Puolukkapiirakka (Finnish Lingonberry Tart)

Puolukkapiirakka or Finnish lingonberry tart is an unusual and traditional dessert

One of the most popular recipes on the Living a Nordic Life website is for mustikkapiirakka or Finnish blueberry tart. And it was as I was out picking blueberries and lingonberries in the forest that I realised we see so few recipes for lingonberries in desserts,

Lingonberry tart is a typically Finnish dessert that makes the most of this forest treasure.

In Nordic cuisines lingonberries are often used as an accompaniment to savoury dishes like lingonberry jam with Swedish meatballs. So I decided it was time to remedy that. And for all the thousands of my readers who tried and loved the Finnish blueberry tart, I know you are going to love this one too.

Lingonberries grow in abundance in the Nordics

In Finland lingonberries grow in abundance and they are used frequently in simple sweet dishes. Lingonberries look rather like a red blueberry and grow on bushes that are almost indistinguishable from blueberries. They taste very much like a tart cranberry and so if you find yourself unable to get lingonberries you can always use cranberries instead.

Puolukkapiirakka (Finnish Lingonberry Tart)

Ingredients

For the pastry:

50g sugar

75g butter

175 flour

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

For the filling:

200g lingonberries (or cranberries)

170g sour cream

50g cream cheese

150g sugar

2 eggs

Method

Put al the dry ingredients for the pastry into a bowl and rub in the butter until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg and stir together until it forms a dough. Knead lightly, wrap and put in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.

After resting, roll the pastry out and line a 25cm tart tin. Make sure you get the pastry into the edges. Trim the sides and crimp or use the prongs of a fork to make a pretty pattern around the top edge.

Put the eggs, sour cream, cream cheese and sugar into a bowl and beat together lightly until smooth.

Sprinkle the lingonberries onto the bottom of the pastry case. Spread them out evenly.

Carefully pour the filling over the berries and bake in the centre of the oven for about 40 minutes or until the filling is set and no longer wobbles and the pastry is a golden brown.

Cool slightly before removing from the tart tin. Serve cold or very slightly warm. In my opinion, the tart tastes even better the following day when it has had a chance to rest in the fridge.

Perfect for fika or one of the day's simple pleasures.