Baking Love

This recipe is from my husband’s grandmother. She got it from her Finnish friend Helvi. Pulla is known as “Finnish Biscuit.” It is full of cardamom and is traditionally served with coffee.

Adapting this recipe to gluten-free was a challenge, and no wonder, as bread is the Titan of gluten-free baking. I had made this recipe once before going gluten-free and it wasn’t easy to make then, as the recipe is old and doesn’t have many directions. This recipe has a large quantity of liquid in it. This can make it wetter when made gluten-free, as gluten-free bread doughs are wetter than their glutenated cousins. I didn’t want to add extra flour, as it would only make the bread dry and tough.

To mimic the rolling out and cutting the dough I let the dough rise in the oven, then baked it for 15-20 minutes to let it partially set. I then used a knife to break up the dough, sprinkled it with cardamom, sugar, cinnamon, and butter, then cut the dough up more to mix in the spices and butter. I managed to make it work, but next time I think I would make one change: I would use half as much milk, then I might be able to actually roll out the dough and cut it.

The original recipe does not say whether or not to melt the butter. I didn’t, just softened it and mixed it in. I might melt the butter next time instead. The recipe does not specify how much flour to add, which can be murder with gluten-free, but my estimate seems to have mostly worked. There are no measurements for the spices, sugar, or butter for filling and topping. Add to taste, but don’t overdo it. I thought my combination was good. The original has more sugar and milk added on top after the dough is put in the tin. I chose to omit them as I thought my dough was wet enough and more milk would make it soggy. As with other gluten-free breads, it doesn’t need much time to rise, only once for 15 minutes was enough for me.

When my husband tasted it he said “it’s good bread pudding.” Most would agree this was not authentic pulla; it wasn’t enough like bread. It’s possible my cutting up the dough when it was partially baked deflated it somewhat and if I had put the spices, sugar, and butter on top then the texture would have been different. I tend to stick to my original hunch that this recipe gluten-free needs less liquid. The texture of the mixture was just about right until I added all that milk. I hate to admit defeat, as so far I haven’t had to adjust any recipes for liquid ratio since I began baking gluten-free. It’s bread though, and that says it all.

Helvi’s Pulla

710 ml (3 cups) whole milk (I would cut this in half)

6 eggs

225g (1 cup) caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

115g (1/2 cup) butter

21g (6 3/4 teaspoons) dry yeast

3 teaspoons xanthan gum

enough gluten-free flour blend to make soft dough (I used teff flour, sweet rice flour, and arrowroot starch (370g (3 1/3 cups) )

cardamom (I used 2 teaspoons)

cinnamon (I used 1 teaspoon)

butter (I used 40g (3 tablespoons))

sugar (I used 55g (1/4 cup))

extra sugar and milk (I omitted these)

Scald the milk. Mix milk, eggs, sugar, salt, butter, yeast, and flour, and xanthan gum (first 8 ingredients) together. Gather dough together and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle with butter, sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom. Roll up the dough and cut into pieces. Place in bread tins. Let rise. Bake at 175C (350F) until lightly browned. (Mine took about 30 minutes.)