Cardamom bread

I found this recipe @ vegetarian times, and thought it looked exciting - I love cardamom, and it sounded like a pretty straightforward recipe...  Only thing was, required some forward-thinking and time as it has to be started the night before and has some wait times.

The recipe makes 2 large loaves - I just did enough for 1.

2 cups almond milk, plus more for brushing loaf top
2 Tbs. ground flax seed
1/3 cup agave nectar / brown rice syrup / sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 Tbs. active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. whole cardamom seeds, coarsely ground
5 1/4 cups unbleached white flour (used a mixture of bread flour and plain flour)
2 Tbs. demerara sugar, for sprinkling (didn't have demerara so used crumbled soft brown sugar)

1. Stir together almond milk, ground flax seed, sugar, oil, yeast, salt, and cardamom in large nonreactive bowl with lid. Add flour, and mix thoroughly with wooden spoon. Cover with lid or plastic wrap, and let stand 2 1/2 hours at room temperature. Transfer to refrigerator, and let rest overnight.
2. Coat baking sheet with cooking spray, or line with parchment paper. Remove half of dough from refrigerator; reserve remaining dough for second loaf. (Dough will keep in refrigerator up to 5 days.) Divide dough into 3 equal pieces, and gently roll each piece into 18-inch-long rope on floured work surface. Place dough ropes side by side spaced 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. Pinch ends together on one side, and tuck under. Loosely braid dough ropes, then pinch tail ends together. Cover braided loaf loosely with kitchen towel or plastic wrap, and let rest 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375°F. Brush top of braided loaf with almond milk, and sprinkle generously with sugar. Bake 30 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

It was really good - the cardamom was lovely, and the braid looked really pretty (should really have taken a photo, but Seb was right in there nearly burning his fingers he was so keen to scoff it).  Excellent for a weekend brunch bread, eaten just as it is or with tahini.  Considering trying with cinnamon instead of cardamom, with seeds not so well ground, or a savoury version.  Quite inspired with regard to trying more bread recipes in general.