Swedish soft flatbread
Soft bread flavored with fennel.
| Servings | 20 Portions |
| Tags | Bakery | Flour | Side Dishes | Swedish |
| Allergens | Milk, Wheat |
| Rest Time | 60 min |
| Cook Time | 60 min |
Flatbread is a traditional Swedish food bread that can be soft or hard. In the past, flatbread was based on barley or oatmeal, but rye and wheat are more common today. Flatbread is mainly associated with northern Swedish tradition. Some flatbreads contain potatoes, rising agents are yeast and hjorthornssalt (ammonium bicarbonate, bakers ammonia, E503). Hjorthornssalt is a raising agent commonly used in baking in Sweden. Hjorthornssalt is really three words joined together: hjort horns salt, which means deer horns salt. This is because originally it was made from deer antlers. A common misconception is that it is called cloudberry salt (Swedish: hjortron salt) - something that I myself thought it was called for far too long :)
There are a number of varieties of flatbread but common to most is that they are rolled, notched and baked at a high temperature for a short time. The fact that they are notched is what sets them apart from many other types of flatbread from around the world. Of course, I did not have a notched rolling pin (or "kruskavel") at home when I took some of the pictures for this recipe, but check back in at some point in the future and that will be fixed.
In Swedish food culture, flatbread is used for a number of things, but what I mainly think of are flatbread rolls (wraps) which is simply a soft flatbread rolled around a filling. Flatbread rolls filled with sausages, mashed potatoes and shrimp salad are served in a number of fast food restaurants around Sweden. This type of flatbread roll is believed to have been invented in the mid-1960s by Elov "Loffe" Bråtfors when he ran Loffes Grill in Stuvsta. Another common use of flatbread is for "renklämma" (reindeer clamp). Reindeer clamp is a classic sandwich or snack with flatbread, smoked reindeer meat (souvas), horseradish and butter, cream cheese or crème fraiche.
For a thorough review of the history of Swedish flatbread and also a number of recipes, I recommend https://www.tunnbrodsakademin.se/. This site contains all the information you would ever want to find out about flatbread. I especially like the page with all different types of flatbread (https://www.tunnbrodsakademin.se/vad-ar-tunnbrod/tunnbrodtyper/) is especially interesting because I had no idea that there was so much variety.
Ingredients
Directions
- Melt the butter, add the milk and heat to lukewarm (approx. 37°C).
- In a household assistant with a dough hook or similar - mix the butter/milk mix with dry yeast and sugar. Leave it for 10 minutes.
- Run the machine and mix in the rest of the ingredients (if you do not have hjorthornsalt, you can exclude it). Let the machine knead the dough until smooth and elastic (5-10 minutes).
- Cover the dough and leave to rise for an hour.
- On a floured workbench - divide the dough into 20 balls and roll them out. Feel free to use a "naggkavel" or prick the surface with a fork to avoid larger bubbles in the bread when baking.
- Bake in a dry frying pan, 2 minutes on each side. It is also possible to make these in the oven with the pizza stone - I used a maximum heat of 285 degrees and let the stone get really hot. If you choose to bake in the oven, the breads should be notched because otherwise there will be easy bubbles in the bread.
- It is possible to freeze the breads and pick them up half an hour before they are to be eaten.
Nutrition Facts*
| Total | Serving | 100 g | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | 6126.84 kcal | 306.34 kcal | 372 kcal |
| Carbohydrates | 724.02 g | 36.2 g | 43.96 g |
| Fat | 319.85 g | 15.99 g | 19.42 g |
| Protein | 97.17 g | 4.86 g | 5.90 g |
| Sugar | 73.13 g | 3.66 g | 4.44 g |
| Salt | 11.36 g | 0.57 g | 0.69 g |
* The nutritional information provided is approximated and calculated using the ingredients available in the database. Info will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
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Drygast
Foodie, amateur cook, software developer, dog owner and generic old guy.
