In the past Knäckebröd , these breads were baked twice a year, in spring and in autumn, and with only four ingredients; whole rye, water, yeast and salt. They can also be combined with other cereals such as wheat, oats, barley or corn, but to a lesser extent, and seasoned with cumin seeds, fennel, dill, caraway, etc. Today we can find this crunchy bread also in the form of long crackers, and with different combinations of cereals and seeds.
What are these breads accompanied with? My great friend, who was born in the country of Knäckebröd, tells me that the most traditional thing was to eat them with herring and egg or with sheets of strong cheese and butter, but anything goes. It is ideal to take with flavored butters, sausages, with salmon and other smoked fish, with fish roe paste, etc. Above all, slices of cucumber, tomato or radish and never miss a few sprigs of fresh dill, never dry, because they say that the dry is for the cows.
They look great on a cheese board, in a basket of assorted breads, or simply to eat on their own. Be that as it may, I assure you that they are delicious and the knäckebröd is a bread for beginners, very easy and quick to make, since it does not require extensive kneading or complicated shapes.
recipe information
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- Preparation time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
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- Cooking time: 10 minutes
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- total time: 1 hour and 40 minutes
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- rations: 4
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- Category: bakery
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- type of cuisine: swedish
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- calories: 338 kcal per 100 g
Ingredients for Knäckebröd (Swedish crispbread) for 4 people
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- 250 g whole rye flour
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- 125 g of wheat flour
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- 20g honey
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- Two tablespoons of fennel seeds or dill kernels
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- 250ml sparkling water, very cold
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- 15 g fresh baker’s yeast
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- 7g of salt
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- Flaxseeds, sesame and oats for sprinkling
How to make Swedish Knäckebröd bread
We weigh and measure all the ingredients of the recipe and in a bowl we will put both flours.
We will make a hole and in the middle we add the water, the crumbled yeast, the honey and the fennel seeds.
We will mix everything with a spoon until the flour is integrated and we will let it rest for half an hour.
After the rest time we will add the salt and work it with our hands.
We will have a fairly sticky dough, but little by little we will see that the gluten will develop and become more elastic. However, due to the higher proportion of rye flour compared to wheat that it contains, the dough will continue to be somewhat sticky. Cover it and let it rest at room temperature for an hour and a half.
We can also store the dough in the fridge and delay the fermentation until the next day when we will resume the process. In case of choosing this option, when we remove the dough from the fridge we must let it warm and finish the rising, at least half an hour.
After the rising time has passed, we will turn the dough onto the previously floured work table and work it a little to degas it. Next, we will make three folds as if we were making puff pastry, but without butter, which will help us to have crispier buns. With a roller we will stretch it a little, giving it a rectangle shape and we will divide it into three equal imaginary parts. We will fold one end over the middle one and then the opposite end over the other two overlapping dough parts.
We will turn the dough taking care that we have the folds to our right, we will stretch it again and we will repeat the folds two more times.
We will let the dough rest for about 10 minutes and turn on the oven at 240 ºC so that it heats up, before starting to form the knäckebröd. Divide the dough into equal parts, weighing about 30 g.
We can make them bigger if we want to make the loaves bigger. With each one of them we will make some balls trying to provide a little tension.
Next, with a roller we will stretch them with a rounded shape and with a thickness of about 2 or 3 millimeters.
To prevent the dough from sticking to the work table, we will have to sprinkle rye flour frequently. To make the hole in the center we will use a glass and then we will remove the dough.
We can put it together and stretch it again to make other crackers or, as in my case, we will bake them like this, to make mini crackers. When we have them all stretched out, we will mark them so that they do not inflate, using a fork or a specific roller for this.
Finally we will brush them with water and sprinkle with seeds and salt flakes.
We will place them on trays lined with baking paper and cook them at 240 ºC for about 8 or 10 minutes.
It is important that the oven is at a high temperature, but the times are relative as it will depend on each type of oven. When they are golden and crisp, we will remove them to a cooling rack.
And we already have them ready to taste. If we wanted to keep them, we will let them dry and then store them in airtight bags, although we could also freeze them. This way we will always have them ready because being so fine they will thaw in a few minutes.
Easy preparation summary
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- We weigh and measure the ingredients
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- Put the flour in a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients except the salt.
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- Mix and let rest for half an hour as an autolysis
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- Add the salt and knead for a few minutes.
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- When the gluten has developed a bit, let rise covered for an hour and a half
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- After the rising time, we degassed it a bit
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- We make some folds similar to those of the puff pastry
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- Divide the dough into portions of about 30 g and roll them
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- We stretch them in a rounded shape and about 3 mm thick
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- We make the central hole and mark them with a specific fork or roller for it
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- We brush them with water and sprinkle seeds or salt flakes
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- We bake them at 240 ºC for about 8 minutes.
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- Remove them to a wire rack and let them cool.
