Imagine coming home from work on a Friday to find out that 1) not only is there a fresh loaf of bread in the house that came straight from the baker’s oven, but also that 2) you are lucky enough for said loaf to be studded with raisins, flecked with cardamom, and then sprinkled on top with both almond slivers and sugar.
Well, that was my Friday just a few days ago. And here is what such a delectable miracle looks like:
So, what is this delight? It’s a type of Finnish bread called pulla. My mom went out that day with some of her friends (one of whom is Finnish) and stopped by a Finnish bakery on the Danforth. Her friend asked if they had any pulla available, and was told that there were a bunch of loaves in the oven, so they could have first crack after the loaves had a chance to cool.
So mom came home with some pulla. And Jesus Christ, this shit is divine with a thick smear of butter on top. The almonds were a bit flaky, the dough was soft and chewy, the raisins were plump, and the sweet, spicy tang of cardamom was omnipresent.
Now, I have some cardamom tea in my cupboard — David’s Tea’s “Cardamom French Toast” blend, which was a recent Christmas tea of theirs. Once I had one two slices with butter on Friday evening, I realized that it was pretty much a no-brainer to pair this bread with my cardamom tea. So of course, on Saturday morning, I pulled out a biiig mug to brew my tea, cut a slice of pulla and smeared it with butter, and went to town on the resulting combination:
The slice of pulla was so good that I didn’t pay much attention to the tea! I’ve had this tea several times, anyway, and the sweet, cardamom-y goodness with a hint of pastry/egg flavour matched with the pulla perfectly.
So there you go. That was my Saturday morning. I’ll need to encourage (aka: beg) my mother to return to that bakery and get some more.