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Mustikkakiisseli: Finnish Blueberry Pudding

⏱ 20 min in total🔪 10 min prep🍳 10 min cooking🍽 4 servingsEasy
Cut-glass dessert bowl of glossy dark purple mustikkakiisseli with whole blueberries and a splash of cold milk half-swirled on top

Mustikkakiisseli is the Finnish blueberry dessert: berries cooked in water with sugar and thickened with potato starch until it sits somewhere between a thick soup and a pudding, purple and glossy. It's eaten with a spoon, warm or cold, with a splash of cold milk on top that half-mixes into the purple. It belongs to the same family as Slavic kissel and German Rote Grütze: the same idea of fruit thickened with starch, each with its own consistency.

Made properly, it's delicious. Kissel's reputation was ruined by the packet versions, rubbery and cloying. With real fruit and the starch just right, it's something else entirely: fruity, light and glossy. It all comes down to one detail: potato starch is brought to a boil for an instant and taken off the heat; if it boils too long, it thins out and turns dull.

In Finland it's made with wild bilberries, which are purple all the way through. Cultivated blueberries, the kind you can get fresh or frozen, have pale flesh and give a milder color and flavor; a handful of blackberries brings the color back.

Ingredients

Measurements
🍽 4 servings
  • 400 g blueberries, fresh or frozen
  • 1 handful blackberries (optional, for color)
  • 600 ml water
  • 80 g sugar, plus a little extra for sprinkling
  • 30 g potato starch (3 tablespoons) or 35 g cornstarch
  • 100 ml cold water (to dissolve the starch)
  • Cold milk or cream (to serve)

Method

  1. 1

    In a saucepan, bring the blueberries and blackberries to a boil with the water and sugar. Cook for 5 minutes over medium heat, until the fruit bursts and the water takes on color.

  2. 2

    Lightly crush the fruit with a potato masher without turning it into a purée: you want pieces left. Taste and adjust the sugar.

  3. 3

    Dissolve the starch in the cold water, stirring well right before using it, because it sinks to the bottom straight away.

  4. 4

    Take the pan off the heat and pour in the starch in a thin stream, stirring constantly.

  5. 5

    Return to the heat and stir until it just comes to a boil: at that moment the liquid turns from cloudy to glossy and thickens. Take it off the heat right away. If potato starch boils too long, it thins out and turns dull. With cornstarch, on the other hand, let it boil for 1 minute: it ends up firmer and less clear.

  6. 6

    Divide among bowls and sprinkle a pinch of sugar on top so no skin forms.

  7. 7

    Serve warm, or let it cool and refrigerate. When serving, add a splash of cold milk or cream on top.