Makes 1 giant loaf (or as many smaller shapes as you’d like)
Pulla is the ultimate Finnish bread dough. Feeling sad? Shape it into a teardrop. Feeling confused? Twist the heck out of it. Feeling like Pippi Longstocking? Braid it! Feeling creative? Shape it into men, women and children. Feeling pregnant? Just make little buns, baby!
There’s also plenty of choice in regard to flavorings. Pulla always tastes of glorious cardamom. After that? You can leave it plain or fill it. Sweeten life up with a bit of brown sugar, butter, and spices (that’s what we opted for in this recipe), or get things movin’ with some prune filling. You can even fill it after baking with a bit of jam and whipped cream. Usually this is assembled “hamburger style” with a bun sliced in half and whipped cream gilding the outer edges of a jam-burger.
What to expect: No matter how you handle it, pulla should not be anywhere as sweet as a cinnamon roll. The soft, rich dough is quite a bit more subtle than that. The dominant flavor will be cardamom, with a background zing of cinnamon and the barest drop of ground cloves. Sugar remains a delicate background flavor.
Note: For a slightly lighter (but less rich) dough, try replacing 1/4 cup of the milk with water.
Ingredients:
For the dough:
4 1/2 -5 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp yeast
4 Tbsp softened butter
2 whole eggs
1 Tbsp ground cardamom
4 cardamom pods, shelled and seeds crushed lightly (about 1/4-1/2 tsp)
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup warm milk
For the filling:
4 Tbsp softened butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cardamom
pinch cloves
For the top:
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon sugar
Method:
Good morning! Today we’re doing a happy pulla dance. In a few short hours you’re belly will thank you. Unless you eat the entire loaf in one sitting.
First, get a genuine 100% half Finnish friend to measure out your ingredients.
Have her add the flour… (start with 4 1/2 cups – add more later, as needed)
Then the sugar…
…and yeast… (you could proof the yeast in the warm milk if you’d like, but I’m a one bowl kind of gal)
Drop in the softened butter…
And crack in the eggs… Hi Ruby! Thanks for being my hand model.
Next, season with loads of cardamom and a bit of salt.
To get even more cardamom goodness in the dough, add cracked cardamom seeds. I would have been happy with double this amount, but Mr Picky might have staged a rebellion.
They look a little like peppercorns once cracked, but taste so much better. Finns like to bite into these little bursts of cardamom sunshine and, after experiencing it myself, I totally agree.
Splash on warm milk. It can’t be hot or you’ll kill the yeast. I simply heated mine on the stove for a minute then set aside until it felt warm not hot.
Mix with a dough hook for 10 minutes on medium speed. This dough cleans the sides of the bowl, but sticks to the bottom until kneaded for the full ten minutes. If after 10 minutes it still hasn’t cleaned the bottom of the bowl, add a bit more flour and mix it in. Let rise for about 1 1/2 hours.
While the yeast gets happy, let’s make the filling.
You’ll need a bunch of tasty spices. That’s fresh ground nutmeg on the right. Mmm. On the left? Cinnamon, cardamom, and just a hit of ground clove.
Add this to brown sugar and softened butter.
Roll the dough out into a rectangle, about 16″ x 12.”
Spread the filling in a strip down the center.
Using a pastry cutter, cut strips on each side (you need the same number of strips on each side). Try to keep the cuts about a 3/4 inch from the filling.
Cross the dough over
Keep going…
… and going… being sure to lift the sides of the dough up as you go. This will give the loaf “walls” to keep the filling from leaking out. If any of your cuts dips down too low, pinch the dough back together or your filling will ooze out.
Pinch the last strips and fold them under.
Do the same with the other end.
Let rise about 20 minutes, then preheat the oven to 350F.
Brush liberally with a beaten egg.
And sprinkle with a happy snowstorm of sugar.
Bake 25-30 minutes
NOTE: You could also bake this at 375F, but it darkens up quite a bit faster. Play around and see what works for you.
Let cool a few minutes before slicing or it will fall apart … which will, most certainly, make you fall apart.
Serve immediately with a cup of hot coffee and…
… lots of silly moustaches.
Happy pulla making, friends!
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Wow that looks tasty! I can practically smell it. I want some now, but sadly I will have to wait until the weekend to give it a go. Great post, as usual
Thanks Anna – this bread feeds a small army, so make it with friends
LOVE it!! Can’t wait to try it!
I have to ask… what book is that with all the loaf shapes?? I’m always looking for fun things to do with my loaves!!
Hey KC, the book is called UUSI RUUTUKOKKI, and was loaned to me by Ruby. I can’t read a word of it (ha ha), but she translated some of the Finnish and we looked at the pictures… which were very pretty
Yum!! Looks delicious
Thanks for sharing!!
Tastes delicious too – you’ll have to try it
Wow, I am so impressed, it turned out so great. Did the book or internet help you make
. Should have smelt it from
it so well? Nice that you got to eat so much of it with the two batches
our neighborhood and come running over. Looking at the pic again and its just perfect. Did it taste as
good as the first patch. I wanted to know if Keith liked it?
Your book got my brain working … I’ve made a herringbone braid before, and seemed like the best solution to contain the filling in a “loaf” – and by best, I simply mean prettiest
It was wonderful – the filling was delicate (I used half as much this time) and lovely. Keith loved it – he couldn’t stop eating it. Neither could Ava, actually.
That looks good. It’s going to be a cool weekend so I might have to give this a go.
Yes, it’s a fun loaf of bread to make. I made it once without the cracked cardamom seeds and that was good too. They just add a little extra something. Enjoy
Ahhh…this bread looks so pretty and so delicious!
I made it twice this weekend, if that’s any indication
Hi Sasha:
That looks and sounds delicious!
Great series of pictures showing how to braid the loaf as well!
Well done!
Laura
Thank you Laura! It was a lot of fun to make. I’m so looking forward to when Ava is a little older and making these dishes with me
beautiful!
I WILL HAVE TO try this. It looks fantastic, and the braiding part looks fun ! I just have to find cardamom, which I’ve never used. I’ll let you know how it went !
Your pictures are fabulous, especially on the braiding. Thank you so much.
Love this bread! It’s like a cinnamon roll, but without all the sugar
One question though: as I was baking it, the dough broke apart and some of the filling leaked out. I made sure the ‘walls’ were high, like you said, but then that happened.
Suggestions?
Hmm, without seeing it I can’t be sure. My top guesses: the filling was spread too close to the cuts… but that doesn’t explain the dough breaking apart. It may have broken apart because it rose too much before baking… either because it was too warm or was sitting too long. Does any of this sound right, given how it looked?
That would make sense. It got really warm here that day and I forgot about the bread as I was out gardening… oops!
Aha! Bingo.
I’d love to be gardening on a beautiful day. We’ve been stuck in the 40′s lately. Brr.
I made this the other day. It is awesome. We had so much left overs I made french toast out of it, with whipped cream cheese on the top. Now i have to make it for my husbands office party next week!
I LOVE Pulla, more than anything else. I could eat it all the time. I have made many different versions of it, but yours is next!! Thanks for posting.
I’m only a quarter Finn, but I’m giving this a go right now. Sadly, my local store only has the pods of cardamom, so I had to do a lot of smashing. It’s in the oven now – hopefully it’ll work out!