Omena Pullat (apple rolls)

When we lived in Finland we regularly made cinnamon rolls (pulla) but there are lots of twists on the basic recipe and this is one of them. The recipe makes at least 20 -30 depending on how big you make them. They are easy to freeze in batches. I would often go to coffee with friends in Finland a bag of pulla would be pulled out of the freezer and warmed through.

Ingredients

500 ml milk
14 g dried yeast/ 50g fresh yeast
200g sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp ground cardamon (optional, but you need it for the real Finnish taste)
2 tsp salt
1 egg
200g margarine
1 l/2 kilo plain flour

Filling

3 -5 cooking apples
150g raisins
2 tbsp lemon juice
75ml water
3 tbsp sugar

Topping

1 egg
sugar (rock sugar or smash some sugar lumps up)

Method

Heat the oven to 225oC.
Mix the milk,sugar, vanilla essence, egg, cardamon and salt together in a jug.(add the fresh yeast now if you are using it and warm the milk a little).
Place the flour in a large bowl and mix the dried yeast in (if using dried yeast).
Pour in the milk, etc and mix in. The best way to mix is with your hands.
Cover with a damp cloth and put somewhere warm to rise for 20 min.
Peel and slice the apples into small cubes.
Put apples and the rest of the ingredients for the filling into a saucepan.
Cook for approx 10 min, until the apples are soft.
Leave to cool.
Take half the dough.
On a floured surface roll it out to be 30x60cm.
Cut into squares of 10x10.
Put one tbsp of the filling into the squares
Take the 4 corners of the square and draw them to the middle, nipping the parcel shut with the corners and along the edges. Wet the dough a little if it helps.
Place on a lined baking tray.
When you have done all the parcels place a damp tea cloth over them and leave for approx 30 in.
Brush with the egg and sprinkle sugar on top
Bake for 8 - 10 min.

Tip

These do take practice and can burst, but they are lovely hot and maybe even served with a decadent spoonful of vanilla ice cream.

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