Ingredients
Rice porridge filling
- 200 gshort-grain pudding rice
- 500 mlwater
- 700 mlwhole milk
- 1 tspsalt
- 20 gbutter
Rye crust
- 250 gwholemeal rye flour
- 60 gplain wheat flour
- 1 tspsalt
- 180 mlcold water
- extra rye flour for rolling
To finish
- 50 gbutter, melted into 100 ml hot milk, for brushing
Munavoi
- 4eggs, hard-boiled and finely chopped
- 150 gsoft salted butter
- ¼ tspsalt
Directions
- Bring the rice and water to the boil and cook 8–10 minutes until the water has been absorbed.
- Add the milk and simmer very gently, uncovered and stirring often, for 30–40 minutes until the porridge is thick and creamy and the grains have burst. Stir in the salt and butter and cool completely; warm filling tears the crust.
- Mix the rye flour, wheat flour, salt and cold water into a stiff, faintly tacky dough, knead 5 minutes until smooth, then rest it wrapped for 30 minutes.
- Roll into a log and cut 16 equal pieces, keeping them under a cloth because rye dough dries out within minutes.
- On a rye-floured board roll each piece into an oval about 15 cm long and as thin as you can manage. The Karelian standard is thin enough to read newsprint through.
- Spoon 2 tbsp of the cold porridge down the centre of each oval, leaving 2 cm clear along both long sides.
- Fold both long edges over the filling so a strip of porridge still shows, then crimp the rye edge with wet fingers into tight pleats, pinching every centimetre. That ruffled edge is the signature of the pasty.
- Bake on a lined tray at 250–275°C (475–525°F), as hot as your oven will go, for 12–18 minutes until the crust is blistered with dark spots and the filling is freckled brown.
- Brush the hot pasties generously with the butter and milk mixture and stack them under a cloth for 10 minutes so the crust softens. Serve warm, topped with munavoi made by mashing the chopped eggs into the soft butter.
Technique
- Karelian pasties hold EU Traditional Speciality Guaranteed status, which fixes the thin rye crust, the porridge filling and the open crimped edge as part of the definition.
- The crust must be paper-thin and baked in a fierce oven so it crisps in minutes rather than slowly drying into a biscuit.
- Brushing with butter and milk and resting under a cloth is not optional. Straight from the oven the crust is brittle and hard to eat.
- The filling has to be fully cold, or the dough tears as you crimp and the porridge slides out in the oven.
Substitutions
- Rice only replaced the older fillings in the twentieth century. Mashed potato loosened with milk, or a thick barley porridge, are both traditional and equally correct.
Variations
- Potato-filled pasties are the norm in parts of North Karelia and come out softer and sweeter.
- Vatruska, a round open pastry filled with rice or curd, is a close relative from the same tradition.
History
Thin rye crust around rice or barley porridge, from Karelia; it spread across Finland with over four hundred thousand evacuees and won PGI protection in 2003.
Frequently asked questions
What is Karelian pasty?
Karelian pasty is a bread & pastry from Finland: thin rye crust holding rice porridge, topped with egg butter. Thin rye crust around rice or barley porridge, from Karelia; it spread across Finland with over four hundred thousand evacuees and won PGI protection in 2003.
How long does Karelian pasty take to make?
Karelian pasty takes 1 hr of preparation and 1 hr 15 min of cooking. The recipe makes 16 pasties. It is rated hard to make.
What can I substitute in Karelian pasty?
Yes, within limits. Rice only replaced the older fillings in the twentieth century. Mashed potato loosened with milk, or a thick barley porridge, are both traditional and equally correct.
What is the most important thing to get right in Karelian pasty?
The crust must be paper-thin and baked in a fierce oven so it crisps in minutes rather than slowly drying into a biscuit.
