Many of you readers might have heard about nordic rye bread but never tasted it, as it is almost impossible to obtain in other than the nordic/scandinavian countries. The Danish rye bread differs from other rye bread types as it is less sweet and less dark.
In Denmark we eat it for lunch as an open sandwich with cold cuts, pieces of meat or fish, cheese or spreads and compared to bread made with wheat flour it is much more dense.

Foreigners (not Danes) often finds it too dense and heavy, but served the right way as a good quality open sandwich we believe that almost every one will love it 🙂

The sour dough used in this recipe is more than 100 years old and keeps living and raising our rye bread to perfection, but when making the bread for the first time you will either have to buy the sour dough or make it from scratch (1/2 cup wheat flour, 1/2 cup rye flour and 1 cup water; combine and let rest on the kitchen table for 4-5 days; stir once a day).

Hope that all you foreigners will give this nordic recipe a change and in times we will definitely add pictures of home made open sandwiches as we make them in Denmark 🙂

 

Ingredients (1 bread)

Day 1

4 cups rye flour

1 1/3 cup beer

1 4/5 cup water

3 tbsp. sour dough

 

Day 2

4 cups cracked rye kernels

2/5 water

4/5 cup water, boiling

1 tbsp. salt

1 tbsp. chia seeds

1 1/4 cup sunflower seeds

 

Day 1

Combine rye flour with beer and 1 4/5 cup water in a mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add sour dough and stir until evenly combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside on the kitchen table for 15 – 20 hours.

Day 2

Place cracked rye kernels in a separate mixing bowl and add the boiling water. Stir until the kernels have absorbed all the water and let rest for 5-10 minutes.

Pour chia seeds, sunflower seeds, salt and the remaining water into the raised batter and fold gently with a rubber spatula to combine. Then add the soaked kernels one cup at a time and gently fold again.

Take 3 tbsp. of the combined rye bread batter and put it in a airtight container and fridge until next time you are baking rye bread (preferably no longer than two week – we eat one bread a week, so it is no problem for us to use the sour dough 🙂 ).
Place the remaining rye bread batter in a greased loaf pan, cover with plastic wrap and let raise until it reaches the edge of the loaf pan. 

Bake the raised rye bread at 400F for 90 minutes (remember to remove the plastic wrap before putting the bread in the oven).

Remove the baked rye bread from the loaf pan, cover it in a tea towel and let rest on a wire rack for at least 5 hours or until completely cooled. To soften the crust, you can store the bread in a plastic bag for up to 8 days at room temperature.

Bon Appétit!

 

Ingredients (1 bread)

Day 1

550 g rye flour

1 beer

4.5 + 1 dl water

3 tbsp. sour dough

 

Day 2

600 g cracked rye kernels

2 dl water, boiling

1 tbsp. salt

1 tbsp. chia seeds

150 g sunflower seeds