rye

Fake Rye Bread

October 12, 2016


Fake it or make it! 

No one will ever believe this is a wheat bread! The bread looks like a rye bread and tastes like a rye bread too. More than one of my friends have wondered the perfect match of southern basil and northern rye. The herb gives flavour to the bread when the bread is fresh. But, if you freeze it – Simsalabim! – even the taste of basil will vanish and the bread is a true rye bread. The disguise is flawless and complete. 

1 bread

5 dl (500 g) whey (or water) 
2 tbsp basil paste 
1,5 tsp salt
2 tbsp chia seeds 
4 tbsp linseeds
1 tsp fresh yeast
11 dl (550 g) roll flour (wheat flour and wheat bran) 

Stir together the ingredients. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise at room temperature for 18–20 hours. 

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and shape it into a loaf. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise at room temperature for 2 hours. 

Place a lidded cast iron pot in the cold oven and preheat it to 225°C. Remove the lid and put the risen dough into the hot pot. Place the lid back on top and put the pot back into the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid, and bake for a further 15 minutes. 

Let cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

leftover

Malted Orange Rolls

September 07, 2016


In the summertime I make often cheese and home-made beer. Consequently, I have lots of whey and mash in my freezer at the moment. If you don't have them, you can replace mash with malt and hot water and whey with water (or, in this case, orange juice mixed with water). 

 20 pcs.

 2 dl (200 g) mash (leftover from brewing beer)
8 dl (800 g) whey
50 g fresh yeast
1 tbsp salt
1 orange, grated zest and juice
1 dl (140 g) Scandinavian dark syrup (or light molasses)
4 dl (150 g) rolled oats 
20–22 dl (1300–1400 g) wheat flour

Stir the yeast, salt, orange (zest and juice) and syrup into lukewarm whey/mash mix. Mix in the rolled oats. Keep kneading and adding wheat flour. It's impossible to tell the exact amount of wheat flour to use, it depends on the moisture of the mash and the amount of juice in the orange. But, less is always better than too much. Leave the dough as moist as you can. It's supposed to be moist and wet. 

Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for 20 minutes. 

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Use a dough scraper to assist you and fold the dough gently couple of minutes. Divide the dough in half. Roll each half into a rope. Cut each rope into 10 pieces. Shape each piece into a roll. Line 3 baking trays with parchment papers, place the rolls on them, cover and leave to rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 225°C. Bake for 15–20 minutes. 

Let cool on a wire rack.


malt

Lazy Baker's Breads

May 01, 2016

No time or energy to bake homemade bread? Don't worry! These recipes come to your rescue. Stir the ingredients together and pour the mixture into a tin. Time and the oven take care of the rest.

Malt Loaf


Malt Loaf with a touch of butter and a slice of mild cream cheese is a worldly heaven. In a summerly sandwich the bread is paired with fresh cheese, iceberg salad and cucumber. In winter it's a good companion to ripe pears and mild Brie. Malt Loaf is also a perfect bread for a tuna lunch box sandwich. 

Clay Pot Bread

If you have a clay pot, now it's time to put it into use. This delicious bread is one of my favorites, not least because it will only take minutes to make it ready for the oven. 

 The bread has strong flavor and dense consistency, which make it perfect base for irresistible party bites. It's easy to slice the bread and then cut the shapes out of the bread e.g. with a flower cookie cutter.

If you love peas like me, make a pea spread on the pea bread. Too much? Not at all!

Pea Spread
Put 200 g peas, 400 g cream cheese, small amount of milk, lemon juice, black pepper an salt into a food processor and mix until smooth. You can also add mint leaves, oregano or a garlic clove into the spread if you want to. 

You have to mix the starter dough the day before baking, but otherwise this is quick and an easy-to-make bread. What's more, this bread is perfect for one-person households, because it is at its best when it has been kept in the fridge where it stays good for several days.

This recipe was invented by accident, when I was longing for freshly baked bread for my evening tea and realized that I have extremely little yeast and flour at home. I was too lazy to grocery shopping. I use what I had and the laziness was abundantly rewarded. This irresistible chewy bread has been one of my favourites right from the first bite.

leftover

Date Bread

December 10, 2015



I always have whey and mash in my freezer, because I make cheese and home-made beer.
If you don't have them, you can replace whey with water and mash with malt and hot water.

 2 breads

 5 dl (500 g) whey
1 dl (0,4 cup US) mash
25 g fresh yeast
1 tsp salt
1 dl (140 g) Scandinavian dark syrup (or light molasses)
1 dl (60 g) graham flour
1 dl (55 g) coarse rye flour
2 dl (110 g) bolted rye flour

5 dl (325 g) wheat flour 
8 pcs. dried, soft dates

Cut the dates into raisin-size pieces. Put them into a bowl and sprinkle some wheat flour on them. Shake until the pieces are covered with flour. This way the chopped dates won't stick to each other and you can easily use them in the recipe. 

