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Celebrate Christmas With Finnish Christmas Food
There are many sweet and salty treats you can celebrate Christmas with in Finland. In this article you can find some traditional and not so traditional Finnish Christmas treats that are easy to prepare.
Most of these foods can be prepared or bought completely vegetarian or vegan.Gingerbread cookies
Gingerbread cookies are well known. If they are not common in your food culture, you have probably seen them in American movies for example.
Also in Finland, we decorate gingerbread cookies with sweet sugar paste and candies. The shapes and forms can be numerous. If you enjoy cooking yourself, you can bake the dough yourself and carve out the shapes with a knife or a ready made mould.
The easiest way is of course to buy a ready made pack of gingerbread cookies from the shop and decorate them any way you want. And let's not forget a gingerbread house, which is a more ambitious project, whether you bake the dough yourself or buy ready made elements!
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Fun fact!
Did you know that Finnish are known for their crazy competitions? Well, you guessed right, there is also an annual gingerbread house competition!
You can see pictures of the past years competition winners › here.
Joulutorttu Christmas tartlets
Wikipedia defines Finnish joulutorttu as follows:
“A joulutorttu is a Finnish Christmas pastry. It is traditionally made from puff pastry in the shape of a star or pinwheel and filled with prune jam and often dusted with icing sugar. The pastries can be in other shapes and apple marmalade used in place of the prune jam.”
Nowadays there has been more creative fillings in joulutorttu, for example Fazer’s Vihreät Kuulat Green marmalade balls, that are split in half and melted inside the tartlet.
No matter how you fill your joulutorttus, you will be enjoying them hot or hold and once you eat one, you cannot help having a second one, as they are so yummy!
The easiest way to make Joulutorttus’ is using a shop-bought puff pastry dough, and ready made prune jam. Both are widely available in all shops before Christmas. You can also make the puff pastry dough yourself, but some people consider it being a little demanding, but it is entirely up to you.
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The main Christmas attraction is the ham
(vegans/vegetarians, read on)
I remember in my childhood when my father used to stay awake in the kitchen, preparing the ham and the sweet strong odour of the meat being spread all over the house. It meant that something special was happening, and Christmas was just a few days away.
Finnish Christmas ham is perhaps still the main attraction of Christmas. However, with people going vegan, the tradition is changing.
The ham needs a long baking time, approximately 60-80 minutes per kilo. So if you have a 5 kilo ham, or 10 kilo ham, you calculate the baking time accordingly. Yes, now we understand why my father was awake in the kitchen in the middle of the night with the ham. Of course you also need to measure the temperature to get the dryness of the meat right. Christmas hams cannot be avoided in the shops ice boxes just before Christmas time, if you fancy one.
Vegan choices
Vegans and vegetarians, do not let the ham talk scare you! Luckily there are plenty of alternatives for us to enjoy the traditional Christmas ham. You can choose to bake your vegan alternative yourself or buy a ready-made one. The keywords here are Seitan and Tofu. The Finnish word to google is kasviskinkku, if you want more information.
You will be able to find a vegan “ham” alternative in the largest grocery stores. Currently known alternatives are Vöner jouluvarras, Vegem seitan kunkku, Papu Jouluseitan, Wheaty Vegan joulupaisti and Santun juhlaseitan. Google for the current product pictures, as they may change from time to time.
Personally, I have tried Vöner and I did like it, although I baked it at too high a temperature and it became slightly dry. So to avoid this, follow the baking instructions carefully!
How about starting a discussion on this topic in the forums? I am sure people have their own experiences to share and recipes you can try!
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Joululaatikot Christmas casseroles
Finnish Christmas is not without sweet mashed potato casserole or sweet carrot casserole! And not to forget swede/rutabaga casserole. My favourite is the sweet potato casserole in Finnish called the “bataattilaatikko”. There are new alternatives nowadays as well, casseroles made of beetroot and pumpkin. Try them all to find your favourites!
As with all the Christmas foods, you can make these yourself and buy ready made. They are available in all grocery stores. You will recognize them being sold in packages of aluminium foil containers with a cardboard cover.
They are mainly enjoyed as an additional side dish to your main food, but no-one ever said you cannot mix and match or combine your own meal with your own culinary desires.
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Salmon
Christmas salmon is a long term tradition in many families and also in mine. I usually buy a large fillet, and bake it in the oven with cream, spices and vegetables on the side. For me, there is no Christmas without salmon, even though the majority of the year I follow a vegetarian diet.
Salmon can be enjoyed in many different ways. Cold smoked thin slices being the second favourite.
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Rice porridge
I remember from my study years, when my Chinese friend dined with me at the University cafeteria and it was Christmas time. What have they done with the rice? She asked in amazement, when she was introduced to rice porridge. We Finns eat rice porridge especially at Christmas. In my family we have always enjoyed it as a Christmas breakfast food, but some families like to eat it with the Christmas dinner. In Norway they eat it as a dessert mixed with whipped cream, delicious! I have seen it being done in Finland as well.
Rice porridge is also found in little carelian pastries, that are enjoyed throughout the year but also during Christmas.
When eaten as porridge and with your family or friends, whoever finds the mandel that is hidden in the porridge, is the lucky one being blessed with good fortune for the following year.
Other foods
Finnish Christmas food is not limited to the tasty foods explained above. They also include rosolli salad, herring, pickles, liver and meat pates, reindeer meat, different puff pastries with several different fillings, and of course chocolate.
Alcohol can be consumed moderately and some families have different traditions. In my family we all started drinking red wine ever since our youngest sibling became of adult age. If you are visiting a Finnish family and friends it is best to check beforehand if alcohol is a part of their tradition, if you plan on bringing a bottle!
During Finnish Christmas time it is time to enjoy eating heartily. So forget your diet and counting calories for these few days, taste everything and explore with your taste buds. You may find some interesting flavours. However, and above all, Christmas is meant to be celebrated with loved ones and in good company, so no matter what you do, do it with friends, because that is the Christmas spirit!
Merry Christmas!
Minna, OLS Community Manager – Finnish
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