Pulla, Finnish coffee bread
Pulla, or Nisu as it is known by some Americans of Finnish extraction is my all time favourite sweet bread and has been all of my life. The recipe I still have in my file was hand written by my mother, from my granny's original recipe. I have loved this bread as long as I can remember -- back to my grandmother's lap!
I won't post the recipe here as a search of this site turned up identical, authentic recipes. These loaves are great with coffee or tea for breakfast. I particularly like a cafe con leche, or a spanish expresso shot with hot milk! Both the finished loaves and proofed dough freeze well. I'm afraid I can't comment on the keeping properties of this bread as it simply disappears before your eyes!
Traditional is an egg glaze and sprinkled, crushed sugar cubes. The chopped almonds are not traditional, but once I tried it, almonds are now an in-dispensible part of the recipe!
This recipe makes 3 loaves. I proofed all 3, baked 2 and froze the third loaf, glaze, almonds and all, wrapped in heavy foil, then in plastic. The night before baking, the frozen pulla goes onto the counter, resting on parchment and supported by a linen couche, covered with plastic and a towel. In the morning, bake as usual. Un-frozen dough, above, ready for the oven Voila:
I could not tell the difference between the fresh baked and baked from frozen pulla! This is an easy recipe and doable by novice bakers on the first try. Braiding the loaves is not really difficult. If you can braid hair or rope, you can braid dough . . .
Bake ON TFLoafers! Brian
Comments
I'm guessing it wouldmake some fine French toast - if that is allowed with Finnish sweet breads:-)
Very nice baking.
. . . well I think it is a great idea and never thought of using this sweet loaf for FT. That sound you just heard was likely granny turning over . . .
My normal french toast topping is maple syrup, but that would be too sweet with pulla. I'm thinking an unsweetened citrus or berry reduction would make a nice topping to balance the sweetness. A Lingonberry syrup or reduction would be quite traditional, but I don't know where to find lingonberries on this continent. ;-)
Thanks for your kind words!
and cloud berries into our DC in Arlington Heights IL and disrtibuted them all over North America. They are everywhere thanks our fine company that distributes 35,000 items from all over the world. I have some in my cubboard to show you ...............and drool over. If you want some I'm sure I can get some - No worries!
Dman, I actually did not expect a lot of folks to know what these were, nevermind not only knowing them but importing through your company. Now that gave me a good chuckle, in the best possible sense! Sadly the border creates customs and shipping issues that add a cost layer when importing relatively low cost item to Canada, otherwise order me up a jar of Lingonberrier!!!! I couldn't find lames anywhere online in this country and ordered mine from KA Flour. $5.75 for the lame, $25 for shipping. I ordered 3 . . .
Well based on your french toast pulla suggestion, I have another batch bulk rising now. I will bake in the am and actually try some pulla as french toast. Lacking lingonberries, I am thinking of a raspberry/blueberry reduction with some orange for fun!
BakeOnTFLoafers!
shop that spoecializes in Scandanavian goodies in a major city like Toronto. I don't know if they have IKEA's up there but we sold Lingonberries to them in the USA. The are also native to Eastern Canada and can be picked there wild for free!
. . . to my delight and enjoyment! I wa wondering what to do with the left over egg used for wash. It turned out great and was not nearly as sweet or as rich as I feared. I actually could have used maple syrup, but instead used a blueberry raspberry reduction in fresh orange and lemon juice. I did not sweeten the berry redux. Sadly the photo shows the bacon in focus and pulla not sharp. It sure did tast fine though!
Thanks for the fine idea Dman. I will look for Lingonberries next time I am in Calgary and yes there is an Ikea, so thanks for the leads! I had a visitor this morning while I was having breakfast! I stepped out the back door to look at the weather and found this regular visitor:
BakeOn, Brian
DA - do you mind sharing the name of your fine company?
Sharon
is DPI - Distribution Plus Inc - an importer and distributor of specialty food products for both retail and food service. It is owned by a co-op of Irish Dairy Farmers called the IDB - Irish Dairy Board - the fine folks that bring you all the premium Kerrygold Brands of butters and cheeses from Ireland. The long in place, (15 years) USA management team of CEO, CFO and COO all left the company at the end of 2006 after having helped build the company from a small local distributor (Los Angeles) to a billion dollar nation wide one with 2006 being our best year for sales and profit.
Sadly, DPI has fallen on harder times during this recession and the distribution business is now around $700 million or so in sales. They continue to contract and lose money in various parts of the country. I just found out the DC in Arlington Heights will close at the end of the month. So my direct link to lingonberries and all other direct imported Scandinavian food products is now severed but I will do some snooping around to see where the dust settles. I'm sure some other DPI DC has picked up the import licences and unique products handled by DPI Midwest.