Watch That Dough Rise!

On Sunday I wanted to make something, either bread (I made a raisin and caraway loaf on Saturday) or a cake. After extensive cookbook searching I landed on a bread from Rachel Allen's Bake, a Cardamom Bread. This recipe is a bit more of a phaff than the ones I have been using but never being one to shy away from new bread making experiences I ploughed on.
Ingredients:
125ml Water
75g Butter
50g Caster Sugar plus and extra tsp
175ml warm water
15g Fresh Yeast (I'm only giving you this option!)
1 egg
Half tsp salt
1tbsp freshly ground cardamom (from about 28 pods)
600g plain flour, sifted
Firstly boil the water and butter together until the butter is melted and leave to cool. Mix 60mls of the warm water, 1 tsp caster sugar and yeast in a jug and leave for 5mins until it starts bubbling.
In another bowl whisk the egg, caster sugar and salt and then whisk in the remaining warm water. When the butter mixture has cooled but is still warm add the yeast mixture, the egg mixture and the cardamom and stir to combine. Add the flour and mix. Knead until smooth and soft.
Rachel says to leave it to prove for 2 hours for the first rising and 20 minutes for the second but I did it for an hour and an hour (as I have been doing). After the first rising I divided the dough in two and shaped them into loaves and put them in lined loaf tins for the second rising.
And my God what a rising, this fresh yeast is genius stuff. You'll see from the pictures the first rise and then the finished loaves. This is almost a brioche-type bread and was lovely fresh out of the oven with butter (or honey if you're that way inclined) or toasted after a couple of days. The cardamom gives it a fragrant, almost minty taste. In fact it would go very well with foie gras and a nice Beaumes de Venise wine, heaven.