A summer favourite
Berry picking is a favourite pastime during Finnish summer. I have some great memories rummaging with my host family and my friends through the Finnish forests in search of sweet blueberries or even lingonberries. In Swiss forests wild blueberries can’t be found as abundantly as in Finland thus I was looking for close alternatives and found a farm that offers blueberry picking. Obviously, I had to try it and spent an afternoon with my sister-in-law picking (and eating) blueberries. It was a lot of fun but to be honest it doesn’t compare to blueberrying in the wild. But on the bright side, I had gathered enough berries to bake one of my favourite summer pies – mustikkapiirakka.
Mustikkapiirakka
yields around 20 pieces
For the dough
4 eggs
255 g granulated sugar
365 g flour
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
3 tsp baking powder
200 g butter
2 dl whole milk
For the filling and decoration
300 g blueberries
confectioner’s sugar, optional
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Beat the eggs and sugar until you have a fluffy mixture. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, vanilla sugar, baking powder) in a separate bowl. Melt the butter.
Stir the dry mixed ingredients, melted butter and milk into the egg-and-sugar mix until you have a smooth dough.
Mix half of the blueberries into the dough.
Line an oven tray (ca. 25 x 35 cm) with baking paper and pour the mix evenly on to the tray. Sprinkle the remaining half of the blueberries onto the dough.
Bake at 200°C on the bottom rack for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool down before cutting into pieces.
Optional: sprinkle with some confectioner’s sugar over the cut pieces for decoration.
Tips:
– you can use frozen blueberries, the berries will just be a bit more mushy once baked
– enjoy with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream or some whipped cream
