This Finnish Nissua / Cardamom Bread is a sweet and buttery bread apt for celebrations. Shaped into a braided loaf this looks beautiful.
This Finnish Nisu / Nissua is a cardamom flavoured sweet bread which is also known as Pulla. This is a enriched dough with butter and eggs. And as usual, I tried it making egg free. This is one bread which is common in Finland and Sweden.
In Finland it is called as Pulla or Nissua whereas in Sweden it is known as Kardemummabröd. This is also topped with a sugar glaze and almonds. I made it plain and toasted it while serving.
This is one of the beautiful braids I have made so far. The colour of the bread turns out so nice and the bread it self was so soft in texture. As we are so used to cardamom flavour in Indian dishes, we loved this bread too.
The dough is on the stickier side and so kneading takes some effort. I used the French method of kneading, which is slapping the dough on counter and folding. This makes it easy while kneading sticky dough.
At first it may seem messy, but after a minute or two, you will see the gluten development and the dough comes beautiful. There are so many videos in YouTube demonstrating this method. So if interested, take a look.
First I thought of making one large braid, but my baking tray was too small for it. So I divided into two and made two braids out of the dough. This bread was so much fun to make and we just loved the buttery bread.
Finnish Nissua / Cardamom Bread
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 350 g All Purpose Flour / Maida
- 1 tsp Instant Yeast
- 65 g Sugar
- 200 ml Milk
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Cardamom Powder
- 45 g Butter
Instructions
Procedure
- In a bowl mix together flour, sugar, salt, yeast and cardamom.
- Add milk and butter and mix it to a sticky dough.
- On the counter knead the dough for 10 minutes. Use a bench scraper, if the dough is too wet to handle. Dust with little flour while kneading.
- Place in an oiled bowl, cover with cling wrap and set aside for 1 – 1.5 hours.
- When it is double, remove dough to counter, punch out air and divide into 6 equal portions.
- Roll each portion into a log.
- Braid three logs together and tuck the ends. Repeat with the remaining logs.
- Cover and set aside for 15 minutes.
- By the time it is proving, preheat oven to 200°C.
- Apply milk over the braided loaf with a pastry brush.
- Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until the top is golden.
- Remove from oven, brush with butter and serve it warm or allow it to cool completely.
- Slice it up, toast an enjoy!
Gayathri your braid looks lovely! I never tried cardamom in bread. Thanks for the recipe!
Pretty looking braid gayathri, i know how delicious the bread tastes and smells with that divine aroma of cardamom!!! beautiful choice for the festive season
You had me at cardamom. Such a pretty braided bread.
Your braids are gorgeous, and the flavor profile sounds wonderful. I love cardemom in bread.
What pretty looking braids those are Gayathri. Love cardamom in everything, so I’m sure this bread must have tasted amazing.
Just stunning and I love the addition of cardamom to this bread.
This is a beautiful loaf of bread. It looks so soft and delicious. Love the Cardamom flavor too.
Nice bread tried it today. Looks good.
My first successful bread
The recipe looks pretty good, but the proposed way of serving it is way off. At least I’ve not seen or heard anyone toasting pullapitko / nisu, its not something you are supposed to do. Basically its one of the standard things you eat with coffee. Just take a slice of it and eat it as it is with coffee.
As stated above the thing is actually called pullapitko in Finnish or you can call it Nisu depending an bit on the area where you are at. Its never “nissua” the form I think you are after there is “nisua” which is used when you are taking some of the pulla. 🙂
Also one usually sprinkles some sugar on top of the pullapitko before putting it into the oven.
Just some comments on the pullapitko from a finn.
On the serving, you never toast this kind of a cardemum bread in Finland. Its sweet coffeebread and eaten plain usually with coffee. So no toasting and no toppings.
I would recommend trying the recipe with adding some raisins into the bake mix (optional) and adding some Confectioners Sugar and butter on top of the pullapitko before putting it into the oven.
Thank you so much for all your points. Will note them down and follow it during my next bake.
I have made this recipe twice and both times it did not rise at all. I tried different yeast, milk and eggs and made sure all ingredients were fresh and still nothing. What else could I be doing wrong?
If you live in a colder place, the proving might take longer. Try proving the dough for two or three hours if the dough doesn’t rise within 1.5 hours.