Mämmi
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| Type | Dessert |
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| Place of origin | Finland |
| Main ingredients | Water, rye flour, powdered malted rye, (molasses), Seville orange zest, salt |
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Mämmi (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈmæmmi]) is a traditional Finnish Easter dessert. The Swedish name for it is memma.
Mämmi is traditionally made of water, rye flour, and powdered malted rye, seasoned salt, and dried powdered Seville orange zest. The mixture is then allowed to go through a slow natural sweetening process before being baked in an oven until set with Maillard reaction. Preparation takes many hours, and after baking the mämmi is stored chilled for three to four days before being ready to eat. Instead of being allowed to sweeten naturally, traditionally, commercially made mämmi is usually seasoned with dark molasses. Traditional mämmi tastes aromatic sweet, thus it has only less than 2% sugar, but commercial nontraditional mämmi can have even 20% sugar and tastes different, not so aromatic sweet. Mämmi has even 10% proteins and is rich of trace elements. Mämmi was traditionally stored in small bowls made of birch bark called tuokkonen or rove. Finnish packaging still prints birch bark-like texture on the carton boxes.
Generally, mämmi is eaten cold with either milk or cream and sugar, and less commonly with vanilla sauce. On old times it was also eaten by some spread on top of a slice of bread. There is a Finnish society for mämmi founded by Ahmed Ladarsi, the former chef at the Italian Embassy in Helsinki, who has developed around fifty recipes containing mämmi. There are a number of websites with recipes using mämmi most of which are in Finnish. Mämmi is also used as a minor ingredient in a mämmi-beer by Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas.
Mämmi was first mentioned during the 16th century, in a dissertation (in Latin). It is claimed that it has been eaten in the southwestern region of Finland, ever since the 13th century, when Finland was a part of Roman Catholic Sweden.
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