Scalded Rye Bread

I came across this recipe recently which I was told originates in Sweden*.

• The recipe makes two loaves and the bread is very soft and tasty.
• Boiling water is poured over the rye flour and it is left overnight. This must start the breakdown of some of the starch in the flour to sugars.
• I used dried yeast when I made this.
• The bread is baked at a lower temperature than many other breads.

Ingredients

For scalding

• 100g dark rye flour
• 300ml of boiling water

For  the rest

• 650g strong white flour
• 1 tablespoon of dried yeast
• 250ml of water
• 1.5 tablespoons of salt

Method

• Put the rye flour into a bowl and pour the boiling water over it.
• Mix this to a stiff paste.
• Cover with a cloth and leave overnight.
• The following morning, place the plain flour into a bowl and make a well and add the dried yeast followed by 100ml of water.
• Cover and leave for around 15 minutes until all the yeast has dissolved.
• Add the rest of the water (150ml), the salt and the scalded rye mixture.
• Mix everything together well.

 

 

 

• Now you need to knead this for around 5 minutes – this can be hard as the dough is sticky  – I do this in the bowl for some of the time and then with wet hands I hold the dough up and sort of kneaded it in the air!
• Put the dough back into the bowl and covered with clingfilm or a cloth and leave it for around 2 hours.
• Divide the dough into two.
• Flour your hands and stretch each piece into a rectangle around 2cm in thickness.
• You now need to fold the dough into a long loaf.
• With the short side facing you, fold this up a third gently onto the dough and then taking the top third pull this down to cover the two layers of dough.
• Get a clean tea towel,  flour this and using a cake lifter place the loaf on this and cover it with the rest of the tea towel.
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• Repeat this for the other loaf.
• Leave the loaves to rest for around 1 hour.
• Pre-heat the oven to GM8 – 230°C.
• Use rye flour to flour two small baking sheets.
• Place each  loaf onto a prepared sheet and place them side by side in the oven.
• Turn the temperature down immediately to GM4 -180°C.
• Bake for 40 minutes.
• Remove and leave to cool on a wire rack.

 

 

Variations

• Add 1.5 tablespoons of caraway seeds to the dough mixture.
• Divide the dough into 4 pieces and shape them into cobs.
• Change the proportions to use more rye – I used 200g of dark rye & 550g of strong plain flour & an extra 100ml of boiling water for the overnight scalding & baked the loaves in long loaf tins after shaping the dough.
  

 

 

Tea plate is by Taylor and Kent of Longton

*Polish – Swedish Connections

The Polish King Zygmunt III Waza (1587 – 1632) was the son of King John III of Sweden and Katarzyna Jagiellonka (daughter of King Zygmunt I Stary (the old) of Poland).  He was also the King of Sweden from 1592 – 1599.

Potop – The Deluge – was a period of invasion and war with Sweden in the mid 17th Century.

Szwed – The Swede is a very common surname in Poland . One of my father’s best friends had this surname.

There are 72 ferry sailings a week from Polish Baltic ports to Sweden.

Note – this post was updated in March 2020.