Dallaspulla - Awesome Finnish Pastry

I discovered these pastries as an exchange student in Finland and they are my absolute favorite in the whole wide world (my boyfriend's too). I have been searching high and low for a recipe and finally I found this one on Axis of Aevil so I thought I'd share. Can't wait to try it!! There's the traditional Finnish filling as well as an American alternative since quark is pretty hard to find in the States. NOTE: The vanilla cream flour can be replaced by mixing together 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar and 1/4 cup potato or wheat flour

• Ready In: 1 hr 43 mins
• Serves: 12
• Yields: 12 pulla

Ingredients

• Dough

• 1  cup  whole milk
• 3⁄8 cup  softened butter
• 1⁄4 ounce dry yeast (1 packet)
• 1  egg
• 1⁄2 cup  superfine sugar
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 5  cups wheat flour

• Finnish Filling

• 1⁄4 cup butter
• 1  large egg
• 2  tablespoons sugar
• 1⁄2 cup Quark (a.k.a. maitorahkaa)
• 1⁄4 cup  vanilla cream flour

• Alternative American Filling

• 8  ounces cream cheese (1 package)
• 1⁄4 cup granulated sugar
• 1  large egg
• 1  teaspoon orange zest or 1  teaspoon lemon zest
• 1  teaspoon vanilla extract or 1  teaspoon  vanilla sugar
• 2  tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

• Icing

• 1⁄2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 3  teaspoons  fresh orange juice or 3  teaspoons lemon juice
• 1  dash water, to desired consistency

Directions

1. Prepare filling by mixing ingredients into a smooth paste. Refrigerate until needed.
2. In a saucepan over low heat, warm the milk and butter to about 40C/104°F.
3. In a bowl, crumble the yeast into the warm milk and butter mixture. Add sugar, salt and egg. Mix together well until the yeast is dissolved.
4. Add flour gradually until the dough forms a ball. Add more flour only if it's still sticky and add only a little at a time.
5. Knead dough for about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.
6. Place a towel over the bowl and let the dough double in a warm, draft-free place for about 30 minutes to 1 hour [warming the oven to ~40C/100F works very well as a proofing box].
7. Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Gently shape dough into rough rectangle with long side nearest you. Lightly flour dough and roll into a 16-inch x 12-inch (40cm x 30cm) rectangle.
8. Spread filling on the dough leaving a 1cm/.5in border on the far edge.
9. Beginning with long edge nearest you, roll dough into taut cylinder.
10. Firmly pinch seam to seal and roll cylinder seam-side down.
11. Very gently stretch and roll to cylinder of even diameter and 18-inch/45cm length; push ends in to create even thickness.
12. Using a sharp serrated knife and gentle sawing motion, slice cylinder in half, then slice each half in half again to create evenly sized quarters. Slice 3,8cm/1.5in pieces from the rolls and place into a rectangular pan using a spatula.
13. Cover with a towel and allow to rise for about 30 minutes while the oven warms to baking temperature.
14. Make icing.
15. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200-225C/390-435F for about 13-15 minutes.
16. Cut pulla apart and drizzle icing over the tops.
17. Try not to eat them all in one sitting. :).