Finnish Pulla Bread Recipe

My entire family loves this sweet bread recipe!

This Finnish Pulla Bread Recipe Is not overly sweet and has a superb texture.

And although it does take quite a long time it's reasonably easy to make and tastes just as good as it looks.

I've had lots of excellent reviews about this bread recipe and I'm forever having people requesting it.

So try it, I'm sure you'll LOVE it too!

This recipe makes 3 large loafs (freeze it as well!)

What You Will Need

• 2 cups (475ml) milk
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 (.25 ounce) / (7g) package active dry yeast
• 1 cup (200g) white sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 9 cups (1125g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (115) butter, melted
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 (25g) tbls white sugar

Method

1. Warm your milk inside a small saucepan till it bubbles, then remove from heat, and allow it to cool until lukewarm.



2. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Stir in the lukewarm milk, sugar, salt, cardamom, 4 eggs, and sufficient flour to create a batter (around 2 cups).



3. Beat until the dough is smooth and flexible. Then add around three cups of the flour and beat well; the dough needs to be smooth and glossy in appearance.



4. Add the melted butter or margarine, and stir well. Beat again till the dough looks glossy. Mix in the remaining flour till the dough is stiff.



5. Turn out of bowl onto a floured surface, cover using an inverted mixing bowl and let rest for fifteen minutes.



6. Knead the dough until smooth and satiny, then put it in a lightly greased mixing bowl and turn the dough to grease the top.





 

7. Cover with a clean dishtowel and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Punch down, and let rise again until almost doubled.



8. Turn out again on to a floured surface, and divide into 3 parts. Divide each third into 3 again.



9. Roll each piece in to a 12 to 16 inch strip, then braid 3 strips into a loaf. You should get three sizeable braided loaves.



10. Move the braids on to greased baking sheets and allow rise for 20 minutes.





 

11. Brush each loaf using egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.



12. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes.



13. Check occasionally since the bottom burns quite easily.

Whats next

Hopefully you'll be tempted to have a go at this finnish pulla bread recipe, but we'd love to see any other homemade bread recipes you might have tried. Please feel free to share them!