finnish pulla
rating:www.suomalaiset.de/forum/showthread.php?t=1614
½ litre milk
small cup sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon salt
50g fresh yeast (or a packet of dried)
200g butter (or margarine, if you must)
ground cardamom
950-1000g flour
Melt butter/margarine. Allow to cool while you start preparing the dough.
Whisk egg and sugar. Add the salt and cardamom.
Heat the milk to hand warm. Add to the egg/sugar/salt cardamom mix.
Crumble the yeast and mix it in until it's delumped.
Add the flour - setting some aside - and mix, the recipe suggests using a wooden fork. Once the dough stops sticking to the wooden fork, carry on mixing with your fingers.
Add the melted butter/margarine and combine thoroughly with the dough, a little at a time checking consistency and adding more flour if required.
Don't make the dough too "tight" or too floury (it's possible you won't need all the flour). There's enough flour in the dough when it stops sticking to your fingers but still feels soft.
Leave somewhere warm and dry to rise to roughly double its size.
Break up and form into balls, or whatever you fancy, and leave to stand for another ten minutes or so.
Bake at 200°C until they're a nice golden brown - 12-15 minutes.
