Lingonberry Pie ‒ Puolukkapiirakka

Random facts about Finnish coffee culture #14: Finnish coffee is usually made with automatic drip coffee makers. Some old people (as well as campers) still use simple boiling method. Since 1990's young people have also been interested in different "special coffees" meaning French or Italian type coffee drinks which are often flavoured, but those are still rarely brewed at home. Decaf and quick coffee on the other hand are something that are being laughed at when watching American tv-series.

The pastries I've posted this MoFo haven't been especially seasonal. Considering most of my blog this feels even a bit weird. It's the peak of the harvest season with abundance of apples and mushrooms. So where are all those berry recipes and open-faced pies Finnish cuisine is full of? Some of the treats I've posted already, for example a classic apple pie and bilberry kukko. But most of the classic recipes are created in the time of no freezers, and you have fresh ingredients available only for a small moment every year. This is a fun pie even in mid-winter though, because lingonberries preserve great in their own juice.

Another reason is that recipes centered around berries and fruits rarely have any one proper way of making them. I've learned that it's supposed to have a crumbly crust and some cream viili to balance the sourness of the lingonberries without using so much sugar the sourness is utterly lost. In the version you see in the photo I mixed part of the lingonberries crushed into the yogurt. More typically the colour spreads if it spreads, achieving an equally beautiful marmor of both white and pink spots. This is intended for a whole baking sheet, but in case you want a regular sized pie, half all the amounts.

The crust:
- 200 g margarine
- 3 dl wheat flour
- 3 dl graham flour
- 2 dl sugar
- 1 dl oat or soy milk
- 2 tsp baking powder

The topping:
- 6 dl lingonberries (or 4 dl unsweetened lingonberry cram)
- 400 g oat or soy yogurt
- 0.5 dl sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla sugar

Combine all the crust ingredients with your hand. Spread on a baking sheet. Spread the lingonberries on the crust. Mix the vanilla sugar and sugar into the yogurt, then spoon on the lingonberries. (It might even be prettier if you spoon it a bit unevenly.)

Bake in 200°C for 45 minutes or until the topping starts to get some colour.

Nutritional values / 1631 g:
energy 4732 kcal
fat 165 g
protein 77 g
carbohydrates 536 g
fiber 39 g