Pulla (Finnish Cardamom Bread) (2024)

Finnish Pulla Recipe – my mom’s recipe for a traditional Finnish bread scented with fragrant cardamom! Perfect forspecialmornings, gatherings, holidays or afternoon tea. Cozy anddelicious!

I love you. It will end. Leave something ofsweetness andsubstance in the mouth of the world.

Anna Bell Kaufman

Today is a very special day for me…it is what would be my mother’s 85th birthday. I thought I would share something special that she loved to bake which is very dear to my heart. It is called Pulla!

Pulla is a buttery Finnish sweet bread, scented with cardamom, perfect for special mornings, gatherings or afternoon tea. It is traditionally topped with Pearl Sugar as you see here.

My Finnish mother used to make this on special occasions like birthdays and holidays or when guests would stay with us. I will never forget how the house would smell when she would open the oven door and take the freshly baked Pulla out.

It smelled… happy.

Several weeks ago, I stumbled over her old Pulla recipe, written partly in Finnish. To see her handwriting again, brought back so many memories.

In contrast, winters are extreme – long, dark and very cold. My Egyptian father only lasted one winter there before pleading with my mom to move to warmer like California. She would always say, to live there you must be strong.

There is no exact translation, but my understanding is… it is a strength and perseverance that comes from the deepest part of ourselves. My mom had this.

Here she is, happy as a clam, sitting on her sister’s steps in her hometown of Souenjoki, where they are known for growing strawberries, during our last visit there together.

I think of that last trip we took together often. I drove her around the whole country, visiting her family and friends for almost a month when she was 82. Truthfully, there were times she drove me crazy – she was a total backseat driver, I nicknamed her Miss Daisy.

But what I wouldn’t give to be in that car again listening to her cracklyvoice. I can’t express enough how taking that time to be with her was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I thought I did it for her, but in fact, I see now how all along, it was a gift for me.

A little story about her:Lea Halonen was born in 1927, and grew up on a little farm in Sounjenjoki. During the war with Russia, Russia took over part of their country. Her family, like most families there, took in the many refugees, even though food and resources were extremely scarce.

She remembers those years as being very lean and feeling very hungry most of the time, eating mainly potatoes in winter. After high school, she left for Sweden, where she got her nursing degree.

In her 30’s, still unmarried, she left for Nigeria (Africa) on a boat, to be stationed at a small Seventh Day Adventist hospital where she became a midwife. It was a tumultuous time there in Nigeria. After being there for 5 years, she took a little vacation to Egypt with her friend Sarah. It was there that she met my dad, and where Sarah met Abraham. They were assigned by the church to be guides. Something clicked in those 3 days, as they took them around to visit the pyramids and the Nile.

She went back to Nigeria to work – and they continued to keep in touch writing letters for two years before my dad proposed to her. She left Nigeria to marry my father in Cairo. But Egypt, back then, was not as accepting of her nursing skills- women were supposed to “stay home”.

She lasted a year before she convinced my dad to move to the more progressive country of Finland. My dad had never imagined a winter like that, had never experienced ice or snow- it was shocking! The cold and language were huge barriers. He was a minister by trade, so it made things difficult.

So they decided to move somewhere warm, where they could both speak English. They landed in Los Angeles, where I was born. My mom was 40 at that time.

Over a thousand years ago traders carried cardamom along the spice routes from India and eventually made its way throughConstantinople brought by the Vikings to Scandinavia where it became very popular among the Finnish and Swedish in baking bread and pastries.

It has a very warm pungent aroma, a little like eucalyptus.There are several kinds of cardamom pods , two I am familiar with, the greencardamom pods and dark brown pods. My mom always used the green cardamom pods because she said they had better flavor. I never tested this theory, but I’ll take her word for it.

During one of her lasts visits to Spokane, she was too tired to make pulla but insisted on making it anyways….so I became her hands. She was stubborn about certain things….adamant!

No cutting corners. “No” to using the ground cardamom I had in my cupboard and “no” to using my stand mixer with the nifty dough hook, and “absolutely not” to using my efficient coffee bean grinder to grind the tough cardamom seeds.

This would be done her way, totally old school. But in the end, worth it.

What seemed like a mountain of cardamom pods needed to be cracked and the tiny seeds extracted. This took a substantial amount of time and patience.

I found it’s easier to slice the pods in half lengthwise with the tip of a sharp knife. After slicing about 40-50 of them, scrape the tiny dark seeds out. It takes a lot of pods to make 1 Tablespoon. You could do this ahead. Or use ground cardamom, I won’t tell or judge.

Then, after I thought all the hard work was done, there was more. Grinding the cardamom seeds with a mortar and pestle.

This seems easy, but I assure you it is not. They are the toughest little seeds and it takes serious muscle power to grind them down. And she of course wanted them crushed down to the consistency of fine sand, making sure to carefully examine my work. It was no easy task.

At the time, I never imagined that someday I would miss the way she would order me around the kitchen. But I do.

My mom loved Pulla so much she named one of her cats Pulla. Actually, her full name is Rusina Pulla. She’s a light-colored calico with dark spots all over her. Rusina means raisins. Raisin Pulla. It was strangely fitting!

Anyways, so after all the work with the cardamom seeds, the rest is easy. And like I said, feel free to use ground cardamom.

You’ll make a soft dough and let it rise until doubled. If using active dry yeast, this may take 2 hours. Fast-acting yeast will cut that time in half so I usually opt for that.

Oil the dough, and cover. Place in a warm spot ( 85F) to rise. I like to turn my oven to low and place the dough on top of the stove.

Once the pulla has just about doubled, shape into rolls or 2 loaves or make two traditional Finnish braided loaves like this.

My mom would often add sliced almonds and raisins and roll up the dough into small sweet rolls. Those were good too. To make the braided loaf, divide the dough in half, then into 3 balls each, and make long “ropes” out of them. Braid them and tuck the ends under. Let rise for another 1 – 1/2 hour.

Brush with an egg wash, or milk and sprinkle pearlsugar over the top.

You can also bake the braided roll in a loaf pan for easier slicing, tucking the ends under.

Bake the Pulla at 375 F until cooked through and golden ( Internal temp of 200F).

This can range anywhere from 30-50 minutes, depending on size.

If baking in a loaf pan, bake at 350F for roughly 40 mins, and you may need to cover with foil, to prevent over-browning lightly.

Slice, toast, and butter.

This is really delicious in the morning with your coffee…and the leftovers make excellent french toast!

You can also make Pulla into rolls!

However you choose to make Pulla, you will love its flavor.

The nice part is you can wrap it up tightly and freeze for when you need something cozy and warm.

Every time I make Pulla now, I feel her in the kitchen with me. We make it together- even still.

Love and cheers.

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