Cookbook:Karelian Pasties (Karjalanpiirakat)

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Karelian Pasties (Karjalanpiirakat)
Category Pastry recipes
Servings 20 pastries

Cookbook | Ingredients | Recipes | Cuisine of Finland

Karjalanpiirakka, made by Leipomo Eho (a bakery in Helsinki)

Karelian pasties (Karjalanpiirakat in Finnish) are traditional pasties from North Karelia, Finland. Today they are eaten throughout Finland. According to the traditional recipe the pasties are made from a thin rye crust with a filling of rice. Butter, often mixed with boiled egg (munavoi), is spread over the hot pasties before eating.

There are also versions with carrot or potato filling.




  • 2 dl cold water
  • 1,5 tsp salt
  • 3,5 dl rye flour
  • 1,5 dl wheat flour


Egg-butter spread (munavoi)Edit



  1. Mix the rice into boiling water reserved for the filling. Boil until the water has saturated the rice.
  2. Add the milk and stir the filling for a few minutes. Reduce heat and agitate the porridge. The cooking time is about 40 minutes. Stir the porridge every now and then.
  3. When the porridge is ready, it will seem thickish. Then add the salt. Cool the porridge.


  1. Mix the flours and salt into the cold water.
  2. Make the dough smooth and pliable by moulding it by hands on a panification support.
  3. Shape the dough into a smooth bar and divide it into about twenty pieces.
  4. Roll the pieces into balls, flatten them into small cakes and cover them with plastic.
  5. Roll the cakes into thin sheets that have approximately 17 cm in diameter.

Baking the pastiesEdit

  1. Lay porridge on each cake so that the porridge reaches the ends.
  2. Pinch the edges together with your fingers.
  3. Bake the pasties in about 250-300 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes until the rye crust is brown in colour.


  1. Moisten the pasties from both sides with hot mixture of milk and butter.
  2. Lay the pasties on each other and brew them under a towel and bacon paper.
  3. Mix the munavoi ingredients (boil the eggs for 12 minutes) and use it as butter on the pasties.