Rugbrod!

Rugbrod!

Yeah, I can't type that correctly.  If someone knows how to make umlauts and those crosses that go through the vowels and all that, let me know!

Rugbrod quite literally means "rye bread" in Danish, as far as I can tell (Please note:  I don't speak any Scandinavian language).  It is a dense, heavy bread made with mixed-grain flour that, oddly enough, contains a LOT of rye.  To be honest, I'm in love with this stuff.  Click HERE to check out Wikipedia's article on rugbrod.

Historical Accuracy:  I'm going to give this an 8/10.  We're not entirely certain that this sort of bread was made during the Viking Era, and yet all the ingredients were readily available and the bread is still made to this day.  Flatbread is likely more accurate, but this stuff is good.

How does it Taste?  If you like pumpernickle or other "dark" breads, you'll love this stuff.  It's dry--almost cracker-y--but it's especially good with homemade butter or cheese (but more on that later).

Difficulty:  It's more complex than a "standard" bread.  If you can follow directions, you can totally make this!  Give it a try!

Recipe:  Shamelessly adapted from My Danish Kitchen.  Used without permission, but geez, it was good.

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

10 fluid ounces water (3 deciliter)

6.2 dry ounces Dark Rye flour (3 deciliter or 175 gram)

Directions:

Day 1: heat water to 110 degrees F and remove from heat. Sprinkle yeast over water, give a quick stir and let sit for 10 minutes. Stir Rye flour into yeast mixture until smooth. Cover bowl loosely with a lid and let sit out on your counter at room temperature.

Day 2: add 2 dry ounces Rye flour and stir (1 deciliter or 60 gram)

Day 3: stir dough.

Day 4: stir dough.

Day 5: in the morning or evening mix 1/2 of the sour dough starter with the following ingredients.

Rugbrød (makes 1 loaf)

Ingredients:

1/2 of the sour dough starter (approx 7 oz. or 1 1/2 deciliter)

9.7 dry ounces Dark Rye flour (275 gram)

11.7 dry ounces porridge mix (Bob’s Red Mill) (5 deciliter or 330 gram)

10.6 dry ounces whole grain flour (300 gram)

24 liquid ounces cold water (7 deciliter)

1 tablespoon honey

1 1/2 tablespoons sea salt

Directions:

Oil a 13 x 4 x 4 inch bread pan and set aside. Mix all of the ingredients together, stirring to make sure there are no dry pockets left within the dough. Pour into oiled pan and smooth top of dough. Cover pan with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 10 to 12 hours. Before baking, pierce the dough with a skewer 20 times. Brush top of dough with an oil/water mixture and bake in a 400 degrees F preheated oven for 1 hour 15 minutes. After baking allow bread to cool in the pan on a baking rack. When bread is still a little warm place in a plastic bag. The condensation inside the bag will help soften the very hard outer crust. Once completely cooled remove the bread from the moist bag, wipe the bag dry before placing the bread back into the bag. The bread is now ready for slicing or freezing. Enjoy!

I highly recommend slicing the bread thinly--otherwise, it's very dry.

UNSOLICITED PIMPING LINK:  I used Bob's Red Mill products for this recipe, and I highly recommend you do, as well.

Patreon Link:  SUPPORT ME!  Yay!  This stuff ain't cheap, you know!