Everyone knows that Santa Claus lives in the north of Finland, so it would be remiss not to include a Finnish Christmas treat during the Christmas Countdown. I discovered these rich and delicious pin wheel shaped, jam filled pastries fairly late in life - I think it was Christmas 2000, a few months before I first went to Finland. They not only taste good, they look beautiful - the golden pastry star pinwheels with a rich, dark coloured prune jam filling. Here is some information from " arousing appetites " blog. What is Joulutortut? While the name for the Finnish joulutortut now translates into English as “Christmas tart”, many of the traditions the Finnish have pre-date Christianity’s influence and come from a rather older Viking heritage. In the pre-Christian times, the Vikings in Nordic countries observed hjul, or “sun wheel,” a celebration of the winter solstice that brought back the sunlight to the darkened regi...
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