Flatbread from Savonia – Savolainen Pannurieska for Breakfast

What in the earth is harrish?! I found 2 kilos of grains in my kitchen cupboard and was wondering why have I bought it and what could I do with it. It turned out that it is harees(هريس) and not harrish as written in English on bag. I asked around, googled and find out it is whole wheat grains, which is locally used here in Dubai for a stew or porridge with meat. That dish is called Harees or Harisah, a specialty of Ramadan.

Well…. back to the Finnish flatbread. We Finns love all kind of breads and porridges, anything from grains which are cultivated in homeland, like oats, barley, wheat and rye. The bread is at its best when fresh and straight from oven, only butter spread on it. That’s the way authentic Finnish bread is eaten and served

I have got this Finnish Savonian flatbread recipe from my mother, her family is from Upper Savonia in Finland.  The original recipe calls for whole or cracked barley, I have cheated and replaced barley with harees and it worked well.

The Original Savonian Flatbread – Savolainen Pannurieska recipe

1 liter buttermilk or curdled milk (=add 100 ml of buttermilk to lukewarm milk and let stand 2 hrs in room temperature)

1 cup whole barley grains (boil about 10 minutes)

2 cups rolled oats

1-2 eggs

1 tsp salt

1.         Mix curdled milk or buttermilk and barley and let stand in fridge overnight

2.         Add rolled oats on the morning and let stand another 3 hours in fridge

3.         Add eggs and salt just  before baking

4.         Cover baking pan with baking paper and smelt 25-50 g of butter  on it, pour the bread dough on smelted butter and bake at 225-250°C about 30 minutes

The recipe is really easy and makes wholesome flatbread, no worries about rising dough. I twisted the recipe totally because I did not have buttermilk or laban as it’s called in Dubai, and replaced barley with whole wheat called harees.

I used low fat milk and cream to make full fat milk. Instead of laban I used yoghurt to curdle the milk.  My mother uses also cracked barley and buttermilk and mixes 50 ml oil with eggs and oats next day, no need to put butter on baking sheet if oil is used in dough.

Give it a try to this healthy flatbread, called pannurieska in Finnish.  Something you have to taste yourself, soft and sourish but creamy, just knife some salted butter on it and you are well fed.

Pour  a class of cold fresh milk and enjoy with hot buttered Savonian Pannurieska. That’s what I call a traditional Finnish breakfast.  Submitted to Breakfasts of the World Challenge by Very Good Recipes.

Breakfasts of the World Challengeon Very Good Recipes

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