This week's Baking with Julia recipe was bread - Finnish Pulla, to be exact. This bread is on the sweet side of the spectrum, being decorated with sugar and almonds, and flavoured with cardamom. Our host was Erin of The Daily Morsel.
My heart sank a little at this choice, because bread is never an instant gratification baked good. Yeast needs time to do its work, and at this time of the year, time is at a premium. I also found the thought of making a braided bread a little daunting - in the end, I had to go in front of a mirror and braid my own hair before I could translate it to the strands of bread dough. Another catch is that I have a tiny kitchen with minimal bench space, and each of the bread strands had to be 36" long - definitely a challenge in a small kitchen. However, after a false start with the braiding, I managed to make it work. And boy, I am a glad I did - the end result is rather impressive looking, as well as rather massive, and tastes really good - crusty on the outside, fluffy in the middle, perfect with just a slather of margarine.
To see how the other BWJ bakers went with Finnish Pulla, visit the LYL section of the website.
