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.

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I obviously didn't braid them.

I made 4 round loaves instead.

Best Ever Challah

I'm sort of obsessed with potato water.

You may have noticed that I've used it in a lot of my recipes recently.

It's so wonderful!

The potato water makes such a difference in this bread.

It's silky, smooth and easy to handle.

Easy to handle is very important in challah, because of the 'fancy' braiding.

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Best Ever Challah

Sponge:

1 cup flour

1 cup potato water (liquid reserved from boiling potatoes)

2 tsp yeast

In a large bowl mix flour, potato water and yeast. Cover and let sit for 45 mins.

Dough:

3 1/3 cups flour

1 3/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

4 large eggs

Add flour and butter to the sponge ingredients. Mix until combined then add the rest of the ingredients. Turn dough out onto your work surface and knead. Dust with flour and knead again.

Place dough into a well greased bowl and cover it.

2 ways to continue: 1. Let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours OR 2. Place covered bowl in the refrigerator for a few hours.

I chose option 2 and left it in the fridge for 18 hours. I made it the night before and baked it when I got home from work the next day. Perfect!

Either way you choose - Next, punch down dough and divide it in to 3 equal pieces. Roll the 3 pieces into 12-14 inch long ropes. On your well greased/silpat covered baking sheet braid the 3 pieces together.

Let rise for 1 hour, until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Egg wash:

One egg, beaten with a little salt.

Before baking, brush loaf with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds or poppy seeds.

Bake for 40 mins or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Challah with butter and my Pure Gold Marmalade.

Don't let the braiding scare you away from trying this.

I literally made this up and figured out how to braid it, just because I had 4 eggs to use up.

Try it!

And let me know how it turns out.