Lifecruiser

Swedish crispbread, the noisiest bread ever, has been crunched for 250 years. In the past its long life made things easier for housewives as they only had to bake once or twice a year. Today, people on the look-out for a healthy diet delight in its rich source of fibre.

Its lasting qualities were proved in the Fourties when a tin containing crispbread was found in the Stockholm attic of the Schumachers bakery after the owners death. It had been baked in 1897 exclusively for Andrée the explorer and his north Pole trip in the hot air balloon Eagle. The ill fated expedition didn’t last very long, but the bread in the attic that the baker Schumacher had kept as a memento was still edible after almost 50 years!

Knäckebröd
Recipe for 12 round cakes

50 g yeast
0,5 L lukewarm water
1 L rye flour (or oatmeal)
400-500 ml wheat flour
1 tsp salt

Dissolve yeast in water and add the rest of the ingredients. Let dough rise for 40 mins. Roll out as thinly as possible, cut round cakes and place them on a tray. Prick cakes with a knitting needle, golf peg or similar. Leave to rise for 30 mins. Bake at minimum 250 degree celsius for 3-4 mins, turn the cakes over and bake for another 2-3 mins.

Source: “Things Swedish” by Mari Hemming

Generally people don’t bake crispbread themselves any more, we buy it in the store. There is a lot of different brands, shapes and taste to buy. We often buys the heartshaped “Leksands knäcke”, see our photo.

I haven’t tried to bake the recipe above on my own - yet. We eat a lot of crispbread, its really yummy, the crispy feeling is kind of addicting. Its suitable to eat together with the dinner meals and especially soup.

Or just as a snack meal in the night with some good stuff on it. You can put almost anything on top… Like Dagwood, famous for his super-duper sandwiches, in the good old comic Blondie. I feel really connected to him, as he loves food too :-)

Something really yummy is to put on some creamy potatoes au gratin (with onion and garlic) left overs from the dinner, in the middle of the night after a party or something nice like that.

The Swedish crispbread is one of the typical swedish edible things that we Swedes really long for when we’re away from home.

Writing about it made me hungry as usual…