Maku (Finnish cooking magazine)

Timjami (thyme) is my favorite word in Finnish, which is just as well because thyme is one of my favorite herbs. I have cooked it fresh countless times in traditional (apple) tarte tatin and various other dishes. I am sure it will not be out of place in this summertime pie, in which mustikka (blueberry), found throughout Finland’s extensive woodlands, replaces the apples (omenoita) usefully found in the famous French upside-down pie. {LIF}

mk0518_mika_mustikka2_preview_pSe99

Blueberry Tarte Tatin: The Summer’s Most Wonderful Pie Does a Somersault
Text: Mika Rampa • Photo: Satu Nyström
meillakotona.fi

The secret to the taste of the upside-down pie known as blueberry tarte tatin tarte is thyme, which deepens the blueberry’s woodsy flavor. Bake the little pies in blini pans (or other small ovenproof frying pans), so everyone gets his or her own individual serving.

Ingredients (4 servings)

Pastry Crust
75 grams butter (at room temperature)
1 deciliter sugar
1 egg
2 deciliters flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2–1 teaspoon cardamom

Filling
75 grams butter
1 deciliter brown sugar
8 sprigs thyme
3 tablespoons citrus liqueur*
3 deciliters blueberries

Serving
2 deciliters whipping cream (whipped)

Cooking time: 55 min {active–35 min; passive–20 min}

Bake blueberry tarte tatin as follows:

Mix the butter and sugar in a bowl. Add the egg. Combine the flour, baking powder, and cardamom in another bowl. Add the flour mixture to the first bowl and mix until you have a smooth dough. Place it in the refrigerator.
Add the butter, brown sugar, and thyme sprigs to a frying pan. Let simmer until the sugar has melted. Add the citrus liqueur and blueberries. Remove the pan from the stove.
Press the dough on the pan or pans with a rolling pin. Make sure the pastry crust fits the pan exactly and it is on top of the blueberries.
Bake the tarte tatin in an oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 20 to 30 minutes depending on the pan’s size.
Put a plate over the baked pie and swiftly turn it upside down to serve.

* You can easily substitute lemon juice for the citrus liqueur.

Translated by Living in FIN

Mignon Chocolate Egg Cake

Source: Meillä Kotona (Maku)
Text: Anni Pitkänen
Photos: Kreetta Järvenpää

Ingredients (16 servings)

Filling

2 gelatin sheets
2 ½ dl whipping cream
200 g dark chocolate
2 Fazer Mignon chocolate eggs (52 g each)
200 g unflavored cream cheese (do not use light cream cheese)
½ dl water
2 tbsp dark cocoa powder

Crust

100 g digestive biscuits
1 ½ dl ground hazelnuts
1 ½ dl ground almonds
100 g water

Topping

150 g white chocolate

Cooking Directions

Total prep time: 6 hours and 45 minutes (active prep time: 45 minutes)

Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water for at least 5 minutes. Whip the cream.

Chop the chocolate into bits and peel the Mignon eggs. Melt them carefully in a microwave a few seconds at a time. Mix the chocolate bits while melting them. Mix the chocolate mixture with the whipped cream.

Whisk the cream cheese in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the chocolate-whipped cream mixture to the whisked cream cheese.

Heat the water in a saucepan. Remove the pan from the stove and add the cocoa powder. Squeeze the excess water from the gelatin sheets and add them to the saucepan with the water-cocoa mixture. Pour the gelatin mixture into the filling in thin ribbons. Whisk the mixture quickly, just until the ingredients are are blended.

Pour the filling into a 1.5-liter round-bottomed bowl lined with cling wrap. Level off the surface. Put the filling in the refrigerator.

Crush the biscuits and measure the powdered hazelnuts and almonds into the mixture. Brown butter in a saucepan. Heat the butter until it takes on a scorched brown color. Pour the browned butter into the mixture of crushed biscuits and powdered nut. Mix until smooth.

Once the mixture has cooled, use a spoon to pat it on top of the filling to form a bottom crust. Let the cake cool in the fridge for at least 6 hours, preferrably overnight.

crust

Melt the white chocolate in the microwave a few seconds at a time. Mix the chocolate while melting it.

Spread the white chocolate on a piece of baking paper. Let it solidify in the refrigerator. Using a knife, cut the chocolate into differently shaped pieces and set them randomly around the edge of the cake.

Press the white chocolate pieces against the cake. When the cake is cut, each person gets a piece of the “eggshell.”

Translated by Thomas H. Campbell