Pulla: Finnish Cardamom Raisin Yeast Bread
Before Hawaii: a story and recipe from The Baking Wizard!
Pulla Cardamom Bread, a national bread of Finland, is popular year-round in Finland. Hits the spot any time of day. For beast results grind the cardamom seeds with a mortar and pestle.
Meet Soile Anderson, Finnish Baker "Baking is Happiness," says Soile Anderson. And this means how she feels during the act of baking and the results her work has on her customers. Soile is a highly successful professional Finnish baker and caterer in Minneapolis. She immigrated to the United States over 20 years ago and carries on the baking traditions of her homeland passed on to her from her mother. Soile's enthusiasm for her art is infectious, and watching her making a batch of yeasty pulla dough is a window into her passion. She pours a gallon of milk into a large pot and sets it on the stove, then she dashes to the refrigerator to get 4 pounds of butter, which she unwraps and puts into another pot on the stove. She rushes back to the fridge to pick up a flat of 30 eggs and cracks them open two at a time into a 30-quart mixer bowl. Then there's another sprint to a different corner of her kitchen to fetch a generous quart of sugar, and so on, back and forth until she has everything she needs. She smiles and chatters happily as she works, and she's not even out of breath. Soile's energy seems boundless.
A batch of pulla dough for her means making enough for 10 to 12 dozen pulla rolls and 3 braided loaves. The rolls are so popular she makes them several times a week in her catering facility. For many years she owned Taste of Scandinavia, a tremendously successful bakery. Since selling the business recently, she's opened the Finnish Bistro, a coffee shop featuring Finnish and other Scandinavian baked goods. Her popular catering business, DecoCatering, has been flourishing for years. The traditional shape is a straight braid, and Soile makes a 4-stranded one. She works with the speed of lightning, flipping and tossing two strands at a time until 5 seconds later there is a braid where none had previously existed. Sometimes Soile forms a braid into a wreath. But most often she makes individual rolls because they're the most convenient for her customers.