Nisua (Pulla) Bread

Nisua (also called Nisu or Pulla) bread is a Finnish coffee bread with cardamom in it. A family friend, Karen, gave my mom and me a loaf of it for Christmas this year, and it was amazing. I mentioned that it would be a great recipe to make for this project, and Karen was nice enough to give me her recipe and come over to walk me through it. Karen was taught this recipe by her Finnish grandmother and now knows the recipe by heart from making it so many times. I don't think I could have done it without her!

Nisua bread originates in Kainuu, a town in North-Eastern Finland, near Russian Karelia. It is said that the people of the town always knew when someone was making Nisua because they could hear a loud pounding in the morning. This pounding was the women crushing the cardamom seeds. The seeds are very hard, so even today when I made this today I needed to pound the seeds with a hammer.


I had so much fun making this bread. The loaves look beautiful, smell wonderful, and taste delicious! It takes time to make them, so at least 4 hours need to be allotted to complete the project.


Nisua

2 packages dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups scalded milk
1 stick butter
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (22 cardamom pods opened up and crushed)
7-8 cups flour

1. Scald the milk with the butter in it. Let cool.

2. Dissolve yeast in the warm water and stir out all of the lumps.

3. Beat the eggs and add the sugar and salt. Add 2 cups of flour, yeast, and cardamom. Mix well and keep adding flour. At a certain point it will be too thick to mix with a spoon, so mix it with your hands. Once the texture is thick enough take it out of the bowl and knead on a floured surface until all of the flour is mixed in and it is no longer sticky. Add flour if it continues to be sticky. Place the dough in a bowl greased with a teaspoon of canola oil, cover with a cloth, and let rise for an hour and a half.

4. Split the dough into 3 equal parts. Split each into 3 again and roll out to make it long. Braid the three strands and place in a greased bread pan. Repeat with other 2 balls. Cover with a cloth and let rise for an hour and a half.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Brush the top of each loaf with a pastry brush with milk. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.