Rosendal Crisp Bread

There are no IKEA stores here in Peru. Oftentimes, I long for a store like IKEA to buy the typical house decorating items, some kitchen items and to just walk around in a place bustling with good deals. IKEA comes from Sweden, which is also famous for is crisp bread. If I had an IKEA to visit, I could pick up some of this Crisp Bread, but instead it will have to be made in my very own kitchen.

The recipe comes from Rosendal, a well known cafe in Sweden. The bread is flavored with rye flour, a taste that I found very strong. We were warned not to add too much rye flour and not to overknead it. I found myself a tad frustrated with how moist my dough remained as I tried to roll out the breads. It seemed that things were sticking everywhere and anywhere. Towards the last several breads, I seemed to get the right proportion of extra flour and limited touch necessary.

A perfect Swedish meal with include this bread, buttered and topped with a sharp cheese & served along side of hot pea soup. On a Thursday. Enjoy!


Rosendal Crisp Bread
From Grain Doe
Makes 16 round breads

Pre-ferment
500 ml of milk
2 1/4 teaspoons of dry active yeast
3 tablespoons of honey
1 cup of rye flour
1 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
3 1/2 tablespoons of rye sourdough starter

Heat milk until it's lukewarm. Dissolve yeast and honey in milk. Add flours and sourdough. Cover with cloth and let rise for 40 minutes.

Dough
2 teaspoons of salt
1 1/4 cups of rye flour
2 1/4 cup of wheat flour

1. Add salt, the wheat flour and 2/3 of the rye flour to the pre-ferment mixture. Add more rye as needed until the dough is firm, but not stiff. It should still be a little tacky. Mix well, but don't knead. Let rise for 30 minutes.

2. Divide dough into 16 pieces, form the pieces into round, tight spheres and leave on table under cloth.

3. Heat oven to 390F.

4. Roll out the dough balls to thin rounds. Prick the rounds with a fork (I forgot!) and cut a hole in the center with a small glass.

5. Bake two rounds at a time approximately 12 minutes or until the bread is nicely brown and crisp. Let cool on racks.

The flavor of the cracker breads was very strong. Into some of these, I rolled sesame seeds and crushed red pepper. On some of them, I sprinkled with curry powder, ground oregano and salt. I think a refreshing hummus, cream cheese dip or a chutney would be incredible with this!

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Rosendal Crisp Bread is being served up as the Bread Baking Buddies challenge of the month. This months challenge was hosted by Gorel of Grain Doe, November's kitchen of the month.