Home » Sweet » Finnish Blueberry Rooster | The Dessert that feels like a warm hug

Finnish Blueberry Rooster | The Dessert that feels like a warm hug

by Saara

The Finnish Blueberry Rooster is a rustic dessert for all rye lovers. It’s in my TOP3 of favorite desserts. I never get tired of the combination of rye, wild blueberries, and vanilla.

Basically what you’re making is a covered fruit pie with a rye crust. The process is straightforward. The few quality ingredients are given the pedestal. And now that the blueberry season is on, what could be better timing to get to know this late summer dessert.

In this post, I’ll give you tips how to

  • choose ingredients
  • bake the crusted pie in a large dish (up to 26cm / 10.2 inch)
  • make small roosters in ramekins / mini cocottes
  • switch to a vegan blueberry rooster

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links, meaning that I get a commission if you choose to make a purchase through the given links. Read full disclosure here.

The rye shortcrust is a much simpler and less messier dough in comparison to pâté sucrée. It’s easy to store in a beeswax wrap in the fridge.

A traditional dessert from the heart of Savonia

While this dessert looks modest, don’t be fooled. The Finnish Blueberry Rooster truly is a gastronomic experience and perfect warming dessert for rainy, gloomy days.

It falls into the category of sweet snack/dessert. At least this is how I personally associate this hearty dessert. But if you serve me this on a hot summer day I most certainly won’t pass because I’m a true fan.

Nordic wild blueberries aka bilberries

The dessert has its roots in Eastern Finland, the Savonia province, which is famous for rye recipes. The dessert has a fun sounding local nickname “rättänä”.

Traditionally, the rooster is served with whipped cream, but I prefer to enjoy it with plain vanilla ice cream. A spoonful of warm pie and cold ice cream is inducing, and to me, this pairing has more contrast.

The Blueberry Rooster feels like a hug. You want to eat it with closed eyes savoring each mouthful.

MY VINTAGE COOKING

That’s right, the pie is best enjoyed warm. While the scent is unbelievable taking over your kitchen when you bake the pie, you better wait 15 minutes before slicing a piece because the blueberry filling is boiling hot under the crust! 

Alternatively, you can let the pie cool completely and warm a slice afterward. Store the pie in the fridge. Alternatively you can also freeze the blueberry rooster for later dessert emergencies.

How to choose blueberries and rye flour

While I’m translating the Blueberry Rooster directly from Finnish “mustikkakukko”, the dessert is actually grounding on bilberries aka wild blueberries. Or European blueberries.

What’s the difference between bilberries and blueberries?

Billberries are dark blue in color. They have a a slight shade of grey when fresh and turn deep purple, almost black like tar when cooked. There’s certain amount of tanginess to them, not too much. Billberries are intensely fruity and juicy. While bilberries are smaller, they’ve got maximum flavor.

So you see, normal blueberries are left out quite plain in this comparison. And in the case of earthy rye, we need something extra. If you don’t have access to bilberries, my advice is this.

If you don’t have fresh or frozen bilberries at hand, you can combine or substitute blueberries with blackberries.

MY VINTAGE COOKING

What about rye flour?

It would be too easy to promise that you can make this dessert with any type of rye flour. That is not true and I advice you to choose dark, wholegrain rye. For example, *Bob’s Red Mill Dark Rye Flour which is organic and stone ground.

Dark wholegrain rye really shines when baked long in the oven. The pie sits in the oven for 50-60 minutes and magic happens. The sweet crust made out of dark rye has deep earthy warming flavor with just a hunch of sourness. Rye lovers know this. If you haven’t tried wholegrain rye in sweet baking, please have it a go by making a small blueberry rooster in a ramekin.

The pie crust dough is not 100 percent rye as it has some amount of wheat included. This is because APF or similar makes the dough a little bit easier to handle. You can opt out and make the crust with rye flour only but then I recommend substituting some of the total flour with shifted rye. Now to the recipe!

The Finnish Blueberry Rooster is a Large Pie Dish | RECIPE

The rye dough is easy to work with. Let it set in the fridge for an hour or so and work the crust with your hands. All the imperfections will smooth out during the bake.

In the photographs of this post you can see a good reference of the tone of crust before and after the bake. Whether you are baking a whole pie or making small ramekin versions, don’t burn the Blueberry Rooster. A too dark crust will taste bitter.

