Finnish Pulla {Cardamom Coffee Braid}

This is a recipe for Finnish Pulla, a cardamom-spiced lightly sweet braided bread. It is delicious plain or with butter, served alongside tea or coffee, or as an after school snack. The recipe makes three loaves which is terrific for gift giving during the holidays. 

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Baking: art or science? Discuss.

When I first saw this bread being made it was all art: building the fire in the wood stove, mixing the ingredients until the dough looked right then braiding, decorating, and finally baking the bread. To my young, fresh-out-of-college eyes Eila Akkanen's ability to create this bread was purely magic. [Looking back on that summer, Eila was doing her weekly baking in the the farmhouse kitchen where she'd raised her family and had probably performed that 'magic' thousands of times.]

I think baking used to be considered an art, or perhaps more accurate, a series of crafts. Building a fire to the proper baking temperature is as much a learned skill as kneading dough or even beading bracelets. Nowadays I don't need to know much about building a baking fire--I use the keypad on the oven to type in the precise temperature I'd like, and double check it with my oven thermometer. I could re-learn the chemical equations which describe the reactions of a pile of ingredients turning into a loaf of bread, but I don't need to know how it works--just that it does.

I braid one side towards the middle, then the other, then finish by pinching the end pieces together.

My approach to this recipe is a mixture of science and art. Because my kitchen temperature averages 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter, I use my bread machine to mix the dough [don't worry if you don't have a freezing kitchen and a bread machine, I'll provide directions for mixing the dough]. When the machine is finished, though, my experienced eye takes over and shapes the dough until it looks right.

The inspiring recipe came from Beatrice Ojakangas' book Fantastically Finnish. Instead of starting with whole cardamom pods I use the ground spice, and because I first had this while working on a dairy farm I like to use a richer milk. I have made this bread using all cream--very rich dough, very tender crumb, great way to use up 2 cups of heavy cream--as well as half & half and even 2% milk. Normally I'll say 'use what you have on hand' but if you've only got fat free milk please go grab a pint of half & half before making this. It is the holidays after all. 

Speaking of holidays, I'll be sharing sweet recipes each day during #ChristmasWeek. Tuesday I'll be sharing 3 lessons learned making Pecan Brownie Bites for a Cookie Drive, Wednesday it's back to Scandinavia for Fruit Soup, Thursday we're keeping things simple with Toffee Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Friday I finish getting my ethnic on with My Mother's Norwegian Lefse. 

If you're not into sweets, check out my Visual Recipe Index for more savory ideas for what to do with the produce from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share, farmer's market, and garden.

Note: this recipe calls for coarse or pearl sugar. I've been driving all around town looking for some more since my stash is running low. I found some Belgian Pearl Sugar at the grocery store down the street as well as some Coarse Granulated Sugar at a Christmas Tree Shops store. I put together a little photo to show the difference in sizes. I find the Belgian Pearl Sugar to be just a bit too big and crushed it with a can to get it smaller.

Use milk, heavy cream or half & half. It's all good.

using my scale to divide dough into 3 portions, but eyeballing the thirds for the braid

brushing with beaten egg and sprinkling with coarse sugars

letting the braided loaves rise in the oven

Finnish Pulla {Cardamom Coffee Braid} makes 3 loaves

Ingredients

• 2 cups heavy cream or half & half or milk (at least 2%)
• 2¼ teaspoons (1 package) active dry yeast
• 2 large eggs
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1½ teaspoons ground cardamom
• 6½ to 7½ cups unbleached all purpose flour, plus more for dusting the work surface
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 more egg, this time beaten
• coarse sugar (about 1 to 2 Tablespoons but I don't measure, I just sprinkle)

Instructions

1. If you've got a yeast-hostile ambient kitchen temperature and a bread machine, dump the first 8 ingredients into the pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer, select the dough cycle, and skip to #8.
2. Otherwise, heat the milk gently (microwave on 50% power for a minute) in a microwave safe bowl, add the yeast, and stir until dissolved. Set aside. 
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together 2 eggs and ¾ cup sugar until it is foamy, then add milk, cardamom, and 2 cups of flour. 
4. Beat for 2 minutes at medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic. 
5. If you've got a dough hook for your mixer, switch to it now and mix in butter, salt, and the rest of the flour. 
6. Knead with dough hook in the bowl or turn onto a floured surface and knead until it forms a smooth ball, adding more flour if necessary, another 5 to 10 minutes. 
7. Transfer the dough to a buttered bowl and flip it to butter the top of the dough, then cover and let rise in a warm place until double [using a tall rectangular plastic storage container is great for this, because you can mark where  the dough should rise]. 
8. Regardless of how you or your machines mix the dough, once the dough has had a first rise, turn it onto a floured board and divide into 3 equal parts. I use my kitchen scale for this. 
9. Take one third of the dough and divide it into thirds. 
10. Roll each third into a 12 inch long strip and place strips on a sheet of parchment paper or greased baking sheet. 
11. Braid the strips together, pinching the ends together and tucking under. 
12. Repeat dividing and braiding for the other two portions of dough [dough can be refrigerated in a quart-sized bag for a few days]. 
13. Cover loosely and let rise for 30 minutes [I use the bread proof setting of my oven for this] or until you see it's puffier than it had been--but not doubled.
14. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 
15. Brush loaves with beaten egg [one large egg will cover 4-5 loaves] then sprinkle with coarse sugar. 
16. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.  [In my oven, I rotate the baking sheets halfway through to ensure even baking.] 
17. Cool on a rack before slicing.

The scale, the flour covered board, the bread machine pan--tools of my trade. No tahini was used in the making of this bread though. Nor orange juice--that's from the Band Fruit Fundraiser oranges.

Swing by all the #ChristmasWeek participants to see what they've been whipping up for the holidays:

• Coconut Layer Cake by Cravings of a Lunatic
• Monster Cookie Cake by The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen (It's Susan's birthday today as well! Happy Birthday, Susan!)
• Chewy Molasses Cookies by Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts
• Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie by My Catholic Kitchen
• Cranberry Berry Pomegranate Sangria by Mind Over Batter
• Cranberry Cheesecake by From Gate to Plate
• Eggnog Made Easier by Cookistry
• Eggnog Muffins with Eggnog Glaze by Food Lust People Love
• Finnish Pulla (Cardamom Coffee Braid) by Farm Fresh Feasts
• Red Velvet Fudge by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Millionaire's Shortbread Cookies by Cooking In Stilettos