[Sca-cooks] Finnish bread

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

Ok, here's the bread stuff.

Finnish black bread, from _The Great Scandinavian Baking Book_, by
Beatrice Ojakangas

3 packages active dry yeast
4 c warm water
7 to 9 c dark rye flour
2 tsp salt (optional, says the note)

Dissolve the yeast in the water and stir in two cups of the flour.
Sprinkle another cup of the flour over and cover tightly. Leave 24 hours
for the dough to ferment and sour. The next day, add 2 more cups of flour
and let sit another 24 hours. Then stir in the salt and the rest of the
flour (but no more than 9 cups, she says), and knead for a half-hour. She
suggests a heavy-duty mixer. The dough will be very sticky. Shape into a
ball and sprinkle with enough flour to make the top dry. Leave to rise for
1 1/2 hours. Divide dough into 2 parts and shape. You can make them into
shapes like slightly flattened Hershey's kisses, or you can make them into
rounds with holes in the middle--poke a hole with your finger and pull the
dough apart to make a 2" dia. hole. Dip your hands in water and smooth
the loaves. Brush with water and sprinkle generously with more rye
flour. Put loaves on a baking sheet greased and heavily floured with more
rye flour. Place in a warm place until the loaves have flattened, spread
apart, and have cracked surfaces.

Put a jelly roll pan on the bottom of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350.
Fill the pan with boiling water, and put the bread in to bake for an hour
or until firm. Then wrap in towels or waxed paper to soften.

According to her notes, the holes were used to store the loaves by
threading them on poles, at least in western Finland.

I have to at least try it, even though I don't think I have any Finnish
ancestry, because it just sounds nifty.

Margaret