Recipes

Finnish Pancakes (Serves 2-3 ppl), Charles & Elina Hodges
This recipe uses a silver-dollar pancake style of pan for cooking

2 Eggs
2 Cups whole milk
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
Melted butter (for brushing pan)

Mix all ingredients and let rest for 5-10 minutes. Heat pan over medium heat until butter brushed in pan sizzles.

Pour enough batter into each slot of the pan, leaving one empty. When edges begin to curl and bottom is browned, brush empty slot with butter and flip a pancake into the slot. Repeat with remaining pancakes, brushing an empty slot with butter first. Transfer to a warm plate or oven and repeat with remaining batter.

Swedish Meatballs (Serves 2-3 ppl); Charles & Elina Hodges

Meat Mixture

½ Pound ground beef
½ Pound ground veal
½ Pound ground pork
¼ Cup dry bread crumbs
¼ Cup finely chopped onion
¼ Cup milk or half-and-half
3 Tablespoons chopped parsley
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
¼ Teaspoon ground allspice
2 Eggs

Mix all ingredients and shape into small balls. Place meatballs on rack in broiler pan. Bake at 375° until brown, about 20-25 minutes.

Sauce

3 Tablespoons margarine or butter
3 Tablespoons flour
1 ½ Cup beef broth
1 ½ Teaspoon dried dill
¼ Teaspoon salt
¼ Teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ Cup sour cream

Heat margarine/butter in small saucepan over low heat. Stir in flour and cook together, stirring constantly with a whisk until smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in broth, dill, salt and nutmeg.

Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir one minute; remove from heat. Stir in sour cream and add meatballs. Heat over medium-low heat until heated through.

Mustikkapiirakka (makes 2 pies/cakes); Charles & Elina Hodges

4 Eggs
4 Deciliter sugar
250 Grams butter, melted
6 ½ Deciliter All-Purpose flour
3 Teaspoons Vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon salt
2 Deciliter whole milk
Berries for top (2-3 cups per cake = 4-6 cups total)

Preheat the oven to 400°.

Cream together the eggs and sugar. Add melted butter. (If using vanilla extract, add after butter). In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla sugar. Add to the egg/sugar mixture, stir to combine, then add milk and mix.

Pour batter into bottom of pie pans and spread berries on the top. Sprinkle with sugar if the berries need more.

Bake approx. 20 -25 minutes based on the size/depth of pie pan.

Mustikkapiirakka (makes 1 pie); Jeanne Kemppainen

The Crust

2/3 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour (original recipie calls for mix of rye and white flour - you can use only white as well)
1 tsp Baking powder

Mix butter, sugar, egg, In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder. Sift into moist ingredients and mix gently. Grease a 9 inch pie pan or tart tin.

The dough is soft and must be pressed into a 9 inch pie pan with your hands. Dough will be sticky. Using a sheet of waxed paper works well.

Blueberries:

Place 2-3 cups fresh blueberries on top of dough in pie pan.

Creamy Topping (Custard Layer)

1 cup (240 ml) sour cream (can also use full fat plain greek yougurt)
1 egg
¼ cup (50 g) sugar
1 tsp vanilla (I used 1 ½ tsp vanilla paste)
Optional: pinch of cardamom

Whisk together and pour creamy mixture over berries.

Bake in 375 oven for 30 minutes. Turn off oven and let the pie continue cooking for up to 40-50 minutes. As the oven cools, this allows the pie to firm up a bit more. (I opened the oven door a small amount…didn’t want to burn the crust) When the pie comes out of the oven you can serve immediately or refrigerate until you’re ready for dessert. You can add extra blueberries on top as a topper. Then enjoy this sweet treat.

This is one of those desserts that tastes even better the next day after it’s been stored in the refrigerator overnight and the flavors settle.

Toscakakku (Finnish Tosca Cake); Charles & Elina Hodges

Cake base

2 Eggs
130 Grams sugar
160 Grams flour
1 & 1/2 Teaspoon baking powder
50 Milliliters milk
150 Grams butter, melted

Almond topping

50 Grams butter
75 Grams flaked/sliced almonds
85 Grams sugar
50 Milliliters whipping cream
1 Tablespoon flour

* Use Springform pan

Preheat oven to 175°C (350°). In stand mixer, whip the eggs and sugar until fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder together and add to the eggs and sugar. Mix the milk and melted butter together and add in with the rest. Mix carefully until a fully mixed smooth batter forms.

Grease and flour a round springform cake pan. Pour the batter into the pan and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

While the cake bakes, combine almond topping ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat while constantly mixing. Lower the heat and let boil gently until the mixture thickens up slightly.

When the cake base is ready, take it out of the oven and increase the oven to 200°C (400°). Pour the almond topping on the base and even it out.

Bake in the oven for another 10 minutes, until the top of the cake becomes light brown.

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