Swedish Coffee Cake

Ingredients:
2 packages active dry yeast
5 1/2 to 5 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 teaspoon cardamon
2 cups milk
4 tablespoons butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Procedure:
In large mixer bowl, mix yeast with 2 1/2 cups of the flour and cardamon. Heat together milk, butter or margarine, sugar and salt just til warm, stirring occasionally to melt butter. Add to the dry ingredients in mixer bowl; beat 1/2 minute on low speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl constantly. Beat 3 minutes at high speed. By hand beat in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead till smooth and elastic 5 to 8 minutes.Place in greased bowl, turning once to grease surface. Cover and let rise till double. 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Punch down; divide into 3 parts and let rest 10 minutes. On floured surface, shape 1 part into a roll 36 inches long. Cross ends of dough to form a circle, having each end extend about 6 inches. Holding ends of dough toward center of circle, twist together twice. Press ends together and tuck under center of top of circle, forming a pretzel-shaped roll. Place on greased baking sheet. Repeat with 2 remaining parts of dough. Let rise again till almost double, about 45 minutes. Bake in moderate over (375 degrees) for about 20 minutes. Stir together 1 slighly beaten egg and 1 tablespoon water, brush on hot breads. Makes 3 loaves.