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Rugbrød uden Surdej

Rugbrød uden Surdej

Making and maintaining a Sourdough starter can be really overwhelming and intimidating to a lot of people, so I have been on the lookout for an alternative, and here it is. No Sourdough starter needed! However, it does need yeast, but the only thing you have to be aware of when using active dry yeast, is that the liquid temperature must be between 100-110 degrees F. If the temperature is above 110 degrees, you’ll kill the yeast. Do you have one of those small meat thermometers? Good, use it to check the liquid temperature. If you have a digital thermometer, even better.

Making Rugbrød dough

Making Rugbrød dough

Now you need a warm spot to allow the dough to rise and in the summertime that may not be a problem, but your house may not be very warm during the winter. To solve this problem I usually use my oven. It’s a small enclosed space and if you turn on the oven to 200 degrees for 30 seconds and then shut the heat off, it will be enough heat to turn the oven into a little warm space for the dough. But remember I said seconds, not minutes, and make sure you turn the oven OFF.

Dough rising in bowl x 2 hours. Dough rising in bread pans x 30 plus minutes.

Dough rising in bowl x 2 hours. Dough rising in bread pans x 30 plus minutes.

As for the outcome of this bread, I was really pleased with it. The bread turned out moist and super delicious, yet you have the wonderful chew of the seeds. A great bread without the hassle of making and maintaining a Sourdough starter. What’s not to like.

Rugbrød Uden Surdej – Rye Bread Without Sourdough (makes 2 loafs)

Ingredients:

250 g cracked rye (8.8 oz)

750 g dark rye flour (26.5 oz)

325 g whole wheat flour (11.5 oz)

7 dl warm water (23.7 fluid oz)

7 g active dry yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)

2 dl buttermilk (6.7 fluid oz)

2 tablespoon dark syrup

1 1/2 tablespoon sea salt

50 g sunflower seeds (1.8 oz)

50 g flax seeds (1.8 oz)

50 g sesame seeds (1.8 oz)

Directions:

Spray two bread pans with baking spray, set aside. I used a Danish size 13 x 4 x 4 inch (33 x 10 x 10 cm) and an American size 9 x 6 x 3 inch (22 x 15 x 7 cm).

Place cracked rye into a bowl and pour some boiling water over, enough to cover. Let sit for 25 minutes, then pour into a sieve and allow to drain for 5-10 minutes.

Take a small amount of the 7 dl warm water, maybe 2 dl or so (6 fluid oz), place into a small dish and make sure the temperature is between 100-110 degrees F (37-43 degrees C). Sprinkle active dry yeast over water, give a quick little stir and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes.

To a large mixing bowl, add remaining warm water, yeast/water mixture, buttermilk, dark syrup and sea salt. Using the dough hook start mixing on medium-low speed. Add sunflower, flax and sesame seeds. Add drained cracked rye. Then add whole wheat flour and dark rye flour in 1/3 increments, scraping down sides as you go along. Once flour is fully incorporated, increase mixer speed to medium-high and mix for 6 minutes.

Scrape down sides of bowl, cover with a clean, dry tea towel and place in a warm location to rise for 2 hours. Divide the dough equally between the two prepared bread pans (approx 3/4 full). Place back into warm location, cover with  tea towel and allow to rise to the rim of the bread pan, approx 30-50 minutes. Before baking, pierce the dough with a thin skewer 15-20 times. Brush top of dough with an oil/water mixture and bake in a 400 degrees F preheated oven for 1 hour 15 minutes. If your bread begins to brown too fast, place a loose piece of foil over pan and finish baking. After baking allow bread to cool to a slightly warm temperature. Place bread inside a plastic bag. The condensation inside the bag will help soften the 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!

Source: adapted from Klappeklappekage

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Rugbrød - Dark Rye Bread

Rugbrød – Dark Rye Bread

Rugbrød is a staple in, dare I say, all Danish households and it is the foundation for most pieces of Smørrebrød (open-faced sandwiches) whether it be the elaborate pieces bought in restaurants or the common pieces found in the daily Danish lunch box. What makes Rugbrød super healthy is that it is very low in fat, has no oils, no sugars and it is typically loaded with whole grain and fiber. That being said, there are many different versions of Rugbrød, some packed with seeds and grains, others with only the basics.

Sour Dough Starter

Sour Dough Starter

Speaking as a Dane living in the US, the lack of Rugbrød can be a source of frustration and so you have to adapt. Either you go without, or perhaps you are lucky to live close to a place where they sell a dried-out version of Rugbrød or you bake it yourself. And let me tell you that baking it yourself is worth every bit of effort you put into it, I promise! Baking Rugbrød is not difficult at all but it takes planning. It’s sometimes difficult to gather all the special ingredients required and hopefully you have the special size bread pan that everyone in Denmark possess. If not, it can be purchased on Amazon. And for all the special ingredients I use Bob’s Red Mill products because they carry everything I need. Sometimes I’ll get lucky and find some of the ingrediens at the local supermarket but I usually have to buy the rest online (once again, thank you amazon).

