DON’T CALL IT A DUMPLING. Unlike their Polish counterparts, Finnish pierogies are sweet or savory breads with fillings such as cheese or cabbage (as shown above). Krister Paakkonen makes then in a commercial kitchen at Banbury Place using an old family recipe from historic province of Ingria in what is now Russia.

Let’s play two truths and a lie. The first known use of the word “pierogie” was in 1811, although 17th century cookbooks described the pierogie as a staple of the Polish diet. Finnish pierogies are sweet or savory breads with fillings such as cheese or cabbage. If you want a traditional fresh pierogie, you must hop aboard an international flight for Europe.

I made it too easy for you, didn’t I? The last statement is the lie. Krister Paakkonen was born in Sweden to Finnish parents. As a teenager he spent time in Philadelphia as an exchange student, eventually moving to the U.S. to attend grad school.  After grad school, Krister moved to New York to work in the financial industry and met his spouse. He landed in Eau Claire two years ago mainly because his in-laws are from Wisconsin.

Shortly after moving to Eau Claire, Krister took a trip to the villages of old Ingria (a historic province in today’s Russia, roughly between Estonia and St. Petersburg) where his parents were born. He had heard stories of the villages growing up, but he had never visited before. “Although I was born in Sweden,” he explains, “my family kept their Ingrian heritage alive by speaking and singing in Finnish, and cooking traditional fare.” He could speak to the villagers in the original dialect, both surprising and impressing them and giving Krister a sense of belonging. After returning to Eau Claire, Krister started baking. With encouragement from his friends, he began selling his pierogies at the Banbury Art Crawl in Banbury Pace in 2014.

Pierogies are from Northern Europe, and the Russian and Finnish varieties are more like bread: They are baked in an oven (as opposed to Polish dumpling-style pierogies) and are meant to be eaten warm. Krister sells them in packs of two and you can buy them at Just Local Food, Festival Foods, Coffee Grounds, The Goat Coffee House, (the Goat’s locations on Water Street and inside Marshfield Clinic are the only place where the pierogies are served warm with soup) and Family Farms Market in Eleva.

Krister uses a traditional family recipe handed down from his paternal grandmother and great aunt. His grandparents were war refugees from Ingria, and the family recipe could possibly go back generations. The recipes have only been slightly modified by Krister, such as substituting craisins for raisins in the original recipe. He offers two flavors to choose from, sweet and savory. The sweet option is a cheese pierogi. His grandmother was an expert at making the cheese pierogi, and the smell of buttermilk still reminds him of his grandmother. The savory one is a cabbage pierogi, which was his great aunt’s expertise.

“It’s kind of like holding onto the past; preserving it, yet sharing it,” Krister says.

It seems Krister has gotten the best of all his ancestors as he stays busy through the summer selling season at the Downtown Eau Claire Farmers Market and the Sunday Festival Foods farmers market.

Krister’s passion for making a genuine handmade local product rich in personal history and tradition is what draws patrons to his product and keeps them coming back for more. And although selling his pierogies isn’t a huge money-maker for Krister just yet, and he puts in more hours than he did at his demanding job in the financial world in New York, he finds the work more fulfilling. Krister is looking forward to the summer and is looking into expanding into other stores.

Krister bakes his pierogies at Banbury Place on Galloway Street, Building 13, Suite 217, and his space is open 9am to 2pm on Saturdays. He can be reached by email at piirakkoi@gmail.com or found on Facebook.