Finnish Independence

Last year I had already started envisioning this blog (kind of pre-made new year’s resolution, that I guess I can finally tick off?), and thankfully I thought ahead by photographing a few things I wanted to write about. One of these being my excitement towards Finland’s 101 Anniversary of Independence, to be marked on the 6^th of December. (Yes, writing this is rather overdue!) I wanted to bake something that signified Finland. I had thought of baking some biscuits with blue icing. It was then I recalled the cookie cutter set, which my Great Aunt gifted for me last year during the big centenary celebration.

The set included a medium sized cookie cutter in the shape of Finland, with a small cookie cutter in the middle as the heart. The packaging was so delightful, it even had a postcard on the back of the cookie cutter! Isn’t that ingenious? While examining the packaging I began to feel that I didn’t want to open it, a) to keep it for sentimental value the way I received it and b) to keep it as a collector’s item. Blah well, let’s just clear this up I’m not good at keeping things for a Collector’s value. It’s use and re-use, re-purpose and recycle all the way!

I partnered this recipe with one I found in my Mum’s scrapbook made into cookbook (I have something similar, I can share more about that innovative idea in another post). Anyway, this recipe Mum has kept since a Valentines Day in the 1980’s as she found it in a Woman’s Weekly or New Idea magazine, I can’t recall which. The biscuit is somewhat like a sugar cookie.

Alright so the recipe goes like this:

INGREDIENTS:

METHOD:

250g butter          2 tsp grated lemon rind          1 cup white sugar          1 egg          2 ½ cups plain flour GLAZE:          1 ⅔ cups icing sugar          1 tsp lemon juice          1 tsp water          1 drop food colouring of choice

Step 1: Place butter, lemon rind and sugar in a medium sized bowl and beat with electric mixers until creamy and light coloured. Add the egg beat again until smooth and then stir in the flour to bring mixture altogether. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place into the fridge to harden slightly, approx. 30 minutes. Step 2: Pre-heat oven to 180⁰C and line two baking trays with baking paper. Take dough out of fridge, out of plastic wrap and sprinkle more flour onto a clean working surface, then roll out a portion of the dough. If dough is too sticky, gently knead some flour into the portion and then roll out. (Just be careful not to over-knead the dough.) Use the cookie cutter of choice and cut out shapes from the dough, transferring the shapes onto the prepared baking trays. Step 3: Bake the biscuits for about 20 – 30 minutes, need to check regularly in those last 10 minutes depending on if you want a pale biscuit or one with a bit more colour. Step 4: Allow biscuits to cool completely before adding any glaze. Step 5 To Make Glaze: Mix together all the ingredients trying to ensure the result is a runny consistency. If not, slowly add a bit more water to reach desired result. Also add more colouring if needed. Then dip the top of biscuits into the glaze and return to trays to harden.

** Note: If you are having trouble transferring the shapes over to the baking tray, roll the dough gently over on top of itself then unroll on the tray. Like this:

With some of my left-over dough I added cinnamon, a Finnish favourite flavour. With these ones I had no intention of covering them up in the glaze, so instead I wanted to add the small love heart to be on top of the biscuit.

And that’s it really. Feel free to reuse this recipe for your own exciting events! Happy baking 😊