Min søster siger, at brødet skulle gerne hæve i en time, efter at hun har æltet dejen godt.

In this sentence, skulle gerne means something like should, is supposed to, or is expected to.

So brødet skulle gerne hæve i en time means that the bread should ideally be left to rise for an hour.

The word gerne adds a soft, hopeful, or recommended nuance. It is less direct than a plain instruction.

Here skulle is not really marking past time. Danish often uses the past form of modal verbs to sound softer, less absolute, or more tentative.

So skulle gerne can sound a bit like:

• should
• ought to
• is meant to

It is very common in everyday Danish:

• Det skulle gerne virke. = It should hopefully work.
• Bussen skulle gerne komme klokken otte. = The bus should be coming at eight / is expected to come at eight.

So skulle here is about tone and nuance, not about something happening in the past.

The two at's do different jobs.

• siger, at ...: here at means that
• efter at ...: here efter at means after

So:

• Min søster siger, at ... = My sister says that ...
• efter at hun har æltet ... = after she has kneaded ...

Even though the word is the same, the function is different in each place.

In Danish, i is commonly used for duration.

So:

• i en time = for an hour
• i to dage = for two days
• i lang tid = for a long time

That is completely normal Danish. English uses for, but Danish usually uses i for this meaning.

Har æltet is the present perfect, meaning has kneaded.

It is used because the kneading must be completed before the bread rises. The order of actions is:

1. she kneads the dough
2. the bread rises for an hour

So efter at hun har æltet dejen godt means after she has kneaded the dough well.

This is a very natural way in Danish to show that one action is finished before the next one happens.

Danish usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun.

So:

• brød = bread
• brødet = the bread

and:

• dej = dough
• dejen = the dough

The endings depend on the gender of the noun:

• -et is common for singular definite neuter nouns
• -en is common for singular definite common-gender nouns

So brødet and dejen both mean the ..., but Danish expresses that by adding an ending.

Yes. Literally, brødet means the bread.

In cooking and baking contexts, Danish can refer to the thing being made as brødet, even before the final baked loaf is finished. In stricter literal terms, dejen is the dough, but brødet is still understandable and natural in context.

A learner should just notice that Danish sometimes uses the finished-product word a little more loosely in practical contexts like recipes or home baking.

Because godt is functioning adverbially here.

• god = good
• godt can mean well or thoroughly, depending on context

In æltet dejen godt, godt describes how she kneaded the dough:

• well
• properly
• thoroughly

So the meaning is not that the dough is good, but that the kneading was done well.

Because both are subordinate clauses.

After conjunctions like at and efter at, Danish normally uses subordinate clause word order:

• subject first
• then the finite verb

So:

• at brødet skulle ...
• at hun har æltet ...

This is different from main-clause word order, where Danish often follows the verb-second rule.

For example:

• Main clause: Hun har æltet dejen godt.
• Subordinate clause: ... efter at hun har æltet dejen godt.

Not always. Danish has an optional start comma system before subordinate clauses.

So both of these can be accepted:

• Min søster siger, at brødet skulle gerne hæve ...
• Min søster siger at brødet skulle gerne hæve ...

The version with the comma is very common, and that is the style used in your sentence.