Korvapuusti pulla (Finnish cinnamon and cardamom buns)

Korvapuusti pulla are delicious, simple and use both cardamom and cinnamon (so good!). They freeze quite well and are good snacks to prepare in advance for the working week. This is a dairy free version, but if you like dairy replace Nuttalex with butter and soy milk with milk.

Ingredients | 12 – 14 buns

The ingredients are quite simple and easy to get a hold of:

• 1 cup of soy milk (Aldi brand), lukewarm
• 4 Tbsp of Nuttalex margarine, melted
• 2 1/4 tsp of dry yeast (this works out to be one 7g sachet)
• 1/2 cup of sugar (I prefer brown sugar)
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of cardamom
• 1 x egg, beaten
• 4 cups (maybe 5) of plain flour

For the filling and glazing:

• 1-2 Tbsp of Nuttalex margarine, melted
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp of cinnamon
• 1 x egg, beaten
• sugar crystals for decoration (optional, but it’s nice to have some chunky sugar crystals on top)

Method

1. Combine the cup of warm milk, 4 Tbsp of Nuttalex, 7g of dry yeast and 1/2 cup of sugar. Leave it to bubble for about 10 minutes (or longer if required).
   
2. Stir in the 1 tsp of cardamom, beaten egg and 1 tsp of salt.
3. Stir in the flour, sprinkling in the flour one cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the bowl (takes me about 4 – 4.5 cups of flour). Kneed it until the dough is smooth, shiny and no longer sticky.
   
4. Cover the dough in a damp cloth and leave to rise for about an hour, or until doubled in size. If the dough is not covered in a damp cloth it will form a hard crust on top.
   
5. Now to make some of the filling, mix the 3/4 cup of brown sugar and 2 Tbsp of cinnamon (I find I end up with about half of this left over so I store it in a container).
6. When the dough has risen, split the dough in half and roll out one half to a 20 cm x 30-35 cm rectangle.
   
7. Melt 2 tablespoons of Nuttalex.
8. Brush the rolled out dough with the melted butter. Sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture all over the melted butter.
   
9. Starting from the long end, roll the dough up to form a log. With a sharp knife cut the dough diagonally to create about 6-8 triangular rolls.
   
10. Place each roll, with the point of the triangle facing up on the baking tray and pinch the top tip of the triangle.
    
11. Repeat steps 8-9 with the remaining dough.
12. Leave the rolls to rise for an hour, then glaze the rolls with the egg. Sprinkle with sugar (preferably some chunky sugar, like coffee sugar or sugar crystals).
    
13. Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C and bake for 10-15 minutes or until browned (the ones pictured here are overcooked but they tasted okay).
    

Tips

So I ended up with some extras, I typically use about half the cinnamon and sugar filling and I use about half the egg for glazing. I save the left-over cinnamon and sugar for next time and I  freezing the left over egg.

I thought I could skip the glazing step, but I learned the hard way this is a bad idea by eating some dry buns.

Nothing beats fresh cardamom, ground stuff from the store is no equal. I have found it’s easier to buy cardamom kernels and grind a whole bunch in a coffee grinder (enough to fill a small spice shaker). It stays delicious for quite a while!

Credits

You can find recipes everywhere for these buns, as they’re pretty common. I got my recipe from a friend, but see imperial measurements for this recipe here at The Spruce Eats, or find another recipe on SBS here.

There’s also some variations on the recipe here.