Finnish Blueberry Pie
A Finnish blueberry pie adapted for UK ingredients. Full method, nutrition breakdown, and notes from a second-time baker.
I watched a DW Food video called Why Finns are obsessed with blueberries on a Saturday afternoon. A Finnish blogger called Varpu makes a blueberry pie from scratch midway through and calls it a 5-minute family recipe. I wanted to make it. The recipe was buried in 10 minutes of footage with no pinned comment or timestamp, so I used an AWS Transcribe pipeline to extract it as plain text. From there I adapted it for UK ingredients and baked it the same evening.
This is only the second recipe I’ve baked, so having the recipe as text meant I could ask questions as I went — what crème fraîche replaces, whether quantities needed converting to grams, and what each step actually does. That back and forth is hard to do with a video. More than that, asking questions let me tweak the recipe and tailor it to my own preferences rather than just copying it exactly.
Why Blueberries
Blueberries are not the most obvious baking fruit, but the nutritional profile is worth looking at before adding 125g of butter to them.
Blueberries vs Other Common Fruits
| Nutrient (per 100g) | Blueberries | Strawberries | Bananas | Raspberries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calories | ~57 kcal | ~32 kcal | ~89 kcal | ~52 kcal |
| Protein | ~0.7g | ~0.7g | ~1.1g | ~1.2g |
| Carbohydrates | ~14.5g | ~7.7g | ~22.8g | ~11.9g |
| Fibre | ~2.4g | ~2.0g | ~2.6g | ~6.5g |
| Sugar | ~10.0g | ~4.9g | ~12.2g | ~4.4g |
| Vitamin C | ~10mg | ~59mg | ~8.7mg | ~26mg |
Blueberries are not the lowest in sugar or the highest in fibre, but they are one of the richest sources of anthocyanins, the compounds responsible for their colour, which have well-documented antioxidant properties. Their moderate sugar content means the pie does not need excessive added sugar to carry the flavour. Raspberries contain less sugar and more fibre, but they break down completely during baking. Blueberries hold their shape.
Ingredients (8 slices)
| Ingredient | Brand / Source | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Plain flour | Waitrose own label | 150g |
| Porridge oats | Waitrose Essential | 50g |
| Baking powder | Any | 2 tsp (~8g) |
| Salt | Any | 1 pinch |
| Unsalted butter, softened | Kerrygold or similar | 125g |
| Caster sugar | Tate & Lyle Pure Cane | 100g |
| Large egg | Free range | 1 (~50g) |
| Crème fraîche (full fat) | Yeo Valley or Waitrose Essential | 150g |
| Fresh or frozen blueberries | Waitrose fruit aisle | 300g |
| Caster sugar, for topping | Same bag | 2 tbsp (~25g) |
| Potato starch (frozen only) | Waitrose free-from aisle | 1 tbsp (~10g) |
Softened butter means left at room temperature for about an hour. It should dent easily when pressed. Do not use melted butter — the texture of the dough depends on it holding air when creamed with the sugar.
Crème fraîche is the right UK substitute for Finnish sour cream. Varpu mentions it herself in the video. Full fat works best here.
Frozen blueberries
If using frozen, toss them in the potato starch before adding to the dough. Frozen berries release more liquid during baking and without the starch the base goes watery.
Method
Step 1: Preheat and prep
Preheat the oven to 225°C conventional or 200°C fan. Grease a 24cm round cake tin with a little butter, even if it is non-stick.
Step 2: Mix the dry ingredients
Combine the flour, oats, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and stir until even.
Step 3: Cream the butter and sugar
In a second bowl, beat the softened butter and 100g caster sugar together until pale and fluffy. About two minutes with a wooden spoon. The mixture should go from dense yellow to a lighter, creamier texture.
Why creaming matters
Beating butter and sugar traps air pockets in the fat. These expand during baking and give the dough its lift. Skipping this or using melted butter produces a flat, dense result.
Step 4: Add the egg and crème fraîche
Beat the egg into the butter mixture until fully combined, then stir in the crème fraîche. It may look slightly curdled at this point. That is fine — the dry ingredients will bring it together.
Step 5: Combine the bowls
Tip the dry ingredients into the wet bowl and fold together gently until no dry flour remains. Do not overmix — stop as soon as it comes together. The dough will be thick.
Step 6: Fill the tin
Spoon the dough into the greased tin and spread it to the edges with the back of a spoon. It does not need to be perfectly even.
Step 7: Add the blueberries
Scatter 300g of blueberries evenly over the dough. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tbsp of caster sugar on top.
Step 8: Bake
Bake for 25 minutes until the edges are golden and a skewer inserted into the dough comes out clean.
Step 9: Rest
Rest in the tin for 10 minutes before slicing. The pie firms up as it cools. Do not cut into it straight from the oven.
