Shrove day!!!!

As it’s an international day, I had to do something. It was more I had to discover what they were doing it while being unaware they do something. LOL. When I was talking to my tutor’s wife who is cooking for us every day, I saw her preparing some kind of soup with peas and pork and also something like brioche, some Vastlakukkel. I was very interested in tasting it for dessert. What I didn’t know was those dishes are usually made on Shrove day in Estonia like Mardi Gras in France with " the tourtisseaux" (donuts made especially for this day). So I had (too bad for my waist line ;) ) to try some lovely sweet buns she prepared. So here is the recipe she used to do:

Vastlakukkel with whipped cream and home made jam

Ingredients: 

• 500grs of wheat flour
• 100grs of butter at room temperature
• 250 ml of warm milk
• 25 grs of fresh yeast
• 1 egg
• 1 dl of sugar (use a mesuring glass and use the liquid mark to weight the sugar)
• a pinch of salt

Recipe courtesy of Kaia, my tutor's wife.

Mix the yeast and the warm milk and put the preparation in a salad bowl

Introduce the salt, the sugar and the egg yolk.

Then, by smal portions, pour the flour. When it’s finished, mix it with the butter

Leave the bowl covered by a cloth in a hot space for about one hour

Knead the dough for about 5 min and roll it into a big sausage

Cuti t into small pieces to make some small balls of about 10cm diameter you put on a cooking tray

Leave the tray to rise for 30 min in a hot place. At the end of those 30 min, mix the white of the egg with some milk to brush the small brioches

Bake it for 10-15 min at 490°F in the middle rack of your oven. Temperature and time of baking to be adapted to the oven.

After you get it out of the oven, leave it to cool down under a cloth. Eat it while it’s still warm.

To eat the Estonian way, cut the top of the brioches, and spread some homemade whipped cream and jam.