Let’s learn about a delicious Pulla a cardamom sweet bread recipe that is great to eat all year long. I love to give as gifts to my neighbors, friends, and family around Christmas. Hang out at my table and I’ll share my recipe.
Pulla
Pulla is the name in Finnish for this Cardamom Sweet Bread. Coming from a Finnish heritage my mother would make this bread mainly at Christmas time and give it to her neighbors as a gift. The smell of this bread baking is amazing. When I was in Finland, I had this bread as a standard sweet bread recipe in many homes.
The bread tastes great with coffee for a snack, dessert, or breakfast. One of my aunts now makes French toast with it. We tried it and it is delish. If I don’t want to make it and I am in Menahga, Minnesota, I can pick it up at the Menahga Bakery.That was before I moved. They make it all year long and sprinkle the top with large sugar crystals and bake. It makes a nice gift for the person who has everything.
Pulla for Christmas Gifts
I have for many years made this bread for family and friends for Christmas. Many have waited and anticipated my bread each year. I would mark a day off on my calendar in December and write Pulla.
This meant early in the morning I would make 2-3 batches of bread from start to finish that day. I made the dough, let it rise, and formed into loaves, let them rise, baked them, decorated them, and had my kids deliver to the neighbors.
One of my neighbors told me she always cut one slice off to eat and then she would put the rest in the freezer to eat on Christmas. How sweet it that.
Homemade Giving Trend
Somehow my bread started a homemade giving trend and after 20 years of living in the neighborhood, the month of December my neighbors were baking cookies, soups, and loaves of bread and giving them to each other. It was fun to one day come home in December and my neighbor had brought us a plate of cookies or another made us soup. My kids liked the neighbor who always gave us a box of chocolates.
When I would make this bread for a whole baking day I found it easier for my bread machine to make the dough and I would do the rest. I cut the recipe to fit a breadmaker, so if you want to double the recipe- go right ahead. This recipe is the perfect size to let your kitchen aid mixer do the mixing and kneading too.
Pulla- Cardamon Sweet Bread Recipe
1 pkg yeast of 2 ½ tsp yeast
½ cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
6-ounce evaporated milk
4 cups flour or more as needed
½ cup sugar
1 tsp cardamom (us a good quality brand)
2 eggs
¼ cup butter melted
1 slightly beaten egg white
1 tbsp milk
Dissolve yeast in warm water with sugar and salt. Let stand for 5 minutes. Warm milk and add with half the flour, sugar and cardamom, and eggs. Beat with mixer until smooth and add butter. Stir in the remaining flour with a spoon. Let rest 15 minutes. Turn on a floured surface and knead in more flour if needed until smooth and elastic- 10 minutes.
Place in a greased bowl and cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled 1 ½ to 2 hours. Punch down and divide into 2-3 portions- depending on how big you want your loaves.
Divide each portion into thirds and shape each piece of dough into an 8 to 10-inch-long rope. Using 3 ropes shape into 3 braided loaves. Placed on a greased baking sheet and cover and let rise until doubled 1 hour. (If you want bigger loaves divide into 2 instead of 3.)
Mix egg white and milk and brush over braids. Bake 375 degrees for 20 min until golden.If making in the bread machine add all ingredients in order the machine prefers. Set to dough setting. Take out the bread and shape it into loaves as above.
Decorate the Cardamom Sweet Bread
Since I don’t put large sugar crystals on top, I usually top with a thin powder sugar frosting made with milk, vanilla, and powder sugar or almond extract. I cut halves of maraschino cherries and arrange them on top to decorate and sprinkle chopped nuts on top or slivered almonds.
This makes the perfect gift to deliver to a neighbor or a teacher. Make this bread and share the love with others. Enjoy Pulla a Cardamom Sweet Bread Recipe all year long.
If you want a Finnish Oven Pancake- Pannakuken Recipe here is the link to that recipe.
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Pulla is also common in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Northern Ontario, areas in the United States and Canada which have large Finnish populations. There it is also commonly known as nisu, an old Finnish word still in use with the same meaning in some dialects, despite originally simply meaning 'wheat'.
Pulla is also common in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Northern Ontario, areas in the United States and Canada which have large Finnish populations. There it is also commonly known as nisu, an old Finnish word still in use with the same meaning in some dialects, despite originally simply meaning 'wheat'.
Noun. pulla (countable and uncountable, plural pullas) A sweet, leavened baked good made of wheat and flavored with crushed cardamom, resembling very soft bread in consistency, eaten in Finland.
Over a thousand years ago traders carried cardamom along the spice routes from India and eventually made its way through Constantinople brought by the Vikings to Scandinavia where it became very popular among the Finnish and Swedish in baking bread and pastries.
Sweet cardamom bread called Pulla Bread is a staple in Finland. Soft and aromatic, it has a sprinkling of pearl sugar and almonds. These braided loaves of sweet cardamom bread are soft and light and disappear fast.
Cardamom buns, kardemummabullar in Swedish, have a long history in Sweden and are a popular pastry enjoyed throughout the country. The exact origin of cardamom buns in Sweden is unclear, but it is believed that they were introduced by German bakers who came to Sweden in the 17th century.
Baking took place once a week in eastern Finland and twice a year in western Finland, so people ate dried bread in the west and soft loaves in the east. Bread, especially rye, was part of almost every meal. Even today, rye ranks as the country's favourite bread.
Culinary archaeologist Daniel Serra, who co-wrote the book An Early Meal – a Viking Age Cookbook and Culinary Odyssey, believes that cardamom first became of interest in Scandinavia in the 13th Century for both its medicinal and culinary use, as documented in the old cookbook Libellus de Arte Coquinaria.
In Scandinavian culture, cardamom often represents comfort and home and family and holiday treats–similar to how we in the U.S. view cinnamon, perhaps.
Known as the Queen of Spices, green cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) originated in southern India's rain forests in a region now known as the Cardamom Hills. The perennial bush, a member of the ginger family, produces shoots at the plant's base that are picked when they're just ripening and then dried.
How do you eat Finnish bread? Finnish bread is incredibly versatile. It can be enjoyed at any meal, often served with butter, cheese, cold cuts, or paired with traditional toppings like pickles and salmon. Some Finns even incorporate it into sweet treats like cinnamon rolls.
This mainstay can take many different forms if you change the shape and the filling. In addition to basic sweet wheat buns, we list three of the most popular variants: Shrovetide buns, butter-eye buns and cinnamon buns. All of them use the same dough.
Traditional Eastern Finnish rye bread is called limppu. The closest translation to English would be "loaf" (although limppu is always round and bulbous, while rectangular loaves are available). This bread is dark, sour in taste, dense, heavy and comparatively dry.
Different regions of Finland developed their own slightly different versions of the rye bread, but without any doubt, this is the most famous and beloved type of bread all over the country. In 2017, Finland is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and rye bread was voted the country's national food!
NISU3 recent loaves of Finnish Nisu. Nisu is the old Finnish word for wheat and this bread. Modern Finns call it Pulla, the reason I call it Nisu is my family came to the US in the early 1900's and called it Nisu at that time and it stuck.
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