Stir the yeast, salt and syrup into the lukewarm whey and mash mix. Gradually mix in the flours. Add the dates. Knead the dough for 6–8 minutes.

Cover and leave to rise at room temperature until doubled in size. 

Put the dough into two greased tins. Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for 40 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Bake for 50–60 minutes. The bread is ready if it sounds hollow, when you knock on its base.

Cover and let cool on a wire rack.


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.

leftover

Clay Pot Bread

June 01, 2015


If you have a clay pot, now it's time to put it into use. This delicious bread is one of my favorites, not least because it will only take minutes to make it ready for the oven. 

 The bread has strong flavor and dense consistency, which make it perfect base for irresistible party bites. It's easy to slice the bread and then cut the shapes out of the bread e.g. with a flower cookie cutter.

 Pea flour give flavor to the bread, but if you have difficulties to find pea flour, replace it with barley flour. 

 Scandinavian dark syrup, unlike American dark corn syrup, is processed from sugar beets. Thus, a good U.S. equivalent is American light molasses. The syrup is a bit sweeter than the molasses, but it's close enough that the substitution works well. Here I have used bread syrup, which contains 20 % malt extract.

 1 bread

50 g fresh yeast
5 dl (500 g) whey (or water)
1,5 tsp salt
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp caraway
0,5 dl oil
1 dl (70 g) bread syrup
1 dl (100 g) sunflower seeds
2 dl (100 g) pea flour
8 dl (550 g) bread flour

 Soak the pot and the lid in cool water for 20 minutes.

 Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm whey in a bowl. Mix in salt, crushed fennel seeds, caraway, oil, bread syrup, sunflower seeds and the flour mix. Stir until smooth.

 Pour the mixture into the greased clay pot. Cover and place the pot in a cold oven, setting the temperature for 200°C and bake (without removing the lid) for about 1 hour 30 minutes. The exact time depends on your oven.

 Slide from the pot, cover and cool on a wire rack.

leftover

Molasses Rolls

April 21, 2015


Egg cheese and home-brewed beer with juniper berries are part of our Christmas as well as Easter. So, it's no wonder that I always have some whey and mash in my freezer in spring. This means lots of baking with these leftover ingredients. 

This recipe was inspired by dark molasses, which I had been looking for many years, but it wasn't an easy task here in Finland. I was overjoyed, when I finally found a can in my local grocery store.

 24 pcs.

 5 dl whey
4 dl mash (leftover from brewing beer)
50 g fresh yeast
3 tsp salt
1,5 tbsp caraway seeds
3 tbsp oil
1 dl dark molasses
3 dl dark syrup (or light molasses)
1 dl talkkuna flour * (It's not the same, but you can replace this with wheat flour.)
1 dl oat bran
3 dl coarse ground rye flour
about 15 dl wheat flour

 * Talkkuna flour is a mixture of half-cooked, dried and usually roasted grains milled into flour. It's a traditional Finnish, agrarian food, which is making a comeback lately. It's most often eaten with yogurt, buttermilk or other milk products. Nowadays it's also a trendy ingredient in cakes, pies, muffins and smoothies. 

 Stir the yeast and salt into lukewarm whey/mash mix. Mix in the caraway seeds, oil, molasses, syrup, talkkuna flour, oat bran and rye flour. Keep kneading and adding wheat flour until the dough is bouncy and elastic. It's impossible to tell the exact amount of wheat flour  to use, it depends on the moisture of the mash. 

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

 Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it gently. Divide it in half. Roll each half into a rope. Cut each rope into 12 pieces. Put the rolls, cut side up, on parchment papers. Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for 20–30 minutes.

 Preheat the oven to 225°C. Bake for 13–15 minutes.

 Transfer to a wire rack, cover and let cool.

leftover

Whey Loaf

March 12, 2015


Egg cheese is a traditional Finnish banquet delicacy, which I make every Christmas. In the summer, it's even better with a lift of fresh herbs. 

I use the whey left over from making cheese as the liquid for my bread doughs, because I hate to see it go to waste. But, it's impossible to use all of it right away. I usually end up freezing the whey in 5 and 7,5 dl containers. The smaller one is for rolls and the larger one for two loaves.

This is one of my regular recipes, which I remember well because of repeating twos.  

This dough needs only one rise. Once you make the dough, shape it and put it right in the tins to rise. You don't have to rise the dough after kneading, because you use the bread tins and therefore the dough don't need excellent handleability.

2 loaves

7,5 dl (750 g) whey (or water)
25 g fresh yeast
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp anise seeds
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tbsp oil
20 dl (1300 g) wheat flour

Stir the yeast, salt, sugar, ground seeds and oil into the cold water. Mix in the flour. Knead the dough for 8–10 minutes until it's smooth and feels bouncy and elastic. 

 Divide the dough into two, roughly even halves. Shape the pieces into loaves and place in the oiled tins. Cover the breads with a cloth and let them rise at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, depending on how warm your kitchen is.

 Preheat the oven to 200°C. Bake for 30 minutes. 

 Cover with a cloth and let them cool on a wire rack.