Blue fingers
Varpu’s tip: slice a small piece of rhubarb and rub it on your fingers. It takes the blueberry stain off completely. A lemon wedge works too.
Serve warm with crème fraîche, vanilla ice cream, or ready-made vanilla custard. Varpu uses vanilla sauce. Waitrose sell a good ready-made custard that works well here.
Prepping Ahead
If you want to prepare the mixture in advance, keep the dry and wet mixes separate rather than assembling and leaving the batter sitting.
The dry bowl (flour, oats, baking powder, salt) holds at room temperature indefinitely. The wet bowl (creamed butter and sugar with egg and crème fraîche) holds in the fridge covered for up to 24 hours.
Combine and assemble just before baking. This keeps the baking powder active, stops the oats absorbing moisture early, and prevents the berries bleeding into the base.
If the batter is already in the tin, cover it and refrigerate for no longer than 24 hours. Bake from cold and add 3 to 8 minutes. Expect a slightly denser result compared to baking immediately.
Do not leave assembled batter at room temperature
It contains raw egg and crème fraîche. No more than 2 hours at room temperature, and less if the kitchen is warm.
Nutrition — Per Slice (8 slices, pie only)
| Macro | Amount |
|---|---|
| Calories | ~350 kcal |
| Protein | ~4g |
| Carbohydrates | ~40g |
| Fat | ~19g |
| Fibre | ~1.5g |
| Sugar | ~22g |
With Accompaniments
| Serving option | Additional kcal | Additional fat |
|---|---|---|
| + 50g vanilla ice cream | ~100–110 kcal | ~6g |
| + 50g crème fraîche | ~150 kcal | ~15g |
| + 50g ready-made custard | ~55–60 kcal | ~2g |
This is not a high-protein meal. At ~350 kcal and 4g protein per slice it sits firmly in the treat category. Worth knowing if you are tracking.
Observations
| Attribute | Result |
|---|---|
| Texture | Soft, slightly cakey base with oat grain |
| Moisture | Juicy from berries, no wateriness in the base |
| Flavour | Butter-forward dough, balanced sweetness, tart berry contrast |
| Structure | Held shape well after 10 minute rest |
| Difficulty | Low — one bowl wet, one bowl dry, combine and bake |
Second Bake: Ceramic Pot
The second time I made this I baked it in a deep white ceramic pot instead of the 24cm metal tin. The reason was simple — I wanted to gift it to a friend and a white ceramic pot looks better than a metal tin. It changed the bake significantly.
What Happened
The original 25 minutes at 200°C fan was not enough. After 25 minutes the centre was still jiggly and a skewer came out with wet dough. I added 10 minutes, then another 10, then another 10 — a total of 55 minutes before it was done. The edges and top were well browned by that point.
Two things caused this. Ceramic conducts heat much slower than metal, so the centre of the dough was effectively insulated. The pot was also deeper than the metal tin, which meant a thicker layer of dough that needed more time to cook through.
Texture Difference
The result was softer and wetter than the metal tin version. The deeper dough layer absorbs more juice from the berries above, and the base never dries out the way a thin layer in a metal tin does. The texture is closer to a baked pudding than a sliceable pie. This is not a problem if you are serving it in the pot with a spoon, which is how it ended up being eaten.
Undercooked vs Wet
The main concern with the extra time was whether the centre was undercooked or just naturally wet. The skewer test is the answer. Raw dough on a skewer is thick, pale, and sticky. Berry juice or crème fraîche moisture leaves the skewer damp or slightly purple but not gluey. If the skewer comes out clean, the pie is done — even if the texture feels soft.
Adjustments for Ceramic
| Change | Why |
|---|---|
| Drop temperature to 180°C fan | Prevents the edges and top browning too fast while the centre catches up |
| Expect 40–50 minutes total | Ceramic heats slower and the deeper pot means thicker dough |
| Line the base with baking paper | Makes it easier to get slices out of the pot cleanly |
| Reduce blueberries to 200g (optional) | Less juice soaking into a thicker dough layer |
| Toss fresh berries in 1 tbsp potato starch (optional) | Absorbs liquid before it reaches the dough |
Summary
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Source | DW Food / Varpu’s family recipe |
| Adapted for | UK ingredients (Waitrose) |
| Tin size | 24cm round |
| Bake time | 25 minutes at 200°C fan |
| Yield | 8 slices |
| Calories per slice | ~350 kcal |
| Best served with | Vanilla custard or crème fraîche |
The recipe is forgiving. Two bowls, fold together, top with berries, bake. I extracted it using an AWS Transcribe pipeline documented on docs.digitalden.cloud.
The pie was 10/10.
Documented February 2026.