Food For Thought - Cranberry Sweet Rolls with a Finnish Twist.

A Finnish 'pulla' sweet bun.

Here is another one of those recipes that I really loved so I took it, changed it about some, added my own twist to it... made it into a Nordic cranberry roll.

Here is the original recipe for those who want to check the differences or make the original. Doesn't look a whole lot different than mine, except no icing on mine, I used pearl sugar instead.

As soon as I saw this recipe for cranberry sweet rolls, I knew I had to try it. I make Finnish/Swedish sweet rolls all the time. They are a staple with anyone from the Nordic countries. Called 'pulla' in Finnish or 'bullar' in Swedish. I used my own 'pulla' dough recipe but made the cranberry jam filling from the original recipe.

Make the 'jam' first so it has time to cool while you prepare the dough.

1.5 cup fresh cranberries ( I used frozen)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon orange zest

A squeeze of orange juice (optional)

Add ingredients into a saucepan and slowly cook down till it looks like jam, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Crush your cardamom seeds with the mortar and pestle for nice, zingy flavour.

To make the Finnish Pulla dough for sweet rolls...

1.5 cups of warm milk or cream

1 egg

6 tbsp sugar

6 tablespoons melted butter

1.5 tsp salt

1 tbsp instant yeast

1 tsp cardamom seeds that you crush with a pestle (or ground cardamom)

3.5 to 4 cups of flour

1 egg plus a bit of milk for the egg wash (makes buns shiny)

Pearl sugar, optional

Warm the milk and butter in the microwave, or a small saucepan, till butter is melted. Do not overheat the milk.

Place egg, sugar, butter, salt, and milk in a mixer bowl with a dough hook. Blend together.

Keep the dough hook mixing, add 2 cups of flour with the instant yeast mixed in.

Add crushed cardamom seeds, if using. Ground cardamom will work but does not give quite the same punch of flavour.

Slowly add the remainder of the flour while the dough hook mixes the dough. Your dough is ready when it forms into a ball around the hook and no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl.

Mix for a few more minutes.

Cover with tea towel.

Allow to rise for 30 to 40 minutes, till doubled in size.

*If you are making this by hand, mix the ingredients in a bowl till the dough is no longer sticky. Place on a well floured table/counter and knead for 8 minutes, if you can. Hubs (the chef) says that the longer you knead your dough, the better it will be.

See the flecks of cardamom?

To make the twisty buns...

Roll the dough into a rectangle, approximately 12 inches by 18 inches.

Spread out the jam onto the dough.

Fold the rectangle in half so it is now 12 inches high by 9 inches wide.

Slice the rectangle into long strips, about 3/4 inch wide, smaller for smaller buns.

Take each end of the strip and start turning in opposite directions to give it that twisty look.

Wrap the strip around itself to make a bun shape, tuck the end underneath the bun.

As I forgot to take pictures while I made my buns, (obviously am not a food blogger, lol), here is a video of how to do it. She does hers a bit differently than I make mine, but the end look is similar.

Alternately - You can also roll the jammy rectangle into a long roll and slice as you would with cinnamon buns. Will look amazing either way with the jam showing in the layers.

Heat the oven to 375°F

Place the buns on a greased cookie sheet (or parchment paper) with room to grow.

Let the buns rise for 20 minutes.

Whisk together one egg and a bit of milk (1/4 cup-ish) to make an egg wash. Brush this over the buns, sprinkle with pearl sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes, or till golden brown.

The original poster made a cream cheese icing but I just used the pearl sugar. Icing is just not something I grew up with so I rarely make it.

He also mentioned glazing them with a wash of marmalade. I thought that was genius. I will make a peach jam glaze next time to try instead of the pearl sugar.

Any which way you make these cranberry sweet rolls, you will love them. Make them your own! Use either dough recipe, or your own favourite, make them any shape you like, use any filling that you like. Cranberry is great for the yuletide season, but maybe peach in spring and plum in fall?

The cranberry jam looks so festive swirled inside the buns, and they taste amazing. Was a thumb's up from my chef-y mister!

Happy Baking ~Tanja