This Finnish Pulla is the quintessential vacation bread. A Braided Yeast Bread Recipe is shaped right into a festive wreath with a bow! Flavored with cardamom, your loved ones will request it each Christmas to come back!
This Cardamom Bread is nice, distinctive, and excellent for the vacations!!
Why You Should Make
- It’s a tasty bread wreath tied up with a bow. How acceptable for the week earlier than Christmas!
- This Finnish Pulla is a stunning yeast bread recipe flavored with crushed cardamom seeds.
- The scent of the baked loaf was chic, positively aromatherapy at its finest.
Utilizing my KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook, the bread dough was a snap to organize. Braiding the pulla bread required a bit extra focus. How is it that I can plait hair with my eyes closed, however 3 strands of dough perplexed me???? Nicely, lastly bought by way of that, snipped off the ends, and shaped a hoop with the braid.
Ingredient Notes
- Kitchen Staples – Milk, Sugar, Salt, Heat Water (no hotter than 110 levels Fahrenheit)
- Energetic Dry Yeast – I exploit Crimson Star Yeast
- Crushed Cardamom Seeds – From 7 to 12 pods, relying on the dimensions. I discover these at Penzey’s.
- Eggs – Have at Room Temperature, then whisk/beat earlier than including to the dough. Plus, one egg will likely be combined with milk to glaze the dough wreath earlier than baking.
- All Objective Flour – Greatest to weigh it for accuracy; 4 ½ to five cups (22.5 – 25 ounces by weight)
- Unsalted Butter – Melted
- Sliced almonds, Pearl Sugar (bigger crystals of sugar) – To garnish if desired.
Recipe Suggestions
- Beatrice Ojakangas, the contributing baker, had the good concept of creating a bow with the surplus dough to cowl up the seam. Nicely, I assumed she was fairly darn intelligent until I attempted to make a bow out of dough! I muddled by way of and it seemed darn good going into the oven (avoid wasting striations in my strands, however I AM my very own worst critic).
- Go the additional step and glaze your dough with a mix of egg and milk after which sprinkle with sugar. Pearl sugar was recommended, however since I didn’t examine my provides until after I began baking, I simply used some demerara sugar, a large-grained brown sugar.
- Making the bow simply entails rolling out a strand of dough after which making two loops on the prime. The picture under reveals how easy it’s. Make sure that to glaze the dough below the bow earlier than including it, then glaze the bow so it has some sheen, too.
- The outcome was a shiny bread with a contact of glittery sugar. Beautiful. Who wouldn’t love a candy, sparkly bread which is ideal for the vacations?
Steadily Requested Questions
Pulla Bread is a conventional Finnish bread, wealthy with butter and eggs and flavored with cardamom. It may be formed right into a loaf or a wreath for Christmas.
Associated to ginger, this spice is fragrant with a “pungent aroma” and “heat, spicy-sweet taste,” in response to The Meals Lover’s Companion.
When you’ve tried floor cardamom, it’s typically missing taste. Use the crushed seeds, discovered by cracking open a couple of cardamom pods, to get tastier outcomes.
It may be saved in plastic at room temperature for a day or two. To maintain it longer, wrap it hermetic and freeze for as much as a month. I wish to slice it first so I can pull a couple of items out of the freezer for breakfast or brunch.
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Elements
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon energetic dry yeast
- ¼ cup heat water (no hotter than 110 levels Fahrenheit)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon crushed cardamom seeds (from 7 to 12 pods, relying on the dimensions)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs, at room temperature, crushed
- 4 ½ to five cups (22.5 – 25 ounces by weight) all goal flour
- 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 massive egg + 1 tablespoon milk, for glaze
- Sliced almonds
- Pearl sugar
Directions
- Grind 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds in a mortar and pestle or espresso grinder.
- Place a small saucepan over medium warmth and add the 1 cup milk. Scald the milk, so small bubbles are simply seen across the edge. Take away the pot from the warmth and funky the milk to round 110º Fahrenheit.
- Whereas the milk is scalding soften the 1 stick butter within the microwave.
- In a big bowl, add ¼ cup heat water (round 110º) and whisk within the 1 tablespoon energetic dry yeast. Set the yeast/water combination apart for no less than 5 minutes. It’s going to turn out to be creamy.
- As soon as the water/yeast combination is creamy, whisk within the 1 cup scalded and barely cooled milk, ½ cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon floor cardamom seeds, 1 teaspoon salt, and the two crushed eggs. Whisk till absolutely mixed.
- Now, utilizing a wood spoon, add 2 cups flour to the bowl. Beat the combination till clean. Vigorously stir within the 1 stick melted butter. As soon as the butter is integrated, add within the extra flour, a ½ cup at a time, till the dough is pretty stiff. Cease including flour earlier than the dough turns into dry.
- If you want, it’s also possible to use a stand mixer with a dough hook to combine the dough. Comply with the instructions in the identical order.
- Upon getting your dough combined, cowl the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough relaxation for about quarter-hour.
- Flip the dough onto a floured work floor. Knead the dough till clean and glossy, about 10 minutes. Add a little bit of extra flour if wanted. That is the place I added my final ½ cup of flour or so.
- It’s also possible to knead the dough within the mixer with the dough hook at medium pace. It could solely take about 8 minutes or so, relying in your machine.
- Form your dough right into a ball and evenly grease a big bowl. Flip the ball of dough within the bowl to evenly coat within the grease. Cowl the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set it in a heat place. Let the dough rise till it’s double in measurement. It will take no less than 45 minutes, however may take over an hour.
- Cowl your baking sheet with parchment paper.
- As soon as the dough has doubled in measurement, flip it out of the bowl onto a cool, evenly oiled floor.
- Knead the dough briefly to launch the air. Divide the dough into 3 equal items. Weigh the items to make sure they’re equal, or near it.
- Roll every of the three items right into a log about 36 inches in size.
- Now, line the logs up subsequent to one another and pinch them collectively on the prime. Braid the three items right into a log braid. Fastidiously transfer this braid to the parchment lined baking sheet, forming it right into a circle onto the sheet. Minimize an inch or two of dough off every finish and fuse the circle collectively. Knead the reduce bits collectively and form into one other small log. Type right into a bow and place the bow over the seam of the wreath.
- Loosely cowl your bread with a towel and let relaxation and rise at room temperature for about 45 minutes. Don’t let it double in measurement.
- Place a rack within the middle of the oven and preheat to 375º.
- Whisk collectively egg and milk for glaze. Brush the egg glaze everywhere in the formed dough. Sprinkle the dough throughout with sliced almonds and pearl sugar.
- Bake the loaf for 20 to 25 minutes. The highest will likely be simply golden, and the underside of the loaf will likely be very mild. Watch out to not over bake the bread.
- Switch the baked loaf to a cooling rack and funky to room temperature earlier than chopping into the bread.
- To retailer, cowl the loaf in plastic wrap and preserve at room temperature. Or, wrap tightly, so the bread is air tight and freeze for as much as a month. Thaw the bread at room temperature.
Vitamin Info:
Yield:
16
Serving Measurement:
1 slice
Quantity Per Serving:
Energy: 239Complete Fats: 5gSaturated Fats: 1gTrans Fats: 0gUnsaturated Fats: 4gLdl cholesterol: 38mgSodium: 161mgCarbohydrates: 41gFiber: 2gSugar: 9gProtein: 7g
