Karjalanpiirakka

Jen and I were home alone yesterday.  We did our work and then began making Karjalanpiirakka.  They're made of a rye-flour dough and have mashed potatoes in the middle.  

How to make delicious Karjalanpiirakka.

First, you must be Finnish.

Jen said my mustache was not very finnish.   But I had the right flag, and the right utensils.

Cut the dough into small circles and roll out into bigger circles that are very thin.  I was very good at making rectangles, or jagged ovals, but not circles.

Spread mashed potatoes on the dough.  The trick is to make the mashed potatoes into a mound with thin edges.

Then you begin crimping the pastry by folding the long edges in and working your way around.  This part is quite difficult because the dough tends to be quite thin and dry.

It's very efficient if one person rolls out the dough, while the other puts the mashed potatoes in and crimps.  Don't make the wrinkles too high though, or they burn!

It is tiring work and take a long time.

When you've made a whole pan, you can put them into the oven!  Yay!  Jen had the oven set at 250 C, which seemed high to me, but I'm only a novice Finn.  They cook for about 10 minutes, or until they're hard on the bottom.

They look like this when they come out of the oven.  

Then, brush them with salted butter on the top, and the bottom.

They are very delicious.  You can put cheese, mustard, or egg salad (made with butter instead of mayonaise) on them.  That's traditional.