Finnish cinnamon rolls

[cmsgt5]

My Finnish grandmother and her Finnish friends in Montana decades ago used to take turns making great cinnamon rolls, not full of icing and made with butter that she churned by hand. Since there were no preservatives in the rolls, they made a big batch and shared them; they went stale after 2 days.
I have tried to make them from some recipes from the internet, but they just don't come out like grandma's.
Are they still made from scratch in Finland? Any suggested recipes? Metric or English is ok.
My grandmother never wrote any recipe down; they just baked from memory using the wood-burning oven.

Alan
Kaleva Knight

[EP]

Dough:

5 dl milk
50 gr yeast (one packet)
1 ½ - 2 dl sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cardamom
1 egg
150 - 200 gr margarine or butter
14 - 15 dl flour (about 1 kg)

Filling:

butter
cinnamon
sugar

Topping:

1 egg
coarse sugar

[EP]

And then HOW TO:

Dissolve yeast into lukewarm milk in a mixing bowl. Add sugar, salt, cardamom and egg and mix ingredients together. Add half of the flour and stir into a soft dough. Mix soft margarine or butter into the dough and add as much from the rest of the flour as is needed. The dough is ready when it no longer sticks to the bowl or to your fingers. Cover the mixing bowl with a kitchen towel and leave the dough to rise in a warm place for approximately 30 minutes.



Pour the dough onto a floured baking board, knead for a while and then halve the dough. Roll out one part of the dough into a rectangular sheet (approximately 1 cm thick), with a rolling pin. Spread soft butter onto the sheet, and then sprinkle plenty of sugar and cinnamon on top of it. Roll the sheet up tightly, starting from the longer side.



Cut the bar into even, triangular pieces. Turn the pieces upwards and press down the centers of the buns with your finger, so that the cut edges bulge out on both sides.



Repeat the process with the other half of the dough.



Place the buns onto baking trays covered with greaseproof paper and prove for 30 minutes. Afterwards brush the buns with beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar.



Bake at 225 degrees Celsius, on the middle rack of the oven, for approximately 10 – 15 minutes, until golden brown. Set aside to cool, and cover the baking trays with kitchen towels.

[karen]

Is staleness a reason not to eat them? My mil does her baking days before Christmas, but she still puts the pulla out every day until it's gone or the company leaves . I have an aversion to staleness, but the Finns don't seem to mind it at all.

[Pursuivant]

you put the spale pulla into hot milk and make pullamössö... 1960 kids staple delicacy

[Cloudberry]

My Finnish grandmother and her Finnish friends in Montana decades ago used to take turns making great cinnamon rolls, not full of icing and made with butter that she churned by hand. Since there were no preservatives in the rolls, they made a big batch and shared them; they went stale after 2 days.
I have tried to make them from some recipes from the internet, but they just don't come out like grandma's.
Are they still made from scratch in Finland? Any suggested recipes? Metric or English is ok.
My grandmother never wrote any recipe down; they just baked from memory using the wood-burning oven.

Alan
Kaleva Knight

I know! they never come out the same! I think you have to realise that they WILL never be the same. What you're trying for is something similar to what your grandmother used to make (I have tried to recreate my Finnish grandmother's pulla for years myself and failed). Try using organic ingredients (organic butter and flour) and you just might come close

[Alicia]

I add salt to the butter that is used for the filling. I think there used to be more salt in butter, but I could be wrong. I whipped up a batch of buns last night (not swirls) and added salt when I dipped the buns in melted butter and sugar.

[Cloudberry]

I add salt to the butter that is used for the filling. I think there used to be more salt in butter, but I could be wrong. I whipped up a batch of buns last night (not swirls) and added salt when I dipped the buns in melted butter and sugar.

I think you may be right. It's amazing how such a little change in the ingredients affects the outcome.