crispbread

Malt Crispbread

September 29, 2015


Malt Crispbread is a thin Scandinavian-style crispbread, delicious yet healthy and perfect companion for your favorite cheese.

It's also a lovely gift. The dough is super-easy to handle. So, it isn't difficult at all to make perfectly round shapes and professional looking crispbreads. 

 If you don't have a sourdough starter in the fridge, you can easily make one with this recipe.

 12 pcs.

 1dl (110 g) sourdough starter
1 dl (55 g) rye flour
1 dl (100 g) lukewarm water

 Mix together the sourdough starter, water and the flour. Cover with a tea towel and leave at room temperature for 8–9 hours.

 2 dl (200 g) lukewarm water 
15 g fresh yeast 
0,75 tsp salt 
0,5 dl (70 g) honey 
0,5 dl rye malts for bread (flour) 
2 dl (130 g) wheat flour 
5 dl (275 g) rye flour

 Mix together the sourdough starter, water, yeast, salt, honey and rye malts. Stir until the yeast is dissolved completely. Add the flour and knead about 2 minutes. The dough appears to be too sticky, but don't add flour. 

 Cover and leave to rise for 2 hours.

 Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface and divide it into 6 pieces. Roll out each piece to a thin, round sheet. Use a patterned rolling pin or poke the surface randomly with a fork before baking. With the help of a lid cut out a circle of dough with a diameter of 20 cm. It isn't difficult at all, because at this point the dough is easy to handle. Place on a parchment lined tray (2 crispbreads / tray). Continue rolling and cutting until all the dough is used up.

Preheat the oven to 225°C. Bake for 7–9 minutes / tray. Malt Crispbread is very thin. Don't leave it unattended as it burns very easily. 

Let cool on a wire rack.

barley

Mashed Potato Bread

September 22, 2015


I'm passionate about reducing food waste. Bread is a good way to use up leftover ingredients, including mashed potatoes, which are one of the most common kitchen leftovers. 

 5 dl (500 g) lukewarm water 

2,5 dl (1 cup) mashed potatoes 
1,5 tsp salt 
50 g fresh yeast 
1 dl (90 g) cooking oil 
3 dl (160 g) barley flour 
9 dl (590 g) fine, dark wheat flour (yeast bread wheat flour)
cooking oil
finger salt 

Stir the mashed potatoes, salt, yeast and cooking oil into the lukewarm water. Gradually mix in the flour. Knead the dough for about 8 minutes until smooth.

Cover and leave to rise.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it gently. Line a baking tray with a parchment paper and place the dough onto it. Flatten the dough with your hands. 

Cover and leave to rise.

Poke the surface randomly with your fingers. Drizzle the top with cooking oil and pat some finger salt on it. 

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Bake for 20 minutes.


no-yeast

Beetroot Bread

September 17, 2015


Beetroot and caraway are a match made in heaven!  They are the core of our favorite hash and ingredients into a versatile dough, which is the basis for many autumn breads in my kitchen.

If you don't have a sourdough starter in the fridge, you can easily make one with this recipe.

2 breads

1 dl (110 g) sourdough starter
2 dl (200 g) lukewarm water
2 dl (110 g) rye flour

Mix together the sourdough starter, water and the flour. Cover with a tea towel and leave at room temperature until bubbly, it takes 7–9 hours.

 2 small (300 g) raw beetroots, grated
3 dl (300 g) lukewarm water
1 tbsp salt 
1 tbsp caraway seeds 
3 tbsp Scandinavian dark syrup (or light molasses)
2 dl (100 g) crushed rye grains
7 dl (380 g) rye flour
5 dl (250 g) spelt flour
rolled rye or spelt

Blend the grated beetroot, lukewarm water, salt, caraway seeds, syrup and crushed rye grains with the starter dough. Mix the rye and spelt flour into the dough and knead for 10 minutes.

Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for 4 hours.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it gently. The dough is sticky, but don't spoil it by adding tons of flour. Add the smallest amount of flour possible. Just so much you think you can handle it. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Shape the pieces into two long loaves and put them into oiled tins. Pat with oiled hands and sprinkle with rolled rye or spelt.

Cover and leave to rise for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 250°C. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 200°C and cook for a further 30 minutes.

Cover and let cool on a wire rack.

rusk

Secret Temptation

September 09, 2015


Nobody in my family has ever asked me to bake these buttermilk rusks. Nobody seems to like them, but whenever I put them on the table, they disappear in no time! 

40 pcs.

 3 dl (300 g) fat-free buttermilk
25 g fresh yeast
0,75 tsp salt
0,5 dl (45 g) Scandinavian dark syrup or American light molasses
1,5 tsp Seville orange peel, powdered
1,5 tsp fennel seeds
3 tsp caraway seeds
10 dried apricot

2 dl (110 g) fine, light rye flour (bolted rye flour)
4 dl (270 g) fine, dark wheat flour (yeast bread wheat flour)

 Blend the yeast, salt, syrup, Seville orange peel, seeds and small bits of dried apricots with the lukewarm buttermilk. Add the flour and knead about 7 minutes.

 Cover and leave to rise at room temperature.

 Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and gently, with a spatula, lift the edges of the dough in toward the center. Shape into a loaf and put it into an oiled, 20 cm x 20 cm square cake tin. The dough is very moist and sticky, shape the loaf again in the tin with oiled hands if necessary.

 Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.

 Preheat the oven to 175°C. Bake for 50–60 minutes. Take the bread out of the tin and let it cool down for a while. Slice the bread into 40 slices. Put the slices on a baking tray and place them in the oven heated to 75°C to dry for about 2 hours, turning them about every 30 minutes.


barley

Barley Water Bread

September 01, 2015


My granny loved all kinds of good housewife's recipes. She would have liked this Barley Water Bread too because it helps me to use up two leftover ingredients. Nothing gets wasted in this house!

Barley water is one of our most loved summer drinks. Usually it's served with ice cubes and lemon slices to beat the summer heat. But, a batch of Barley water means some leftover barley. And, if you've ever made cheese, no doubt you know how much whey there is afterwards. No wonder I often have some leftover whey too. This bread comes to my rescue.

If you don't want to make Barley water, just boil 4 tbsp pearl barley and 5 dl water. Place the pearl barley and water in a pan. Bring the water to the boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Pour mixture through a sieve to separate the barley grains from the water. (You can do this the day before.) 
If you don't have whey, replace it with water.

Barley water

2 L 

4 tbsp pearl barley 
1,5 L water 
juice of 3 lemons 
3 tbsp honey 
7 dl mineral water 
ice cubes 
lemon slices 

Place the pearl barley and water in a pan. Bring the water to the boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Pour mixture through a sieve to separate the barley grains from the Barley water. 

Add the lemon juice and honey. Stir and leave to cool. 

Add the mineral water. 

Garnish with lemon slices and ice cubes, and serve. 

Barley Water Bread

2 breads

5 dl (500 g) whey (or water)
25 g fresh yeast
the leftover pearl barley
1,5 tsp salt
2 dl (100 g) fine, light rye flour (bolted rye flour)
about (850 g) 13 dl fine, dark wheat flour (yeast bread wheat flour)
2 tbsp cooking oil 

Stir the yeast, leftover barley, salt and rye flour into the cold whey. Mix in the wheat flour. Knead the dough for 5 minutes. Add the cooking oil (and flour if necessary) and keep kneading another 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and feels bouncy and elastic.

Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for 2 hours.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it gently. Divide it in half. Shape each half into a long loaf and twist. Put the breads on a parchment paper. Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for 30 minutes. 

Preheat it the oven to 250°C. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 200°C and bake for a further 20 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack. 

These breads will keep well at room temperature, but you can also freeze them.