My all time favorite Finnish dish Karelian pasties with rye crust and rice filling.
Ingredients (makes about 35)
For the filling:
- 450ml water
- 300g round rice
- 700ml milk
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the crust:
- 125ml cold water
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 125g rye flour
- 90g whole wheat flour
- 1 ½ tablespoon oil/melted butter
For the glaze:
- 30g butter
- 200ml milk
Instructions
Preparing the filling
- Place the water in a sauce pan and bring to boil.
- Add the rice into boiling water and cook for 7 minutes.
- Stir in the milk and simmer covered for 20 minutes, stirring few times to avoid burning yet gently not to break the rice.
- Season with salt, turn your stove off and leave it to cool down.
Preparing the crust and forming the pasties
- Combine the flours and salt and stir into cold water.
- Add the oil/melted butter and knead by hand until the dough comes off leaving the bowl clean and shiny.
- Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a 40×20 cm rectancular
- Cut into circles of diameter 6cm using a cookie cutter or other round object such as jar lid, I use a glass for mine.
- Continue rolling leftover dough and cutting until you have used all the dough.
- Preheat your oven to 275ºC and line two baking sheets with baking paper.
- Roll the circles into oval shaped thin crusts. Pile the ready crusts on top of each other adding little bit of rye flour in between and covering with plastic wrap so they won’t dry out.
- Place a spoonful of the filling in the middle of the crust.
- Start creating the edge around the filling starting from folding the top and pinching from the sides simultaneously all the way to the other end.
- Place the pasties in your baking sheet one next to another and bake for 20 minutes.
- Heat the milk and milk butter until the butter is all melted and combined.
- Dip the hot pasties in the glaze and place in a bowl.
- Cover the bowl and leave the pasties to soften a bit for about 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile you can prepare egg and butter spread that is typically enjoyed on top of a hot Karelian pasty: I do mine by boiling 3 eggs for 10 minutes then mashing them hot into 50g of unsalted butter and seasoning with pinch of salt.