Making Rugbrød

Making Rugbrød

I would like to note that Danish Rugbrød is different than the German Pumpernickel bread and the two words are often a source of confusion when translating the name  into English as Dark Rye bread. Pumpernickel  is darker in color, stronger in flavor and it is steamed for a long period of time to allow the ingredients to caramelize.

Poke holes into dough to allow steam to escape.Brush with water/oil mixture. Baked Rugbrød. Place warm bread in plastic bags to soften crust.

Poke holes into dough to allow steam to escape.
Brush with water/oil mixture. Baked Rugbrød. Place warm bread in plastic bags to soften crust.

How do you maintain your sourdough starter? If you talk to ten different people you’ll likely get ten different answers. This is how I do it. To continue feeding your sourdough starter add 3 oz (1 1/2 deciliter) Dark Rye flour and 5 oz (1 1/2 deciliter) water to remaining sour dough starter, mix and allow to bubble up before storing in refrigerator. Continue to feed starter once a week while in fridge. As a general rule keep it cold when the sourdough starter is resting and at room temperature when it’s getting ready to be used for baking. Remove starter from refrigerator 24 hours before baking your bread and feed it twice (every 8 hours) at room temperature before using.

Feed your Sour Dough Starter. Keep at room temperature until it bubbles up and then refrigerate.

Feed your Sour Dough Starter. Keep at room temperature until it bubbles up and then refrigerate.

Rye Sour Dough Starter

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

10 fl oz water (3 deciliter)

6.2 oz Dark Rye flour (3 deciliter or 175 gram)

Directions:

Day 1: heat water to 100-110 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 oz 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 oz Dark Rye flour (275 gram)

11 oz Cracked Rye (Bob’s Red Mill) (5 deciliter or 315 gram)

10.5 oz Whole Wheat flour (300 gram)

2.8 oz Flaxseeds (1 deciliter or 80 gram)

23.7 liquid ounces cold water (7 deciliter)

1 tablespoon molasses

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!

Sliced Rugbrød

Sliced Rugbrød

This recipe has been submitted to YeastSpotting.

Source: adapted from Camilla Plum

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Ymerdrys

Ymer is a Danish milk product that was developed in the 1930’s. It’s similar to yogurt and buttermilk and it’s often served as a breakfast, snack or dessert. Unfortunately Ymer cannot be purchased in the US but I find that Greek Yogurt is a great substitute.

Rugbrød (Rye Bread)

Ymerdrys is a topping that is sprinkled on top of the Ymer. It is made from Danish Rugbrød (Rye Bread) and the tart and sweet taste of the bread is a perfect compliment to the slightly sour Ymer. Many years ago I purchased Ymerdrys online but I was very disappointing because it was much too sweet. Then recently I came across homemade Ymerdrys, but could it be as good as what I remember from home? Yes it can! And it is very quick and easy to make 🙂

Rugbrød (Rye Bread) crumbs

Ymerdrys is definitely one of those foods that I’ll be making on a regular basis. It’s a great source of fiber, a delicious addition to your Ymer or Yogurt and a great way to use up leftover Rugbrød. Now, Ymerdrys from back home did not have freeze dried berries in it, so that is completely optional, but I just wanted a little extra color in it and I had a bag of freeze dried raspberries sitting around waiting to be used up, besides it turned out über good. Also, when you choose your Rugbrød I would recommend choosing one that has some seeds into, it gives a little extra crunch after it’s baked.

Ymerdrys with dried raspberries

Ingredients:

200 gram Rugbrød (7 1/2 oz Dark Rye Bread)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 to 1/2 cup freeze dried raspberries, optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C)

Break Rye Bread into large chunks and place in a food processor. Add brown sugar. Pulse until desired consistency. Place bread onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in oven for 10-15 minutes. Watch it closely the last 5 minutes to make sure it doesn’t burn. Allow to cool on baking sheet. Place freeze dried berries into a small plastic bag and crush into small chunks. Add berries to Rye Bread and mix. Enjoy sprinkled over top of your Ymer or Greek Yogurt!

Rugbrød

Source: adapted from Miras Madblog

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Leverpostej

Leverpostej

Making Danish Liver Pate probably got me more excited than any other recipe I have had the pleasure to blog about. You absolutely must experience a warm, home-made Liver Pate. Fresh out of the oven, served with fried mushrooms and bacon or topped with some wonderful pickled beets. This is actually the first time I have made it myself. I have been wanting to make it for the past 25 years but somehow the thought of making it by myself was always overwhelming. And  now that I have finally made my first-ever home-made Liver Pate, I can’t quite figure out what the fuzz was all about.

Leverpostej – Danish Liver Pate

Liver Pate is everywhere in Denmark. It can be found, dare I say, in all self-respecting grocery stores. It is a way of life, as natural as the air we breath. The store-bought Liver Pate is very good but there is something to be said about a home-made Liver Pate and I think it is definitely worth the effort! The Pate can be served cold or warm on an open-faced sandwich often topped with either pickled beets, crispy fried onions, mushrooms, cucumbers or Danish Sky which is basically a beef jello. It can be made plainly with just one topping or it can be quite an elaborate Smørrebrød creation.

