Mayday 34°35'S 150°36'E

DATE: 8:46 PM
A Google search tells me that 'Runeberg Day' is celebrated in Finland on the 5th of February. A delicacy connected to the festival is called 'a Runeberg tart'. It is a small, cylindrical sponge cake decorated with a spoonful of jam. The cake was introduced as early as the 1840s.Does this mean that "Jam Drops" are a derived from a Finnish delicacy?

DATE: 10:01 PM
I understand you are not coming to the CTC tomorrow morning? If you were, you'd find out more about the Runeberg tarts. These tarts are available in every cafe and bakery in Finland around the 5th of February.The original tart was something that the poet Runeberg liked to eat - a little cake made by his wife Fredrika (or so one version of the story goes) from leftover biscuit and bread crumbs, with jam on top.The texture is dense, a bit like friands, but the cakes are quite a bit bigger. See a picture I don't know what Jam Drops are!

DATE: 1:38 AM
Mmm, jam drops...Ordinary biscuit dough (dense and plain, a bit like shortbread or shortcrust pastry), about as round as the circle between your thumb and forefinger. A small dent in the top with a teaspoon of jam (preferably red jam) in it before baking. Deliciously crumbly!You can also use the leftover dough to make a jam rolypoly (smear with jam, roll, bake, easy!) which requires less finesse than the biscuit-denting process. I always used to put my thumb through them by accident...Next week's issue, peanut-butter biscuits. Or chocolate crackles.

DATE: 1:44 AM
PS With reference to the Runeberg recipe picture, how does cooking Finnish compare to normal Finnish? I only ask because I have a recipe for Serviettenknoedel (serviette dumpling, so called because it rolls up like a serviette, how imaginative) that I got in Germany but which, unfortunately, even my German teachers haven't been able to adequately decipher. Although of course it is in Schwabian, which probably doesn't help.

DATE: 9:03 AM
Based on your description, Angharad, jam drops are nothing like Runeberg tarts.Baking in Finnish - I tend to use Finnish recipes much of the time, since I use decilitres as opposed to cups. One cup is something like 2.5 decilitres, I am told. Does the German recipe use grams, or decilitres, or what?I vote for chocolate crackles, please.

DATE: 12:56 AM
Ah, dear. The problem with the recipe in question is not the measurements (although, for the record, deci-litres remind me constantly of deci-talas; someone ought to compile a book of Meals With Messiaen or something) but rather the verbs. Most of them are quite violent, but unfortunately my dictionaries don't seem to specialise in cooking-related translations. Do I whip, beat, or whisk my eggs? Do I mash, pound, knead, or flatten my dough? Tricky!Chocolate crackles are a longstanding favourite of children's birthday parties - possibly because they're rather rich, so you don't need to make too many! They are frequently paired with sickeningly-sweet honey-snaps (which also start out as breakfast cereal and come in coloured patty-pans).Melt together 75g of chocolate and 1 tsp margarine; while hot, stir in 1 cup rice bubbles (and, if you're feeling fancy, fruit or other ingredients - sultanas and raisins come recommended but I reckon that cherries or cranberries would be nice). Spoon into patty pans; leave in fridge to set.Easy but sometimes queasy...Still to come in Harry's Half-Hour, Ricardo's Fabulous Triple-Chocolate Brownies.

DATE: 8:44 AM
Thanks Harry! They remind me about something my aunt used to make, only there was coconut butter involved in that recipe.