Finnish Crepes
by Aura Elliott
(Tampere Finland)
A fried up 'ready-to-eat' Finnish crepe.
Finnish crepe pancakes. -Old fashion Finnish crepes.
A very typical dessert in Finland. Aura's Mom; Mumma,means grandmother makes up a real special home made batter she takes into the woods while hiking. After building a fire, she takes out her special frying pan with a loooong handle attached to the pan-head, and fries up the batter.
In our opinion, these crepes taste the best surrounded by Finnish fir and pine. Try them after hiking in knee-deep snow for an hour.
Finnish crepe pancakes contain wheat flour. Here is the recipe. It takes 5 minutes to make up the batter.
Marzipan Pulla
by A. Pitkonen
(Helsinki)
Sweet Finnish Food
Start by making Finnish pulla (sweet bread) dough. It's like Canadian cinnamon roll dough, but you add sugar and cardemum to the dough. Make the dough flat with the rolling pin. Spread a mixture of kermaviili (sour cream), two egg yolks, one tablespoon of sugar and a dash of vanilla sugar on the rolled out dough. Sprinkle with raisins. Wrap the dough around a long piece of marzipan. Cut the roll in pieces and bake in the oven.
If you want the pulla to be extra soft and well risen, add half a teaspoon of xantan to the dough! That's what the bakeries do in Finland.
Smells like a mix of marzipan, cardemum and flour when it's fresh out-of-the-oven. The whole house get's filled with that scent!
Texture: Soft yet firm. The top of this pulla is slightly browned, the middle has marzipan in it, so when you bite through the pullaa you bite through a huge soft thick piece of marzipan. Really nice with your morning of evening Coffee.
Where to Find/Buy? At home. Get together with a friend and make these at home! Anyone know where to buy these in Finland?
Jeff's comment: Thanks A. Pitkonen for the recipe.
If in need of exposing yourself to more pulla sweat bread varieties, Aura has been baking since she was 7. Her famous Finnish pulla come sprinked with pearl sugar and are filled with vanilla and jam.
Oatflakes Snack Food Easy Recipe
by Aura Elliott
This easy oat-flakes Finnish snack food recipe is something to use if you have a special event related to Food in Finland, and you would like to show what kind of snack food is typically eaten in Finland.
Example: In our family-scout-troop here in Finland we have our annual scout ceremony at Church. After the ceremony both children and parents participate in a bake-sale, and coffee time.
This recipe should be enough to feed 70 - 80 people.
It is inexpensive snack and most kids love these cookies. I have made these kauralastut" (oatflakes) several times with kids ages 4-12 yrs.
So, here's the recipe: It is in the metric form, since that is what is used here. :)
You will need ( I tripled the recipe for you):
-a large bowl
-250 grams ( one cup) of melted margarine or butter
-5 dl (two cups) of sugar
-10 dl (four cups) of oatmeal flakes
-5 Table-spoons of cornstarch (we use potato starch, but it will be difficult to find that in the US)
-5 tsp. baking powder
-5 tsp. vanilla sugar
-5 eggs
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Scoop clumps of mixture with a spoon and put on a cookie sheet. Bake at 200 C (about 400 F) for 5-10 minutes until flakes melt and become golden colored. If the dough is too crumbly and it is difficult to mix, add 100 grams of warm, melted butter.
You can glorify the cookies by dipping the cooled off cookies in melted chocolate. Dip cookies in half-way. -Aura Elliott