Liver Pate is not the most pleasant food to prepare, truth be told, it’s really kinda gross. BUT, the end result is making me feel like I’m in heaven. Let me just say that there are hundreds of different ways you can make Liver Pate. I’ve heard of adding potatoes, apples, anchovies, Bechamel sauce – or not, a lot of spices – or not, high-fat – low-fat, animal fat (called Spæk in Danish) vs just margarine, so there are many, many variations out there. This recipe is the one my Mother and Father uses and I think it’s simply just wonderful. Thanks Mom and Dad for helping me make my first ever Liver Pate! 🙂

My Mom and Dad, Åse and Ove

Please note that when you go to look for the fat (spæk) used in this recipe, it’s not something you’ll typically find sitting in the freezer section at your grocery store. Simply just ask the butcher in the meat department if they can give you a couple of chunks of fat. Often times, they wont even charge you for it 🙂

Ingredients:

For the Bechamel Sauce:

1 deciliter milk (3.4 oz)

4 deciliter water (13.5 oz)

1 extra-large vegetable bouillon cube (10 grams, 3/8 oz)

50 grams margarine (1 3/4 oz)

4-5 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/4 teaspoon pepper, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

For the Liver mixture:

500 grams Liver ( 1 lb)

80 grams fat (2 7/8 oz)

65 grams smoked bacon (2 1/2 oz)

50 grams onion (2 oz)

3 whole large eggs

Directions:

To make Bechamel sauce: In a saucepan add water and milk. Break-up vegetable bouillon cube into liquid and bring up to warm temperature, turn heat off. In a pan, melt margarine. Add flour and whisk until smooth, continue to cook for 2-3 minutes. Add warm milk/water in 1 cup increments while whisking. Mixture should be like a thick gravy. Add salt, pepper, allspice and nutmeg to taste. If you get lumps in this gravy simply just run it through a sieve. Pour gravy into a covered Tupperware container and allow to cool in refrigerator.

Cut Liver, fat, bacon and onion into 1 inch pieces. Starting with the fat, bacon and onion, either run them through a meat grinder twice or process in a food processor until you have a slightly lumpy mixture. Liver should only go through meat grinder once or add Liver to food processor and blend until pretty smooth. Mix together Liver and fat mixture. Add the 3 whole eggs and cooled Bechamel sauce, stir to combine. Pour into small aluminum forms (I got 4 small forms full) and if freezing cover top tightly with aluminum foil and store in freezer safe bags. When ready to cook Liver Pate, fill an oven-proof dish with warm water 1/2 way up the side of aluminum form. Bake uncovered in oven at 200 degree C (390 degrees F) for 1 hour 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Source: my parents Ove and Åse Frandsen

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Øllebrød med Æggesnaps

Øllebrød, an almost forgotten old Danish dish? I have not had Øllebrød since I was a child and it’s a dish that I remember being served on a cold winter morning and a dish that I absolutely love. I think we may also have had it for dinner on rare occasions. It’s a dish that is great for using up the leftover end-pieces of Rye bread, but of course it doesn’t have to be leftover bread. It is high in fiber, low in fat and it has a slightly tart taste. It’s a solid meal which leaves you with a sensation of fullness and you often see it feed to babies. Ideally you want to use Rye bread without kernels but all I could find was Whole Rye bread, so in that case you simply just press the Rye Porridge (Øllebrød) through a sieve to remove the kernels. As for the topping used with this dish, it can range from milk, cream, whipped cream (flødeskum) to creamed egg topping (æggesnaps). My mother either served it with æggesnaps or milk.

Øllebrød and Æggesnaps

Now for the æggesnaps you are supposed to use pasteurized egg yolks, however, the stores around here only sell pasteurized egg whites and egg beaters. You CAN make æggesnaps with egg beaters BUT I feel weird about it because there are egg whites in egg beaters. I tried it out and the taste is different from a real egg yolk, more perfumed if that makes any sense. Why don’t they sell pasteurized egg yolks? If anyone out there has more information on pasteurized egg yolks, please let me know. Anyway, I decided to live dangerously for this one and I used a real egg yolk. I know, you’re not suppose to do that….but I did and it was fabulous. Do as I say, not as I do 🙂

Ingredients:

Øllebrød (Rye Porridge):

4 slices Rye bread, broken into pieces

cold water to cover

2 tbsp sugar

Æggesnaps (Creamed Egg):

1 egg yolk (pasteurized)

2 tbsp sugar

Directions:

To make Rye Porridge:

Break Rye bread into pieces, place in a bowl and add cold water just until covered. Cover with plastic wrap and let soak in refrigerator anywhere from 1 hour till overnight.

Pour rye bread and water into a cooking pot, simmer, stirring occasionally, until it starts to thicken. Remove from pot and place in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Note: if you’re using Whole Rye bread you’ll need to strain it through a sieve to remove the kernels that don’t break down. Place back into pot and keep warm until ready to serve. If the porridge gets too thick, simply just add a small amount of water.

To make Creamed Egg topping:

Whip together egg yolk (pasteurized) and sugar until it’s thick and pale yellow (1-2 minutes). Serve Egg topping on top of warm Porridge. Enjoy.

Source: My mother Åse

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