Fat Buns

« Laskiaispulla, the traditional pastry during Shrovetide. If you don't have fat buns before you eat one of these, you will. »

Try the 'new and improved' version of this entry.

No, I'm not becoming the Martha Stewart of the North, but after inflicting my coworkers with the runeberg cakes last week, one of them mentioned the laskiaispulla and I thought I'd give them a try since I've not made bread in a while. There is the bonus of having people at work to give the bulk of the treats to since they're native taste testers and fattening them up makes me look thinner. :) Also, Laskiainen/Shrovetide is a Finnish holiday a recovering Catholic can love since the Finns wisely rid themselves of the papal plague but kept the foods and parties. What's not to love? I saw a bunch of skaters and people careening down the very icy hills today when I took Otava to the park. The kids are just warming up for Penkkarit. :)

Working in the kitchen also seems to make Otava happy as he will lie on my feet as I'm working instead of being the petulant ball of fur he usually is when I try to sit on the couch for five minutes in the evening. I've not answered email that requires more than one or two sentences in a week or two since I am usually too worn out, if I get the time. I have conversations I can't remember an hour later or lose my train of thought in mid-sentence when talking. I've been meaning to send out invites for a puppy party, but find myself staring at a blank email trying to remember what I was going to write and who I was going to write it to. I am the wakeful dead.

Baking doesn't really require much in the way of deep thoughts so it is a perfect activity. So, again, I returned to my copy of Kotiruoka and, rather insanely, decided to try making the buns around 11pm on Sunday after we had spent the afternoon taking Otava to Suomenlinna and riding the tram around town where a group of people offered us, and Otava, some pulla. Otava declined.

The recipe for pulla in Kotiruoka reads much like something your grandmother might have written down at some point, if she ever bothered to use a recipe for making it, so it assumes a lot and leaves out a lot. There was one word, kermamaito (creammilk) that no one I asked seemed to have an authoritative translation for so I settled on whole milk [it is actually a mixture of half whole milk and half cream, a.k.a. Half&Half in the US]. I had one batch of buns that tasted good but didn't rise because I read the recipe, but forgot how fussy yeast bread doughs can be and how they will not be rushed. The dough is easy to make but requires time and patience as well as some precision.

I've reworded many parts of the recipe as well as made some parts more clear and moved the addition of the butter from the kneading stage to melting it with the milk soup for the yeast. I also halved the recipe since the laskiaispulla recipe asked for half of the dough from the recipe and the original made enough pulla for a small regiment. If you have fifty friends you need to feed, use the measures in the ()'s. Also, the amount of flour is a little on the low side and is closer to about 5 cups before the dough comes together. I was a bit worried that so much more flour than the recipe called for might make them chewy but I sifted the flour a little at a time into the dough so it wasn't likely that I had overdone it. Everyone seemed to eat them and, I think, they were better received than my runeberg experiment. :)

One caveat is that the almond paste filling is 2000 times more almondy than marzipan and is not for the almond averse. It's like a 200 pound almond infusing your entire body with its taste and smell. The jam variety is popular, if not traditional, for those who aren't all that keen on the almond paste.

Arkivehnänen (pulla) Everyday bread

Makes: 12 to 24 buns (24 to 50 buns)
Preparation time: approximately 3 hours
Source: Kotiruoka

• 2.5dl or 1 cup (5dl or 2c) whole milk
• 75g or 3/4 stick (1.5 sticks or 3/4 cup) butter
• 25g yeast cake, .88oz or 1 packet of instant yeast (50g | 1.75 oz)
• 1 (2) eggs
• .75dl-1dl or 1/3-1/2 cup (1.5-2 dl | 3/4-1 cup) sugar
• 1.5 teaspoons (1 tablespoon) cardamom
• 3/4-1 teaspoon (1.5-2) teaspoons salt
• about .5kg [7.5-8dl] or 3.25-3.5 cups (1kg [15-16dl] or 6.5-7cups) wheat flour

1. Take the ingredients needed for the dough and bring them to room temperature before starting so that they will not chill the yeast.
2. Heat milk and butter in a saucepan on a warm, but not hot, burner. Whisk until butter has melted and the mixture is brought to 100F/38C. Crumble the yeast into the milk. Stir with a whisk until the yeast has fully dissolved.
3. Add egg[s], sugar, salt and cardamom, mixing well.

4. Add flour after first whisking the mixture, then knead by hand. Leave some of the flour unused at this point and add only if needed after the dough has risen. You will know the right amount of flour by feel. Add flour slowly, with a sifter if you have one, as the dough will go from sticky to smooth very quickly when the right amount of flour has been reached. Resist the urge to add too much flour as this will result in a dry, dense bun.

   **If you want to prepare the dough with a mixer, use less flour than when doing it manually. Knead to dough only for 2 to 3 minutes so that the elasticity stays.

5. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or tin foil and place in a warm, draft-free spot to allow the dough to double in volume. This will take about 1 hour. Warm oven to 85F/35C to use as a proofing box or use the microwave by placing the covered dough inside with a cup of boiling water.
6. When the dough has doubled, remove from the proofing box, and knead for a few minutes. Roll the dough into small buns, about the size of an egg. The dough makes about 15-24 small buns or two braids.
7. Place the small buns onto lightly greased pans, cover with a towel and place in the oven/microwave and allow them to rise again for another 20 minutes or so. Remove from the oven, and place them on the counter while they are still covered. Pre-heat the oven to 225C/425F.
8. Brush the whole top side of the raised buns [for even browning] with a whisked egg white and sprinkle with sliced almonds, powdered almonds, or pearl sugar. You may leave them plain and dust with confectioners sugar after baking or filling with cream.
9. Bake small buns in the middle rack of the oven at 225C/425F for ten minutes and braids at the bottom of the oven in 200/395C for 20 to 25 minutes. The buns go from light brown to very brown in a flash so keep a close watch on them while they are baking.
10. Place buns on a cooling rack and cover with a towel.

Laskiaispullat or Lenten/Shrovetide Buns

Filling:

• 150g | 3/4 cup almond paste (not marzipan) (or 1dl ground almonds and 1dl confectioners sugar)
• about 1dl | 1/2 cup whole milk or half&half

or

• raspberry [or another berry] jam

and

• 2.5dl | 2 cups whipping cream
• vanilla or vanilla sugar

Decoration:

• confectioners sugar if not baked with sliced almonds or pearl sugar

1. Place cream [container] into a bowl filled with ice and put into the fridge to chill while making the almond filling. It's also a good idea to chill the mixing bowl as well.
2. Using a sharp knife, slice a "lid" from the buns. Gently scoop a little bit of the bun from inside with a spoon and crumble into a bowl. Mix in either the crushed almond and sugar or the almond paste. Add whole milk and mix into a smooth paste. Chill the paste to make it easier to work with and spoon the paste into the buns. You may also fill the buns with raspberry jam.
3. Pour the chilled cream into the mixing bowl, add a few drops of vanilla or vanilla sugar to taste, and mix on high for about one minute until you have a firm peaks. Do not beat too long unless you want to fill the buns with butter. :) Using a pastry bag or spoon, fill the buns with cream and replace the 'lid'.
4. Sift a bit of confectioners sugar on top if you like. Serve in a bowl with hot milk and a spoon or with coffee.