Tag Archives: knäckebröd

Knäckebröd (Swedish Crisp Bread)

knackebrod
One of my food memories from school was when one guy threw a slice of ”knäckebröd” (Swedish crisp bread) up in the air. The sandwich got stuck with its buttered side up on the ceiling, and I mean really stuck. No one seemed to pay any attention or tried to get the bread down. In fact it would have been a project by itself as the dining room was like a ball room with very high ceiling. Hm, I wonder if it still up there!

This recipe is by Alice at Brax on Food (freely translated by me).

twelve crisp breads
25 gram yeast (I used  ½  package of ¼ oz Active Dry Yeast)
1 tablespoon honey
200 ml (almost 1 cup) yogurt
400 ml (1 2/3 cup) water
600 ml (2 ½ cup) rye wholegrain flour
600 ml (2 ½ cup) wholewheat flour
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
2 teaspoons salt
and
100-200 ml ( ½ – 1 cup) regular flour for rolling the breads

Prepare the yeast depending on which yeast you are using. When the yeast is ready, blend it with honey, yogurt, water, rye and the wholewheat flour. Cover the bowl and keep at room temperature in a non-drafty area for at least 6 hours.
Roast the caraway seeds in a dry pan and crush them finely in a mortar. Blend in the salt and wholewheat flour. When the dough is ready, work in the wholewheat flour/caraway mixture. Add some of the regular flour to make a smooth dough. Divide the dough in 12 equal parts and roll them into balls. Preheat the oven to 225°C (435°F). Use a rolling pin and some regular flour to roll out every ball of dough into a thin round cake, approximately 1/8” (3 mm) thick. Place as many as you can fit on a baking tin and nibble the breads with a fork (or you can use a special rolling pin with small knobs). If you want to, you can make a hole in the middle with a small ”snaps” glass. Bake the breads immediately for about 8-10 minutes in the middle of the oven.  When finished let the breads cool down on an oven rack. Keep uneaten ”knäckebröd” in a sealed container. (Hanging on a broom stick will make them dusty).

See also my recipe for Rosemary and Seasalt Crackers

Gravlax Juniper

dalek dancing

I just became a Resident Alien. This I celebrated by making gravlax…

1 kilo (2 lb) salmon fillet
1 teaspoon crushed pepper
4 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons sucanat or regular sugar
40 crushed juniper berries
lots of fresh dill

If you use fresh salmon you should  freeze it for at least 24 hours, to make sure that there are no parasites in the fish. Clean the salmon fillets of any bones but keep the skin. The skin makes it easier later on when you are going to slice it up. Crush the junipers in a mortar. Mix together with salt, pepper and sucanat. Rub the fillet with some of the mixture. Divide the rest of the mixture on top and add the dill. If you have two fillets, place them together, meat against meat with dill in between. Place the fillet in a plastic freezer bag and close it carefully. Let the fillets rest in the fridge for 1-2 days and turn them now and again. Thinner fillets can be done in 24 hours but thicker pieces need 48 hours to be ready to serve. Unwrap and clean the fillets. Start to slice the gravlax into thin diagonal slivers by using a fillet knife starting at the small end of the fish. Gravlax can be stored in the fridge for nearly a week or longer in the freezer.
This type of Gravlax I prefer to serve on a small piece of home made “knäckebröd” topped with Sabine’s lingonberry cream and decorated with new fresh dill.

See also my previous recipe on Gravlax