pulla bread with cardamom and almonds

Pulla is a sweet bread from Finland, flavored with cardamom and occasionally with raisins or/and sliced almonds. It reminds me a little bit of Brioche and tastes amazing while still warm out of the oven.

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Makes 1 bread

• 2,5 dl milk, luke warm
• 30 g yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 100 g sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 2 eggs, whisked
• 700 g flour
• 100 g butter, room temperature
• 40 g sliced almonds

Warm the milk in a saucepan until lukewarm and dissolve the yeast in the milk. Add the sugar, the salt, the cardamom and 3/4 of the whisked eggs. Set the rest of the eggs aside.

Combine the flour and the butter to the egg – milk mixture and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Place the dough in a bowl and coat the bowl with a wet towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume for about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 200˚C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Divide the dough into 3 pieces and shape each piece into a 50 cm long strand. Transfer the pieces onto the baking sheet and braid the strands to form a challah, and let it rise for another 30 minutes.

Brush the Pulla with the rest of the whisked egg and sprinkle with sugar and sliced almonds.

Bake the Pulla for about 30 minutes.

To check if the bread is done, tap the bottom with your knuckles – it should sound hollow.

Happy baking!