Perunarieska — Soft Finnish Potato Flatbreads

Peel and wash the raw potatoes, then cut into pieces about 3 cm across. Put in a pot, add the cold water and bring to a boil without salt. Simmer gently for about 20–25 minutes, until the potatoes are very soft and easy to crush with a fork. Drain thoroughly and discard the water. Return the pot to very low heat for about 2 minutes, gently shaking it to evaporate the surface moisture.

Mash the hot potatoes until smooth with a manual potato masher, without adding milk or butter. Spread in a thin layer in a wide bowl and leave for about 30 minutes to cool to room temperature. Weigh out 500 g cooled mash; save any surplus for another use, outside this recipe. Toward the end of cooling, start preheating the oven to 250°C, conventional oven without a fan, so it is fully heated before baking.

Add the milk, whole egg and salt to the 500 g cooled mash, then stir with a spoon. Add the barley flour and 100 g all-purpose flour and mix briefly, just until no dry patches remain. The dough should be soft and sticky but scoopable into portions with a spoon. Do not knead it and do not add more flour than specified, or the flatbreads will become hard.

Evenly dust two clean, dry metal baking sheets with a flat usable area of about 30 × 40 cm with 20 g all-purpose flour, 10 g per sheet, especially where the flatbreads will sit. Spoon four similar portions of dough onto each sheet, leaving space between them. Use the remaining 20 g all-purpose flour to lightly dust your hands and the tops. Pat by hand into eight rounds about 14 cm across and an even thickness of about 6 mm, without rolling. Prick each in several places with a fork, right through the dough. Discard unused flour. With smaller sheets, divide the dough into more batches and allow a longer total baking time.

Bake one sheet on the middle rack of the fully preheated oven for about 12–15 minutes. Brown spots should appear on top, the base should be dry and lightly golden, and the center should be set, without a wet, gummy layer of raw dough. The flatbreads should stay soft; do not wait for the entire surface to turn dark brown. Remove the first sheet, then bake the second in the same way for about 12–15 minutes more.

As each batch comes out, immediately brush the hot flatbreads thinly with some of the butter, using all 20 g across the eight breads. Place on a rack and cover with a clean cloth for about 5 minutes to soften the crust; keep the first batch covered while the second bakes as well. Serve warm as four portions of two flatbreads, including all the butter used for brushing.