It is Independence day

...in Finland. I was looking at pictures from last winter. It feels like it was so long ago and as much as I don't like being cold, these pictures made me miss that beautiful winter wonderland.

So in honour for our Independence day, I want to share a Finnish Christmas recipe. I can't have a Christmas without these. The dictionary calls them prune jam pastrie, in Finnish they are called joulutorttu.

What you need is:

- Puff pastry
- Prune jam or apple jam
- 1 egg
- Icing sugar on top

Traditionally these are made using prune jam, but since I couldn't find that in the shop, I made my own apple jam.

To make apple jam you peel the apples and dice them. Boil the dices in a very little water so that they become soft. Mash them and then add jaming sugar (use the same amount of jaming sugar as the apples, in grams). Boil for 4 minutes and take off the heat. Let the jam cool down until you use it.

Now for the actual pastry.

To make nice and puffy pastries, put two puff pastry sheets on top of each other. Roll gently with the rolling pin so that the two sheets get attached. Cut the sheet in three parts and every part again in three squares.

After that make cuts on each square from the corners to the middle (as in the picture above). Don't cut all the way in the middle.

Add a teaspoon of jam in the middle and start bending one corner at a time to the middle. It looks like a whirligig or a star. Do this to all of the squares.

Place the pastries on a tray with baking paper on it. Break an egg in a glass and add a bit of egg on each pastry. This will make them shiny and protects them from burning.

Heat the oven for 200 degrees and bake the pastries for about 10 minutes. After they are cooked, let them cool for a few minutes and sift some icing on top. They are now ready to be enjoyed!

HYVÄÄ ITSENÄISYYSPÄIVÄÄ!!