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Snacks · Toasts & flatbreads

Karjalanpiirakka (Karelian rice pies with egg butter)

17

Finland's most famous bake: paper-thin rye crusts crimped around creamy rice porridge, blasted in a very hot oven until the edges catch, brushed with butter and eaten warm under a spoon of munavoi, chopped egg beaten with butter. The porridge here is made with everyday low-fat milk and the crust is only flour, water and salt, and the pies are still everything they should be.

Time
150 min (60 prep + 90 cook)
Servings
20
Per serving
168 kcal
Protein
5 g

Ingredients

Rice porridge

Rye crust

Munavoi

Steps

  1. Bring the water to a boil in a large heavy pot, add the rice and simmer for 5 minutes until the water is nearly gone. Pour in the milk and bring it slowly back to a simmer.
  2. Cook on the lowest heat for 40–45 minutes, stirring often along the bottom, until thick and spoonable. Stir in the salt and butter and let it cool.
  3. For the crust, mix the water and salt, then stir in the rye and wheat flour and knead briefly into a soft, barely tacky dough. Use only as much extra flour as you need to roll it.
  4. Heat the oven to its top setting, 525°F or as near as it goes. Roll the dough into a log on a rye-floured board, cut it into 20 pieces and roll each into a very thin oval about 6 inch long, flouring generously so it does not stick.
  5. Spread 3 tablespoons of porridge down the middle of each oval, leaving a 3/4 inch border. Fold the two long edges in over the filling and pinch them into small pleats, leaving the centre open. Lay the pies on trays with no baking paper.
  6. Bake one tray at a time on the middle shelf for 10–15 minutes, letting the colour decide: the crimped edges should brown and the filling show spots of colour. Meanwhile warm the milk and butter together for the glaze, and brush each pie generously as it comes out. Stack them under a clean cloth for about 30 minutes so the crusts soften.
  7. For the munavoi, hard-boil the eggs for 10–12 minutes while the pies bake, cool them in cold water, peel and chop. Mash the soft butter and salt with a fork, then fold in the chopped eggs. Serve the pies warm with a spoon of munavoi on each. Cool leftover pies quickly and refrigerate within an hour, because of the rice. The pies keep 3 days in the fridge in a closed box and the munavoi 3 days in a separate one; warm the pies in the oven until piping hot. The pies freeze for 3 months.

Good to know

Why so hot?

The crust should bake crisp at the edges and stay thin, and the filling should catch in spots. At 440°F the pies dry out before they colour, so use the hottest setting you have and bake one tray at a time.

How do I make the crimping easier?

Pinch with your thumb and first finger of both hands, working from the centre to each end. Rough pleats are authentic; what matters is that the filling stays open down the middle.

Per

Calories
202
Protein
(12%)
6 g
Fat
(42%)
9 g
Carbohydrates
(47%)
24 g
of which sugar
4 g
Fiber
2 g
Sodium
312 mg

More snacks

Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How

As written, 3362 kcal goes into the pot and 2280 g of ingredients comes out as about 1665 g of food: 202 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.