
9:55
little movement that's a tender cakey
9:58
dough so I've got a rolling pin i'm
10:02
going to use a pizza roller to do the
10:06
scoring for the fish tail but you can
10:08
use a knife if you don't have a pizza
10:09
cutter but I find this to be um really
10:12
make it simple i don't make a lot of
10:14
pizza so I use that for other things and
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then I'm just going to use a bench
10:18
scraper or dough cutter which again if
10:20
you don't have it you don't have to use
10:21
it but it'll help me divide my dough and
10:24
then I have a brush for my egg topping
10:27
and a rolling pin to shape smooth
10:29
flatten the dough because we do need a
10:32
nice uh an even rectangle to create the
10:35
fishtail shape it's not hard but we need
10:38
um some structure to the shape so let's
10:42
put some flour down first and I'm going
10:44
to use a silicone sheet under it
10:48
sometimes I use a flower sack towel
10:51
which is what my aunt did i do that when
10:54
I make pie crust and whatnot but I don't
10:56
have a clean one today so I'm going to
10:58
use this mat with a little If you can
11:00
find these silicone mats with this kind
11:02
of grid texture it helps uh keep things
11:05
from sticking which is nice i still need
11:08
flour because it's a soft
11:10
dough all right so pull it out it comes
11:14
right out beautifully
11:19
and
11:20
then going to cut it in
11:23
half that way my loaves will be even and
11:28
put one half back into the
11:30
bowl now it is going to rest again after
11:33
it's shaped but it's not really for
11:35
rising
11:39
purposes let's coat it on this side and
11:41
I'll just move it to this
11:45
side i think I had some really happy
11:47
yeast my dough is just so nice and um
11:52
fluffy so I'm going just gently roll
12:00
it to about a 9 by
12:04
12
12:08
size roll from the
12:10
center and then push out
12:45
so I've got my um sheet ready and I'm
12:47
going to put a um a sheet of parchment
12:50
down on it and then I'll transfer the
12:52
fishtail braid bread as I make them onto
12:55
it so they will slide on once I uh form
12:59
this shape this I will uh tip tip the um
13:03
the mat onto the prepared
13:07
tray all right so now I'm going to do
13:09
some scoring
13:18
so when I say scoring I mean I'm going
13:20
to create some marks but not cut through
13:24
the dough so look at your dough and then
13:27
see it in three sections so here's one
13:32
three even sections i'm just marking my
13:35
sections as such they're the same
13:37
approximately the same width my dough is
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still it's not fighting me but it's
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still pretty bouncy and airy it's going
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to make a gorgeous loaf so I'm going to
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gently just
13:48
run you see how easy it is when you have
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the pizza cutter just gently run so I'm
13:53
making some markings and then I'll do
13:55
the same with this side and meet up with
13:57
that little mark I just made all the way
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to the end then I'm going to come
14:03
across and about one inch increments
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I'll start rolling my
14:10
um just straight across like
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that just very gently i'm not going all
14:25
the way through
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straight this so you can see what I'm
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doing
15:00
to cut through a little more
15:03
here and actual sides need to be able to
15:06
be lifted up so I'm going to just bring
15:08
it up and kind of bring it forward just
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slightly like
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this that
15:17
crisscross all the way
15:20
through bring it
15:22
over
15:29
hold
15:38
it so I'm cutting all the way through on
15:40
the sides but not in the center
16:28
okay and then towards the end you see I
16:30
have kind of this narrowed fish tail
16:32
shape
16:39
just dust off some of this
16:58
extra all right and then for resting I'm
17:01
going to glaze it before I bake it but
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for right now it's got to rest let's
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just get it
17:40
don't worry it's red it's not so
17:42
precious that you can't you know
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manhandle it a little bit get it into
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position
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beautiful make sure these are how I want
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them to
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look remember everything's going to
18:01
expand okay all right and now I will
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repeat the same with the other half of
18:07
the dough
18:10
[Music]
18:58
all right so here for my second one I
19:00
made it with more cuts so the fish scale
19:04
so to speak there's more density it's
19:07
personal preference but I wanted to show
19:08
you what both look like so if you're
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going to make it yourself you know which
19:13
one that you like the look of better we
19:16
were kind of split on it in my family
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some people like the the smaller scale
19:21
some like this kind of big more pastry
19:24
style look but it doesn't matter it's
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going to be delicious regardless of how
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you cut it so to speak pun intended so
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I'm going to let it rest for just about
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15 minutes make sure the dough is
19:35
relaxed everything is settled in the way
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it should be then um in about 5 minutes
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I'm going to start preheating the oven
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and give it 10 minutes to fully heat so
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I'll just cover it up
19:48
and brush with my egg glaze which I
19:51
already have prepared
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you know I'm just sugaring it you see
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the egg has just kind of nestled around
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and
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self-leveled into all the little spaces
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it's almost soaked into the dough it's
20:30
nearly
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invisible just need a little patience
20:36
when you make this not a lot
20:40
somewhere between a quick
20:41
bread well okay that might be a little
20:45
generous using those words because of
20:47
all the resting times but I just I don't
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feel like this is as uh time consuming
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as like making say a white bread but it
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is a yeasted enriched dough and they
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will be gorgeous delicious and very
21:02
fragrant when they're done right the
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oven's hot so these bake for about 30
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minutes and I check on it midway through
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to see how brown it's getting because we
21:15
don't want burnt vetabrad so I will
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drape some um foil over it if it needs
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it i bake it on the center rack right at
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350 it's been about 30 minutes i'm going
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to take it out of the oven
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i did tint it at 20 minutes it was just
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kind of the color I wanted
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it and I didn't want to color further
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but of course it still has to bake
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through isn't that
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gorgeous it smells just
21:54
heavenly so I need to cool them i'm
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going to shove everything onto a wire
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rack
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and we'll give it a taste in just a
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little while so there's um you might
22:14
wonder how do you serve this so it's
22:16
kind of a personal preference and
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because it makes you know these two
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generous loaves you can try all the
22:23
waves and tell me your favorite way to
22:25
eat it so um you can have it slightly
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warm just just the way it is it's tender
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um it's got a nice delicate sweet flavor
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it's delicious with tea and coffee you
22:37
know to have with
22:39
fica i like it room temperature with
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very thin slices of cold butter on it uh
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some of my family likes it toasted it's
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delicious toasted you know for breakfast
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with some butter on it as well so you
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know take your pick it's any of those
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ways i mean honestly I wouldn't turn any
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of them down so I'm going to cool this
23:00
off and we will take a look
23:03
inside it's cooled off enough now I can
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trim it i know how this looks on camera
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it looks really brown on camera but it's
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not it's perfectly golden cut
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some so I'd say it's more room
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temperature
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now if you haven't had this before I
23:21
would describe it almost like a bio
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there's no egg in it but it's got that
23:25
kind of light tenderness but still bread
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and then of course the delicate
23:31
sweetness
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and the
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card it's a nice tender crumb almost
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cakey but it's
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not it's a very special bread for me and
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my family so let me know if you've had
23:50
it if you've made it or if you're going
23:53
to make it i would love to hear from you
23:55
in the comments thanks for watching and
23:57
happy Easter or happy days whenever
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you're watching this video i'll see you
24:02
next time
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