A warm dessert made with rye and wild bilberries and served with vanilla ice cream

The Finnish Blueberry Rooster

Print recipe
Makes/Serves: 10 Prep Time: Cooking time:
Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

INGREDIENTS

THE RYE PASTRY

  • 70g sugar
  • 220g butter (room temperature)
  • 240g rye flour (dark rye, or a mix of dark and medium rye)
  • 60g wheat flour (or buckwheat)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • Pinch of salt

THE BLUEBERRY FILLING

  • 600g wild blueberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 2 tbsp potato starch
  • 35g sugar

METHOD

 

Cream butter and sugar a large bowl. With a hand mixer, whisk the softened butter and sugar until light yellow. Combine all of the dry ingredients first and then fold the mix into the butter-sugar cream. Cover the pastry in a wrap and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.

In the meanwhile, grease your pie dish (preferably 26cm / 10.2 inch with enough height). Set aside to wait, preferably in the fridge, too.

Combine starch and sugar in a small bowl and then mix with the wild blueberries. If using frozen berries, take them out from the freezer right before making the pie and use 1 tbsp more of starch. 

Pre-heat the oven 200°C (392°F). Divide the dough in two. Use 3/4 of the dough to make the pie's base and sides and for the pie cover. It's better to work with hands and just press pieces of dough together. All the lines will smooth out in the oven, and there's no urgent need for a rolling pin. Dust your hands in rye flour occasionally make the less sticky. 

Pour the blueberry filling into the pie dish. Cover the blueberries with the rest of the dough. Prick the pie crust with a fork before baking.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until beautiful crust. To ensure that the crust doesn't burn, cover the top for the first 20 minutes of the bake with a piece of tin foil. Don't let the crust get too dark, it will taste bitter.

Enjoy blueberry rooster warm and serve with vanilla ice cream. Store the pie in the fridge and reheat when serving again. 

NOTES

This recipe is for a full blueberry rooster pie. To make small blueberry roosters in ramekins, please check the end of the blog post. When using parchment paper, no extra greasing is needed.

Did you make this recipe?
Tag me on Instagram @myvintagecooking

Making small Blueberry Roosters in ramekins

Making small roosters in ramekins is a great way to serve this dessert. Unfortunately, I didn’t have ramekins here at the cottage kitchen. Hence, I used an old coffee cup, which I know is an oven-proof dish.

When making the ramekin version, you don’t need as much berry filling. You can re-scale the berry amount from 600g down to 450g. I would still make the same amount of dough to avoid a situation where the dough runs out too fast. After all, you can freeze the extra amount of dough for later use.

The pie serves up to 10 people but using the same amount of dough to make small roosters is good for 8 ramekins. Because the top crust is easy to burn, it’s important that it’s not made too thin. I usually design the bottom of the dessert a bit thicker (both the whole pie and these small roosters).

While the whole pie bakes approximately 50-60 minutes, the ramekins need only 30-40 minutes. I cover the pie crust for the first 15 minutes of the bake, ensuring that it doesn’t get too dark and bitter.

Depending on the size of your ramekins, you can serve the ice cream on the side or place it to melt on top of the pie. Baking small roosters in mini cocottes is a good choice, too, because of the lid.

For example, this round *indigo blue cocottes by Le Creuset are 8oz (2,36ml) is a bit bigger than my coffee cup here and it would have enough serving space for a ball of ice cream. Anyhow, I love to eat it either way! I guess it comes down to what you’re looking for with the presentation of the dessert.

Vegan Rooster is just as good

What an oxymoron to even say this, but vegan rooster is easy to make. One of my friends has a milk protein intolerance and I’ve made a vegan version for her. It’s a very straightforward switch.

The rye crust pastry is simple, consisting of only flour, sugar, and fat plus a tiny bit of leavening agent. No eggs, no water, no extra fuzz about flakiness like normally with shortcrust pastry.

You can easily substitute the butter for vegan margarine and you’re good to go. Serve the dessert with your favorite vegan vanilla ice cream.

Did you make bake the famous Blueberry Rooster? Please share and tag me along on Instagram, I would love to know :)

MY VINTAGE COOKING

Love, Saara

Interested in more sweet rye recipes? Try these

You may also like

2

tibothy 2021-12-21 - 1:38 AM

Just made this today, it is delicious! I had no idea rye flour could work in this kind of dessert.

Reply
Saara 2021-12-21 - 1:56 PM

I’m so happy you loved it Tibothy! Rye flour has so many possibilities in desserts, just play with it :)

Saara

Reply

Leave a comment

Thanks for leaving a comment. We respect your privacy and your email will NOT be published. All comments are moderated for the safety & quality of the site. By using this comment form, you agree with the handling of your data as per the privacy policy.

Hello! This website uses cookies to improve site performance, statistics and manage personalized content including ads. Learn how to manage cookies, please click read more. Okay, thanks! Read More