Recipes for finnish bread

[june]

Hello everyone! I'm half finnish but unfortunately don't understand any finnish but I'm really into baking. I have very fond memories of finnish bread which you can't find any of here in Denmark. So I'm thinking of making the bread myself but this is where I need your help!
I've tried google but I really don't trust the results I get since I want really autenthic recipes and not revised ones, edited to suit a more "american" pallette. I don't mind waiting days to get the perfect sourdough and I'm not put off be complicated or timecomsuming procedures - I just really really need some real finnish bread!

The recipes I'm looking for are flat white bread (the round white ones with brown spots and if I remember correctly there's potatoes in the recipe), rye bread (the small rolls you buy in markets which are cut in two halfs) and minced meat pie (the small square ones).
Please help, you'll make me very happy!

[Jukka Aho]

Hello everyone! I'm half finnish but unfortunately don't understand any finnish but I'm really into baking. I have very fond memories of finnish bread which you can't find any of here in Denmark. So I'm thinking of making the bread myself but this is where I need your help!
I've tried google but I really don't trust the results I get since I want really autenthic recipes and not revised ones, edited to suit a more "american" pallette. I don't mind waiting days to get the perfect sourdough and I'm not put off be complicated or timecomsuming procedures - I just really really need some real finnish bread!

The recipes I'm looking for are flat white bread (the round white ones with brown spots and if I remember correctly there's potatoes in the recipe), rye bread (the small rolls you buy in markets which are cut in two halfs) and minced meat pie (the small square ones).
Please help, you'll make me very happy! :D

These are the discussion threads about making Finnish sourdough rye bread I could find in the sfnet.harrastus.ruoka+juoma Usenet newsgroup:

• Lidl leipäkone, taikinajuurella ruisleipää leipomaan?
• Yhteenveto ruisleipäkeskustelusta
• Lohen suolaaminen (Millaista hapanleipätaikinan pitäisi olla koostumukseltaan?)
• Sekaleipää ei saisi sanoa ruisleiväksi
• Ruisleipätaikinasta
• Reikäleipä
• Hapanjuureni ei ota noustakseen; jauhot liian karkeita?
• Ruisleipää leipomaan
• Tässä se hapanleipäohje!
• Ruisleivän juuren säilytys
• Ohrarieskaa ja ruisreikäleipää
• Juureva vehnäleipä

The participants to those discussions dispense various sourdough rye bread recipes and reveal expert tricks and tips about making, handling, storing and using the sourdough starter – taikinajuuri (literally “dough root”) or just juuri (“root”) in Finnish.

The discussions are in Finnish, of course, and they’re too numerous and long to translate in their entirety, but if you browse them a bit and copy the URL (web address) of an interesting-looking discussion thread – or the URL of an interesting-looking individual message – in Google Translate, you can probably get the general idea of what the discussion is about. You could then come back here and ask for a better translation of select individual messages, or parts of them.

As for the flat bread with potato in it, that’s called perunarieska (see here as well.) The same procedure would apply here... browse those linked Google searches a bit. If you find something interesting, try feeding it to Google Translate. If it still looks interesting, come back here and ask for a better translation.

[maxxfi]

...and minced meat pie (the small square ones)

Which ones are these? Some type of lihapiirakka?

[Jukka Aho]

...and minced meat pie (the small square ones)

Which ones are these? Some type of lihapiirakka?

If you type the keyword jauhelihapiirakka on Google, it finds pages/recipes like these and images like these. But it’s hard to say what the OP originally meant. “The small square ones?”

[aaa54brat]

This is as close as I can find to my Grandma's recipe... Lost hers years ago, but am still checking with family. Here you go!

Finnish Flat Bread like Grandma used to make
8-12 portions
• 500 ml (2 cups) mashed potato, (cooled)
• 3 tbsp melted butter (cooled)
• 1-2 tsp salt (to taste)
• 1 tsp sugar (optional)
• 1 large egg
• 300- 400 ml AP flour (250 ml flour+100 ml instant oat flakes)
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• Preheat the oven to 230C.
• Mix together the flour with baking powder.
• In a bowl beat lightly together egg, salt, sugar and melted butter, add potato and stir well.
• Gradually adding the flour make a dough, cover and leave to stand for 15-20 minutes before using.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface (the dough is very sticky) and dived into 8-12 portions.
• Roll out (or flatten with flour dusted fingers) each piece into a circle of 5-10 mm thick, pierce with the fork and transfer to a baking tray covered with the parchment paper.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden. Serve warm.
Thoughts and Ideas: Instead of the mashed potato you can use 150 ml potato flakes mixed with 250 ml milk+250 ml water. You can roll out each piece more thick or thin, depends on your taste. Add some herbs or spice, as a rosemary, anis, caraway seeds and etc You can use oat, spelt, whole wheat or any other flour instead of oat flakes. In this case do adjust amount of liquid, as every kind of flour absorbs the water differently. Serve fresh and warm with Honey-marinated salmon, or Herrings pate, or smoked cooked ham, or with butter and fresh cucumber. It is always simply delicious. Keep the bread in an airtight container and warm before using.

[CH]

...and minced meat pie (the small square ones)

Which ones are these? Some type of lihapiirakka?

I would guess lihapasteija, like this, although also called lihapiirakka (but commercially it seems to only use lihapasteija, probably to not be confused with this one) . Lots of variations on those, but common would be minced meat (or fish, or...) and rice mixture on a puff pastry square and folded in half. Often also made just into one big square that is then cut into smaller pieces, like this (contains recipe). Older recipes often use other dough than puff pastry, newer ones use it almost always.

http://www.kotikokki.net/reseptit/haku/ ... _only=true
http://www.kotikokki.net/reseptit/haku/ ... _only=true

[LadyInTheSky]

Didn't realize at first that OP is pretty old, adding this helpful link anyway, for any other non-Finnish speakers trying to recreate a fond Finnish food memory:

Finnish Food Glossary Explanations and pictures in English and Finnish, plus an Anglo-Finno-Russo-Scandinavian multilingual glossary. Some recipes created by a food writer living in Finland.