Finnish Nisu

The 4th is a big family gathering every year for my wife, and all of her siblings come back to town.  One of the first items on the list is getting nisu from one of the local bakeries.  Decided to try my hand at braiding and making my first one.

Followed the recipe in the comments of this thread, but adapted it to two loaves. https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4168/finnish-nisu-aka-pulla 

Unfortunately, we got hit with a heat wave and humidity today/tonight, so I didn't want to heat up the house.  So...  I baked this one on my new grill with the infrared heat panels.  Used my digital temperature probe for smoking to monitor the temp in the grill.  Placed my pizza stone on the grill grates and then baked the nisu in my Granite Ware turkey roaster.

Overall, went very well for the first attempt.  The dough when first mixed is quite sticky.  Keep needing and using five minute rests.  It pulled together quite well and was easy to work with after the second rest.  Only issue was with the baking...  The grill wouldn't stay below 400 deg F with the burners on the lowest setting, and the bottoms of the loaves are borderline burned.  Next time, I'll have to cycle the burners on and off to hold the temp in the 390-400 deg range.  The steel infrared plates hold a lot of heat, so I don't think the temp will fluctuate too fast by turning it on and off.

Forgot the egg wash...