Karelian Pie: How to Make Finnish Karelian Pie

It is not difficult to create Finnish Karelian Pie, and luckily, it takes just a little time to make them. Karelian pies are traditional Karelian pasties or pirogues. They are consumed all over Finland today, as well as in neighboring Estonia and Northern Russia.

Finnish cuisine is remarkable in mixing traditional nations and high-quality cuisine with a modern continental kitchen. In some areas of the country, fish, and meat – generally pork, beef, or reindeer – play an essential part in traditional Finnish dishes.

Finnish Karelian Pies have crusts produced from rye bread and are packed with vegetables, rice, or carrots. With an egg butter spread on top, they are undoubtedly delicious.

FINNISH KARELIAN PIE

  • Author: Romae Chanice Marquez
  • Recipe Category: Snacks / Pastry
  • Cuisine: Finnish

Today, a thin rye crust with a rice filling is the most familiar and standard version of this dish. There are also frequently accessible mashed potatoes and rice and carrot fillings. The whole preparation and cooking time is around 2 hours. This recipe serves at least 20 people.

Finnish Karelian Pie Recipe

Karelian pie is also tagged by many as the national food in Finland. Photo credits to: @nordicbakery.

Finnish Karelian Pie Ingredients

For the Rice Porridge,

  • 130 g of white short-grain rice
  • 250 ml of water
  • 800 ml of milk
  • 1 tbsp of butter
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 1 egg

For the Pastry Shell,

  • 200 ml of cold water
  • 1 tsp of salt
  • 60 g of all-purpose flour
  • 225 g of rye flour
  • 2 tbsp of melted butter

For the Egg Butter,

  • 4 eggs
  • 150 g of butter
  • Salt Chives

Finnish Karelian Pie Instructions

For the Rice Porridge,

Step 1: Bring water to a boil. Add rice and butter. Continue to cook until liquid has been consumed, then add the milk.

Step 2: Let it simmer for about 35-40 minutes until porridge is finished. Do not forget to stir; otherwise, at the bottom, the porridge will burn.

For the Pastry Shell,

Step 3: Add salt to the water and add 50 g of flour. Add the butter.

Step 4: Knead to a soft dough after.

Step 5: Split the dough into four pieces and roll each piece into a stick. Keep covering the remainder of the mixture as you work on each part.

Step 6: Divide the dough stick into 4-5 parts and roll into a thin disk on a floured surface. The crust is intended to be thick, as this makes it crisp, but it goes pretty straightforward on the flour. The thinner and drier the dough, the more probable the crust at the crimping point will be to break.

Step 7: A helpful tip for a beginner is to roll the dough into a thin sheet and then cut the sheet to the same size with either a cookie cutter or a tiny bowl (about 12 cm in diameter).

Step 8: On the disks, spoon the porridge (about 2 tbsp per pastry), fold the corners on top, and crimp. This is done with relatively light fingers, as the plates are not supposed to be too sharp.

Step 9: Depending on the stove 250-275 ° C (482-527 ° F), they need a warm oven. Place the pastries on a baking tray. Because in the dough, there is no yeast or baking powder, these will not grow during baking, so there is no need to leave room between them.

Step 10: Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter once the pastries get a touch of color. Let it cool while it is coated.

For the Egg Butter,

Step 11: Boil the eggs in freezing water and cool.

Step 12: Mash with butter, using a fork, while still a little hot. Season with chives and salt and serve with pastries.

Finnish Karelian Pie Additional Information

  • Per serving has 144 calories, 14 g of carbohydrates, 8 g of fat, 2 g of protein.
  • Finnish foods often use wholemeal products like rye, barley, oats, and berries like bilberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, and sea buckthorn.
  • Karelian pastries are famous throughout the whole of Finland, often tagged as the national pastry in Finland.
  • Cook/prep time is around 2 hours, and the recipe serves about 20 people.

About Finnish Karelian Pie Recipe

In the years 1600-1700, Karelian pie was brought to the present-day region of eastern Finland, from which it reached the remainder of Finland and even Sweden. The first written pie data dates back to 1686.

The foundation of these cakes is traditionally produced from rye flour, although in some areas, such as North Karelia and Karelia Ladoga, they are ready with a blend of wheat and rye flour to enhance the cooking process.

Barley and talkkuna were the most prevalent fillings in the past. The latter is a traditional roasted flour combination of barley, rye, oats, and pea flour from Estonia and Finland.

Conclusion

In the 1900s, the Finnish Karelian Pie became a symbol of Karelian culture, to the extent that they are present in the first towns in many pastry stores.

For more pastry recipes, click here for more information.

Featured Image: @skumppaajanamppaa / Instagram, @niikarttu / Instagram