Mummi's Voipulla Recipe (Finnish Butter Buns)

This is a simple and relatively quick version of the traditional Finnish pulla recipe. It uses very little sugar, minimal kneading (practically none), and is light on flour. Once you've done one batch, you will be doubling this recipe every time because these are irresistible.

INGREDIENTS & STEPS:

1 pouch active yeast

1 cup warm milk (don't let it get too hot or it will kill the yeast)

1 Tblsp. sugar

Put these three in a large bowl and let stand in a warmish place until the yeast has activated (surface will be covered in bubbles). Should take about 10 minutes.

1 stick butter, melted but not hot (gotta keep the yeast alive)

3 cups flour (bread flour or unbleached is best)

1 tsp. salt

(Keep a raw egg, 1/4 stick of butter and some sugar handy - raw sugar is great if you have it. You'll need these later!)

Mix the butter, flour & salt into the yeasty milk. If you can get it to stick together with less than 3 cups of flour, then leave it at that. The less flour you use, the lighter the pulla will be.

Now let the dough rise in a warmish place until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Take out two cookie sheets and cover in parchment paper.

Punch the dough down, give it a few happy rounds of kneading. Then take little chunks and roll into golf-ball sized buns, placing them at a generous distance from each other as these will double in the oven. Then let them rest for about 10 minutes.

Take a small teaspoon or espresso spoon (if you have it) and take a small nugget of butter and press it into the center of a bun. If you don't own a small teaspoon, flip it around and use the other end to press the butter into the bun. Once all the buns are "butter-eyed", crack the egg in a teacup and mix it up with a fork or whisk, then brush each bun with the egg. Finally sprinkle some sugar on top and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until the buns are golden brown. 

Finns traditionally add cardamom to the dough but we grew up with non-cardamom pulla it so i left it off the recipe. Also, if you are able to obtain pearl-sugar, it will make your butter buns look fancy and more authentically Finnish than using regular, raw, or brown sugar. I have seen it sometimes at IKEA, of all places! But more often than not, i've made do with raw sugar.

 If you want to make Finnish korvapuusti (cinnamon rolls), go a little heavier on the flour and knead the dough more because it has to be rolled out into a rectangle. Spread butter over it, sprinkle sugar and cinnamon, and then roll it up from the long edge, cut into diagonal slices and stand them up on the baking sheet it the thinner end pointing up. Let rest, brush with egg, top with sugar and bake until golden brown. 



 Last words: It seems that every time i bake up a batch of these, there is at least one pan that ends up being buttered and sugared before the egg wash. You definitely do not want to do the egg wash before the butter-eye because the butter will just slide off the bun. However, it is possible to swipe some egg on a sugared bun if you accidentally go sprinkle-happy and forget the egg brush step...unless you've covered the bun in sugar, then you'll just have to settle for a matte bun. Finally, if you don't have any eggs, milk will do the trick in a pinch.

Happy Baking!!!