At first we didn't know what to write about so we decided to make some pulla and relax. While baking it hit us -lets write about that baked good which everyone loves!

So what actually is pulla? The story begins from 19th century when the wheat flours started to become general in Finland. First pulla was baked for feasts. It was highly appreciated because many people couldn't afford to eat it that often. Midsummer Eve and Christmas were normally the only occasions when pulla was offered.  Then it started to be served at home for guests with coffee on religious holidays.

Nowadays pulla is still very popular. People bake it a lot, partly because it's very simple and still absolutely delicious.

There are also different forms of pulla, for example braided pulla, cinnamon and pullas with different kinds of stuffings (e.g. raisins or butter). On February, before the fastings before the Easter, people eat "laskiaispulla". It's splitted into two parts and between them there's cream and jam or almond paste. But which one? There's a huge quarrel about that in Finland -others refuse to use jam whereas the others think that it's the one and only to put between the pulla.

So here's the recipe of pulla. Try it yourselves but be aware -you may get addicted to it!

- 5 dl milk
- 50 g yeast OR about 25 g dry yeast
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 dl sugar
- 1 tbsp finely chopped cardamom
- 12-15 dl wheat flours
- 200 g butter or margarine

Dissolve yeast, salt, sugar and cardamom to hand temperature milk. Add about 8 dl flours and dry yeast if you use it. Mix the dough strongly.
Then add butter or margarine and  the rest of the flours and mix with your hands until the dough comes unstuck and it´s not attached to edges of the bowl. Let it "grow bigger" in  warm place covered with cloth until it´s twice of its original size.

Take the dough from the bowl and divide it into about 20-25 parts and start to roll them until they are round. Place them to baking trays and let them "grow bigger" again about 20 minutes if you want. After that lubricate them with egg. (You can also put e.g. some Sanding sugar on top of them as we did.)

Bake them in 200 ºC (or in 225 depending on your oven) 12-15 minutes or until they look good.

                      

            

                                     Single pulla -ready to be eaten! :)

The brave bakers:
Sonja and Eeva