FINLAND NATIONAL FLAG DAY

THE FINNISH FLAG only gets flown on 'special' days. They are called 'FLAG DAY'. Today's 'FLAG DAY' is

JOHAN LUDVIG RUNEBERG

He is the 'national poet' for Finland. You can check out some of his works and history on the internet. Fascinating to read about. Today is his birthday. Therefore, it is HIS 'Flag Day'.

So, hence, the flag on the temple grounds is flying high and mighty.

Reneberg's wife made him some very special 'deserts' and he often had them for breakfast!! Since they are a 'specialty' and only available for a very short time each year, we decided to purchase TWO today and try them out. They are quite good and also quite expensive. Almost 4 euro a piece.

You can see the size of them on my plate in the above picture! Not big at all. I think we will just purchase TWO each year. Don't know that I want to tackle making them.

Here is the 'written' recipe if anyone is interested in trying them out:

To prepare Runebegs Tarts you will need the following ingredients: For the Batter: 1 egg, 25ml sugar, 50ml brown sugar, 100g butter, 50ml cream, 200ml flour, 1tsp baking powder, 50g ground almonds, 1tsp vanilla sugar, (little bit of almond liquer) For the syrup (to moisten the tarts) 100ml water, 100ml punch, 2tbs sugar For the topping: thick raspberry jam, 100ml powder sugar, 1/2tbs water Runebergs Tarts Preparation Instructions: Whip the soft butter and sugars well together. Whip cream until it's light. Add egg, cream and liqueur into the butter-sugar foam. Mix together dry ingredients and fold them softly into the batter. Slightly butter 8 small cylindrical moulds and fill them with batter. Place moulds on a baking sheet and bake at 200 degrees C for 20 - 30 minutes. For the syrup, bring water, punch and sugar into a boil and then set aside. When tarts are ready, drizzle them with warm syrup. Let them absorb the syrup for at least an hour. Remove tarts gently from the moulds. Cut out a little piece from the tops, if the tarts aren't even. With a spoon make little holes on the top of the tarts and fill them with raspberry jam. Let the tarts set in the fridge. Make a think icing from powder sugar and water and pipe it around the raspberry jam on the top of each tart. Let the icing set and then serve with a cup of coffer or tea. (my note: we will have a glass of good, cold milk with ours please....no coffee or tea!)