Pulla

We have been so lucky that Rob's advisor at the university is young, energetic and speaks excellent English! Heidi has been our "in-country" guide since we arrived, helping us to navigate Finnish culture, customs and traditions.

Since it was ski week last week, Heidi came to our house to make pulla with the kids! Pulla is a traditional cardamom-flavored bun and you can get it almost everywhere--the grocery store, the bakery, cafes, restaurants....

The kids hated pulla at first. It looks like a cinnamon roll, but it's not frosted and it isn't quite as sweet as the American cinnamon roll. I think their tastebuds were expecting one thing and what they got was something completely different so they decided they didn't like it. However, I knew that if they helped Heidi make pulla, they would love it. And you know what? I was right!

After Heidi made the dough (a basic yeast dough with the addition of quite a bit of roughly ground cardamom), the kids got to work the dough.

Then, Heidi added (generous) amounts of butter...

...cinnamon...

and sugar!

Then it's time to roll all of those goodies inside the dough

These are Lily's pulla. I like this photo because you can see how coarsely ground the cardamom is.

After cutting the rolled up log, an egg wash and some coarse sugar sprinkles (it looks like pretzel salt, but it's actually coarse sugar that doesn't melt), they are oven-ready.

And let me tell you, the smell in our apartment was heavenly for two days!