Ålandspannkaka

Ålandspannkaka is a thick pancake made with grain porridge, eaten in the Åland Islands of Finland. It is flavored with cardamom, baked in the oven, and served with prune sauce and whipped cream.

Baked Thick with Porridge

In the method presented by the islands’ tourist board, rice or semolina is cooked in milk to make a porridge, cooled slightly, and then mixed with eggs, sugar, flour, salt and cardamom. The mixture is spread in a tin to a thickness of about 2 cm, topped with pieces of butter, and baked. It is often baked on a large baking tray and cut into pieces once it has browned.

Because the grain in the porridge gives the batter body, it has a different, more substantial eating quality from a pancake cooked thin in a frying pan. In some recipes, the sauce of stewed dried plums is flavored with cinnamon and thickened. The whipped cream served alongside was called “snömos” in the old local language. Today, raspberry or strawberry jam is sometimes served instead of prunes.

Rice and Semolina on the Island Table

Which porridge is used varies by household and area. A record of the islands’ food culture includes oral accounts that rice porridge was used in places such as Sund, Vårdö and eastern Saltvik. There were Russian-run shops in that area, and one theory considers a connection between them and a food culture of rice, while another story says that sailors brought rice home.

While some accounts say semolina is the older of the two, there is also testimony that rice arrived in the shops first. Both were imported goods and were not ingredients everyone could buy at any time. Prunes were imported as well, but in years with a good harvest, plums grown on the islands were sometimes dried.

On the islands, it is also said that the dish began as leftover morning porridge that was flavored and baked for unexpected guests. Another story tells of serving a slice of the pancake with an alcoholic drink before the meal when welcoming guests who had traveled a long way. Today it is eaten year-round in cafés and restaurants, and on June 9, Autonomy Day, it is also served in a square in Mariehamn.

Compared with saffranspannkaka from the neighboring island of Gotland, where saffron is added to rice porridge, the aroma of cardamom is what distinguishes the dish of these islands.

Glossary