Sunday, December 27, 2009

Pulla - Finnish Cardamom Bread

I have been spelling cardamom wrong for the past month!
Since I love it so much, I should probably spell it correctly.
Cardamom is a rich and decadent spice.
It adds flavor depth.
mmmmmmm
Ok Recipe.
This recipe is from The Winter Vegetarian by Darra Goldstein.
It's a great book.
But I think there is something wrong with this recipe.
She says to add between 7 to 8 cups of flour and knead the dough.
I added 8 cups of flour and had batter.
There was no possible way to knead it - I tried.
I added some more flour, but it was still to soft to knead.
Which is fine!
Egg/milk bread shouldn't be kneaded.
But then how much flour is necessary?
Who knows!
Someday I want to work this recipe out, but for now here is the recipe from The Winter Vegetarian
Finnish Cardamom Bread - Pulla
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2 1/2 tsp. yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon plus 3/4 cup sugar
2 cups lukewarm milk
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground cardamom
12 Tbs. butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted
4 eggs
7 to 8 cups flour
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1 egg white, lightly beaten
3 Tbs. pearl or colored sugar
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Dissolve the yeast in the water with 1 tsp. of sugar until bubbly. Stir in the milk, remaining 3/4 cup sugar, salt,cardamom, melted butter, eggs and 4 cups of the flour. Beat well. Gradually add just enough flour to form a soft dough. Turn out onto a floured board and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 mins. (Good luck with that!)
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Place the dough in a large greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover and leave to rise until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Punch down the dough and let rise again until nearly doubled, about 1 hour.
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Divide dough into 3 pieces. Divided each piece into 3 balls of equal size. Roll each ball out between your hands into a rope about 12 in. long. Braid 3 ropes together, turning the ends under. Place the loaf on a lightly greased baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough. Cover the loaves and leave them to rise until slightly puffy, 20 to 30 mins.
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Preheat the oven to 375 F. Brush the loaves with the beaten egg and sprinkle them with the sugar.
Bake for 25 to 30 mins.
~


I obviously didn't braid them.
I made 4 round loaves instead.






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