Cloudberry jam cookies - an unhappy Finnish?

When I was on my recent trip to Helsinki, my lovely hosts gave me a jar of cloudberry jam.

I always really wanted to try cloudberry jam - the name sounded so beautifully romantic, and I kind of fancied it was the sort of thing that the Moomins would eat. (I recently found out that the Moomins - a Finnish kids cartoon I read loads as a kid - never make it big in the US. If you haven't read any Moomins books, go get some - whether you have kids or not, you'll love it!)

Apparently, the way the Finns eat cloudberry jam is with cheese. For obvious reasons, that's not something I'll be doing, so an alternative was needed. Quickly - to the internet!

The only recipes I could find with cloudberry jam involved were cloudberry thumbprint cookies. That didn't sound so bad.

Here's the original recipe I used on the Telegraph. It's got eggs in it, but you don't really need them - just omit the yolk from the biscuit itself and when it comes to rolling the biscuit in the chopped nuts, the mixture is sticky enough, so there's no need for the egg white either.

They're fairly easy to put together - mix flour, sugar, vegan margarine to a dough, then roll it in chopped nuts (the recipe says walnuts but I say up yours, recipe! I used pine nuts and cashew nuts. Mainly because they were in my cupboard, unlike walnuts. Your loss, walnuts.) Put a divot in the biscuit, put the jam in, bake the biccies and job done.

Here's what happened:


I can't say I'll be adding these to my regular biscuit rotation. Why? The cloudberry jam.

It's like a sort of apricoty taste, but with a subtle smell of... ooh, I don't know... farts. Yes, there's something a bit funky about cloudberry jam. Maybe it's not farts that the jam smells of, maybe it's cheesy feet. Either way, not  an aftertaste you'd want in your biscuits. Bodily odours have their place, but that place is not in cookies, people.

All this time wanting cloudberry jam, and my hopes so cruelly dashed. Marmalade, why did I cheat on you? Apricot jam, will you take me back?

Comments

  1. Ha ha ha! With a subtle smell of farts! I'm not sure bodily odors really ever have a place. ;) I bet these would be fantastic with apricot jam.

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  2. Ha! I'm so sorry....although it kinda makes sense that farty jam would go well with cheese. Stinky, feety cheese. It's a beautiful color, though. And, yea, I'll take em with apricot jam.

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  3. They look so good — are you absolutely sure they are fartish? And the name cloudberry sounds so etherial, like it would be eaten by princesses and flower sprites. I just can't — won't — believe it. Bummer.

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  4. Aw, it's such a shame when cookies turn out smelling like farts. Wait, that's not something I've ever had happen before! Maybe the jam would be better encased in cookie - when I was in China, I had a durian turn-over. The all-around pastry really covered up the public bathroom-smell that durian is known for!

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  5. Farts!?! That's why they call it "cloud" berry! Hahahaha!

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  6. Cloudberry does sort imply something heavenly, doesn't it? And at least the thumbprint cookies turned out looking awesome. Small wins!

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  7. Oo, ooo, I have a couple of people I'd love to make these for! Oops, did I say that?

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  8. Oh boo, you wouldn't expect that sort of smell from something named cloudberry. It's such a gorgeous colour and your cookies look great - what a shame. I've been cooking with asafoetida a bit lately which also smells a lot like farts, thankfully the spices overcome the unpleasant aroma.

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  9. What a bummer, cloudberry jam sounds like it would be such a tasty treat. :-( But Moomins are the best! I remember and loved them when I was a kid too. :-)

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