Finnish Cardamom Bread (Pulla, Without Egg)

Freshly baked Finnish cardamom bread with an irresistible aroma, soft and fluffy texture. No kneading, just stretch and fold. I love the great result with minimum effort!

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Curry Boy said he wanted to eat cardamom bread, but I didn’t have egg on hand. Luckily I found a vegan pulla bread recipe which is baked without egg.

Key Points of this Recipe

• 65% hydration rate
• No water, only full-fat milk
• Butter melted in the milk then added to flour
• No knead, only stretch and fold
• rest dough for 15 mins before stretch and fold

I roughly halved the ingredients from the referred recipe, and replaced with 3.5% fat milk and butter to ensure that the bread is soft enough. Also, I didn’t have a kitchen machine by that time and I didn’t want to knead as well, so I used Stretch and Fold method instead. Before I got my hands dirty, I let the dough rest first to absorb water, so it won’t stick to my hands. After just a few folds, the surface of the dough has become smooth and not sticky.

Ref. Video Recipe: How to Stretch and Fold

Ingredients

• 250 g bread flour
• 1 tsp (4 g) dried yeast
• 30 g sugar
• 3 g salt
• 163 g warm full-fat milk
• 30 g butter
• 10 cardamom pods
• some milk for egg wash

How to Make Finnish Cardamom Bread (Pulla, without egg)

1. Take out the cardamom seeds from the pods and grind to powder.
2. Melt butter into the warm milk.
3. Place flour, salt, sugar and cardamom powder to a bowl, yeast to a side, and pour in the buttery milk to the yeast, use a scarper to mix everything together, until smooth and no granules.
4. Spread the dough into a container to let it absorb the liquid, cover with cling film and let rest for 15 mins.
5. Shape round the dough and start stretch and fold(like the video above). Repeat until the dough is smooth and not sticky. Again shape round, put into a container, cover with cling film and let proof until doubles its size.
6. Take out the dough and punch it down, divide into 4 equal parts, shape round and let rest for 5 mins.
7. Use a roll pin to roll into oval shapes, then roll up and seal both ends, stretch to about 16 inch long.
8. Then start braiding, see vegan pulla bread pics.
9. Place the dough on a baking tray and cover with a dry clean tea towel, let it proof to double its size.
10. After proofing, brush a thin layer of milk on it, bake in a 180ºC for 25 mins. If you think it turns golden too quick, then lower the temperature.