I never thought that our neighbour’s cuisine can be full of little cakes and pastries for different holidays. I mean sure we have some in Estonia and they have some in America but let me make it clear - Finns have a little treat for almost every national holiday they have here. It seems like all the months i have been here there was at least one little treat for every month counted. And if one month did not have it then the next month had two sweet treats just to make it up for the last month lacking.
Anyway to start with our journey through the amazing world of sweets i would first like to mention the Runebergin torttu that looks like this:
Anyway to start with our journey through the amazing world of sweets i would first like to mention the Runebergin torttu that looks like this:
It is named after Finnish poet J. L. Runeberg and the legend says that his wife used to make those little tarts after the Christmas out of the gingerbread leftovers. The tart itself is nowadays made out of almonds and has a shot of rum or arrack inside. To top it of it also has a white coating of sugar and raspberry jam on top of it. You can buy this little fella in January and around 5 February because then is Runeberg's birthday.
At first i was not going to buy it because i do not think it looks that tasty. For me it looked just like a dry bun that has a coating but let me tell you that it is nothing like dry at all. I think this rum shot makes it really juicy and the coatings make it really sweet. To be honest i could not eat that with just one try since it is overly too sweet but if you were doubting like i was i would still recommend you to have it next year;)
The next pastry is similar or almost the same has we have in Estonia. It is called Laskiainen pulla aka Vastlakukkel. It is eaten on one Tuesday in February and in old days it was the Tuesday before the fasting (Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday). Usually the pulla is just a bun that has some jam and whipped cream in there.
A Picture for the pulla is here:
At first i was not going to buy it because i do not think it looks that tasty. For me it looked just like a dry bun that has a coating but let me tell you that it is nothing like dry at all. I think this rum shot makes it really juicy and the coatings make it really sweet. To be honest i could not eat that with just one try since it is overly too sweet but if you were doubting like i was i would still recommend you to have it next year;)
The next pastry is similar or almost the same has we have in Estonia. It is called Laskiainen pulla aka Vastlakukkel. It is eaten on one Tuesday in February and in old days it was the Tuesday before the fasting (Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday). Usually the pulla is just a bun that has some jam and whipped cream in there.
A Picture for the pulla is here:
I don't think we had a treat in March but i mean you can really have it if you are fasting anyway. However in April we had one too many and even though i too live right next to Finland i had never had this little treat that is extra made for Easters. It is called Mignon Egg. This is a little chocolate egg inside the real eggshell. The chocolate egg is made of almonds and hazelnut nougat cream and mmm yumm yumm is that tasty or what.
Another thing Finns eat for Easters is Mämmi. Ughh let me tell you it does not look appetizing at all. It is dark brown porridge made out of rye flour. You are supposed to eat it with cream and sugar but we ate it with honey and milk. I don't think it tasted that bad even though we did not eat it like we were supposed to. I think the best connection i can make is that it tastes like Estonian bread soup (you know the one everybody has eaten in school cafeteria).
It has been a long post but don't abandon me yet because there is one more thing. Today is here The Vappu celebration (estonian Volbriöö and English Walpurgis Night). For this occasion you get to have another treat. It is called the funnel cake. Also you do not have to worry about the drink because Finns have it covered with - Sima. I am not sure where i have lived but i have never had this funnel cake before, The cake itself is made out of flour and deep fried, in the end it dusted with powder sugar and enjoyed with the lemony and sugary drink called Sima.
To finish it off i would like to thank our awesome Finns who made us our own patch of Sima.
Has i told you in my last post you do not have to go 0 tolerance on sweets, just to keep an eye on the amount you eat and you will be okay to eat something good every once in a while.