Karjalanpiirakka
Finland's Karelian pasties: a paper-thin rye crust pinched around a creamy rice porridge and brushed with hot butter.
Photo: Tiia Monto · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Prep
- 45 min
- Cook
- 40 min
- Total
- 85 min
- Serves
- 6
- Difficulty
- Hard
Method
- Bring the rice and the 250 ml water to the boil, let it absorb for 5 minutes, then add the milk and cook for 35 minutes on the lowest heat, stirring often.
- Salt the porridge, beat in 20 g of the butter and let it cool; it should be thick and spoonable, never runny.
- Knead both flours, the salt and the cold water into a firm, non-sticky dough, then roll it into a log and cut sixteen equal pieces.
- Roll each piece out very thin, to an almost translucent oval about 15 cm long, dusting generously with rye flour and stacking the discs as you go.
- Spoon porridge onto the centre of each oval, spread it leaving a 2 cm border, then fold and crimp the two long sides into tight little pleats.
- Bake at 250°C on a preheated tray for 12 to 15 minutes, until the crust is marked with brown blisters.
- Melt the remaining butter with 4 tbsp hot milk and brush it lavishly over the pasties straight from the oven, then cover with a tea towel for 10 minutes to soften them.
These are eaten warm at breakfast, usually spread with munavoi, butter mashed with hard-boiled egg. The butter bath out of the oven is not optional: it is what makes the rye crust yielding rather than brittle.
