Do it yourself - popular Estonian recipes you can make at home (video)

visitestonia.com | 2020.06.30

You can whip up Estonian style bread, a bowl of kama and a biscuit cake in the comfort of your own home. You are likely to come across essentials ingredients presented in these menus in your local Eastern European or Scandinavian grocery store.

Not just any rye bread

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While you can find rye bread in one variety or another, Estonian black bread is traditionally moist and even slightly sweet. That's why Estonian bread is also great for puddings. The base ingredient in Estonian black bread is, of course, the rye flour. While rye flour might not be readily available outside of the region, you are likely to find it in a health food store and even on Amazon!

Kama, a dessert of an acquired taste

Kama – a mixture of peas, rye, barley, and wheat – is the traditionally most common Estonian dessert. The main ingredients here are wheat, rye, barley and oat grains mixed with yellow peas. This dry mix can once again be purchased from your local health food store, such as Holland & Barrett in the UK. Throw the dry ingredients in a mill or a bullet and blend your own kama flour in no time. Traditionally you'd add a glass of fresh or sour milk to the mix, but plain or favoured yoghurt makes for a great alternative.

The legendary biscuit cake

Last but not least, here's something a bit easier to make. If you have stayed in Estonia long enough to attend birthday parties, you have probably come across this one before. Estonian style biscuit cake is essentially a layered cake with creamy curd cheese and sweet square biscuits made of condensed milk. There's a variety of Italian biscuits that are very similar in their favour that can be used as a replacement for the traditional Kalev biscuits. Instead of sweet curd cheese, you can use thick sweet yoghurt or plain yoghurt mixed with sour cream and a sweetener of your choice.

Find a recipe for Estonian style biscuit cake here.