Tippaleipä

Ingredients

The batter

• 3eggs
• 150 mldouble cream
• or 150 ml whole milk
• 50 gsugar
• 200 gplain flour
• 1 teaspoonbaking powder
• half a teaspoon salt
• half a teaspoon ground cardamom
• optional

For frying

• 1 litreneutral oil
• or enough for 5 cm depth
• rapeseed or sunflower oil

To finish

• icing sugar, to dust
• generously

Equipment

• a piping bag with a small round nozzle
• or a funnel with your finger over it
• or a squeezy sauce bottle
• a metal ring or cutter, optional
• a slotted spoon
• a rack over kitchen paper
• a cooking thermometer

To serve

• sima, fermented lemon drink
• munkki, Finnish doughnuts
• coffee

Directions

1. Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl. Beat them until pale and slightly frothy. That takes about two minutes by hand. Whisk in the cream or the milk. Sift in the flour and the baking powder. Add the salt and the cardamom. Whisk it into a smooth, lump-free batter. Do not overwork it once combined.
2. Let the batter rest for ten minutes. Check the consistency again after resting. Add a splash of milk if it is too thick. Add a spoonful of flour if it is too thin. That takes practice and it is genuinely fiddly.
3. Use a deep heavy pan or a fryer. Fill it no more than one third full. Oil bubbles up sharply when batter goes in. Never leave hot oil unattended for a second. Keep a well fitting lid within reach. If the oil catches fire, turn off the heat. Heat the oil to one hundred and eighty degrees.
4. Use a thermometer if you possibly can. Too cool and the lace absorbs oil and goes heavy. Hold the nozzle above the surface of the oil. Aim for a rough disc about ten centimetres across.
5. Work quickly, since it starts frying immediately. Do not drizzle from too great a height. Keep the nozzle close but not touching. A metal ring in the oil helps beginners. Lift the ring away after twenty seconds.
6. Fry it for about a minute on the first side. It should turn golden underneath. Turn it over with a slotted spoon. Fry it for another minute on the second side. It should be evenly golden and crisp.
7. Lift it out and drain it on a rack. A rack keeps it crisper than paper alone. Let the oil come back to temperature. Fry them one or two at a time only. Repeat with the remaining batter. Sugar dusted onto very hot pastry just melts. Serve them the same day they are made. They are at their best within a few hours. Dust them with fresh sugar afterwards. They do not freeze at all well.

Technique

• The batter consistency is the whole difficulty. It must flow in a steady thread — think thick pouring cream. Too thick and it drops in blobs instead of lace; too thin and it disperses into shapeless fragments. Test it before you heat any oil.
• Sift the flour. Lumps block the nozzle, and a blocked nozzle ruins the drizzling completely.
• A metal ring set in the oil holds the shape while you drizzle inside it, then lifts away after about twenty seconds. It is the easiest way to get neat discs on a first attempt.
• Deep-frying rules matter: fill the pan no more than a third, never leave it unattended, keep a lid within reach, and if the oil catches fire turn off the heat and smother it. Never throw water on burning oil.
• Do not drizzle from a height. Hot oil splashes, and this technique puts your hand directly above the pan.
• Dust with icing sugar once the pastries have cooled a little. Sugar on very hot pastry simply melts away.
• Vappu is both international workers’ day and a large student festival, celebrated mainly on the evening of 30 April. Tippaleipä, munkki and sima are the three fixed foods of the day, eaten outdoors in weather that is often still genuinely cold.
• Drizzled fried batter appears in many cuisines — jalebi, mushabbak, funnel cake — and it is an obvious enough idea that several traditions arrived at it independently. The atlas notes the family and claims no single origin.

Substitutions

• Whole milk replaces cream and gives a lighter, crisper pastry; cream gives a richer, more tender one.
• A squeezy sauce bottle replaces a piping bag and is easier to control than either bag or funnel.
• Self-raising flour replaces plain flour plus baking powder directly.
• Cardamom is optional but very much in the Finnish idiom; vanilla is another common flavouring.
• Any neutral high-smoke-point oil suits; rapeseed and sunflower are both standard.
• Shallow frying in about three centimetres of oil works, though the pastries need turning more carefully.

Variations

• Munkki, the Finnish sugared doughnut, is the other fixed Vappu pastry and is often made from the same session of hot oil.
• Sima, the lightly fermented lemon drink, completes the traditional Vappu trio and is brewed at home a few days ahead.
• Some bakeries make a larger tippaleipä, twenty centimetres across, sold as a single portion.
• A version glazed rather than dusted appears in some bakeries, though the icing sugar dusting is traditional.
• Swedish and Estonian relatives exist, and closely related drizzled pastries are made across the Nordic and Baltic region.
• Jalebi, the Indian and Middle Eastern drizzled sweet, uses the same technique but is steeped in syrup rather than dusted with sugar.

History

A Finnish May Day pastry made by drizzling batter into oil, eaten with munkki and sima.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tippaleipä?

Tippaleipä is a dessert from Finland: nest of batter trickled into hot fat and dusted with sugar. A Finnish May Day pastry made by drizzling batter into oil, eaten with munkki and sima.

How long does Tippaleipä take to make?

Tippaleipä takes 20 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 10. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Tippaleipä?

Yes, within limits. Whole milk replaces cream and gives a lighter, crisper pastry; cream gives a richer, more tender one. A squeezy sauce bottle replaces a piping bag and is easier to control than either bag or funnel. Self-raising flour replaces plain flour plus baking powder directly. Cardamom is optional but very much in the Finnish idiom; vanilla is another common flavouring. Any neutral high-smoke-point oil suits; rapeseed and sunflower are both standard. Shallow frying in about three centimetres of oil works, though the pastries need turning more carefully.

What is the most important thing to get right in Tippaleipä?

Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl. Beat them until pale and slightly frothy. That takes about two minutes by hand. Whisk in the cream or the milk. Sift in the flour and the baking powder. Add the salt and the cardamom. Whisk it into a smooth, lump-free batter. Do not overwork it once combined.