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I did my Erasmus semester in Finland and it was great. It was not sunny Spain or hot Italy, it was top dentistry in the far north and I couldn't have chosen better if I tried. I made great friends, met lovely people and figured out how to dress for seriously cold weather. Like minus 27 degrees cold (it's all about wool and layers!). I came back in December 5 years ago (Gosh, I really am old!) and every year, around Christmas, I'm sentimental. I remember learning Finnish in Vaasa and Välkkylä 2A in Oulu. And Airi, my lovely Kummi-Mommy who went out of her way to make Manu (my roomie from Germany) and me feel welcome in a country far away from friends and family. We went on trips together (to see Joulupukki on our last Sunday in Finland), we visited her for lunch and dinner (she made us poro - reindeer!) and we baked korvapuusti.  

For all of you who have ever been to Finland, you know that the Finns love their coffee and pulla, a seriously tasty sweet bun. The stuff is friggin' awesome. It has everything, cinnamon for the festive christmas flavour, sugar for the dentists among us,  and cardamom, a spice that I have never heard of before but oh my gawd, it is something really special. And it is supposed to be an aphrodisiac. I think I can type up the recipe just now, enough with the intro.

Ingredients:

- 0.5 liter milk 

- 150 grams of sugar

- 1.1 kilos of flour

- 50 grams of yeast (one cube)

- 1 tee spoon of salt

- 1 table spoon of cardamom

- 2 eggs

- 200 grams of butter (room temperature)

- 1 table spoon of cinnamon

- Hagelzucker for decorating

The how-to:

Heat the milk to about 37 degrees C and put it into a mixing bowl. Crumble the yeast into the milk and wait for about 5 minutes to rise a little (so the yeast can work its magic). 

Then add one egg, the salt, 100 grams of sugar and cardamom. Whisk it all up. Then change the attachment of the mixer to the one that looks like a hook for yeast dough and add the majority of the flour and mix/knead. Add 150 grams of butter and the rest of the flour and continue mixing. At the end knead the dough firmly though and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Let it rest in a warm place for about half an hour so it doubles in size.

Cover the worktop with flour, take about a third of the dough and roll it up into a quadrangular shape. Smear the butter over the dough and sprinkle with the rest of the sugar and cinnamon. Roll it up and cut into approximately 3-5 cm big pieces. Whisk up one egg and coat the korvapuusti with a brush. Sprinkle with Hagelzucker. 

Bake for 15 minutes at 200 degrees C, until golden. 

Make the rest of the dough the same way.

SLO

Moja izmenjava v času študija je bila genialna - 6 mesecev Finske. Ni bilo sončno kot v Španiji ali vroči Italiji a sem bila na severu, kjer imajo super dentalno medicino in zelo težko bi izbrala bolje. Spoznala sem super ljudi in se naučila obleči za resnično hladno vreme, npr. minus 27 stopinj C (skrivnost je volna in mnogo plasti!). Vrnila sem se pred 5 leti, ja, stara sem. Vsako leto, v času božiča, postanem sentimentalna. Spominjam se EILC v Vaasi, Välkkylä 2A v Ouluju in Airi, mojo finsko mamico, ki se je maksimalno potrudila, da sva se z Manutom (mojim cimrom iz Nemčije) počutila domače daleč stran od družine in prijateljev. Šli smo za izlete (pogledati Joulupukki-ja na severni krog zadnjo nedeljo, ko sva bila na Finskem),  bili smo pri njej na kosilih in večerjah (skuhala nam je poro - severnega jelena!) in pekli korvapuusti. 

Vsi, ki ste kdaj bili na Finskem veste, da Finci obožujejo njihovo kavo in pulla, sladki desert, ki je genialen. Vsebuje cimet, kardamom in je precej sladek, beri: odličen. Konec dolgovezenja, čas je za recept.

Kaj sem rabila?

- 0.5 litra mleka

- 150 gramov sladkorja

- 1.1 kile moke

- 50 gramov kvasa (ena kocka)

- 1 žlička soli

- 1 žlica kardamoma

- 2 jajci

- 200 gramov masla (sobna temperatura)

- 1 žlica cimeta

- Hagelzucker za dekoracijo

Kako sem naredila?

Segrela sem mleko na temperaturo 37 stopinj C, ga prelila v posodo za mešanje in noter nadrobimla kocko kvasa. Počakala sem pet minutk, da so kvasovke opravile del svojega dela. Nato sem dodala eno jajce, sol, 100 gramov sladkorja in kardamom ter mešala. Preden sem dodala moko sem zamenjala nastavek na Arty-u na tistega kljukastega za gnetenje kvašenega testa. Dodala sem večino moke in gnetla, pol sem dodala 150 gramov masla in gnetla dalje (oz. pustila delo stroju!). Na koncu sem dodala ostanek moke, še malo gnetla in posodo pokrila s čisto krpo ter dala na toplo počivati in vzhajati za 1 uro, da zraste na dvojno velikost.

Delovno površino sem pomokala in tretjino testa razvaljala v štirikotno obliko. Premazala sem ga z maslom, posipala s sladkorjem in cimetom. Nato sem testo zvila in razrezala na kose, velikosti 3-5 centi. S čopičem sem premazala vrh z jajcem in posipala s Hagelzucker-jem. 

Pekla sem jih 15 minut na 200 stopinj C, da so postali zlate barve. 

Enako sem naredila z ostalima dvema tretjinama testa.