POSTCARD.
CATCHER IN THE RYE
In a tiny bakery in the heart of Sweden, travel writer Caroline Hamilton unearths the secrets to real Nordic bread, and nabs a winning recipe to use up the leftovers.
“FROM THE TINY GREEN RABBIT BAKERY, FERNLUND MAKES TRADITIONAL SOURDOUGHS, DARK RYE LOAVES, SWEET BREADS STUDDED WITH PLUMS AND ALMONDS, AND EVEN CRISP BREAD.”
dough – it’s taken me some time to establish a good working relationship,” she jokes as she shapes her loaves. “Like all good things, rye needs time,” Fernlund says. “If wheat is the sprinter, rye is the marathon runner!” There’s very little gluten in rye, and it’s a different kind to that in wheat, so it doesn’t respond in the same way. This means that the same techniques that work for wheat don’t always work for rye. Rye breads, for example, need about 12-14 hours to prove. That can mean it’s more complex to work with, but also more rewarding. “It has a flavour that makes excess salt and sugar unnecessary, it’s low-GI, and unlike wheaten breads, rye bread actually tastes better after a few days!” And when a few days becomes a week, Fernlund has a solution – a classic Swedish “recycle recipe” as she puts it – bread cake that transforms an old rye loaf into a rustic apple cake. Perfect for a Swedish fika (coffee break) with a difference.
APPLE & CARDAMOM RYE CAKE SERVES 8
150g unsalted butter 4 eggwhites 150g pure icing sugar, plus extra to serve 60g almond meal 70g self-raising flour, sifted 3 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 2 pink lady apples, peeled, grated 1/2 tsp ground cardamom 1 cup (85g) firmly packed rye breadcrumbs Double cream, to serve Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm springform cake pan with baking paper. Cook butter in a pan over medium heat for 5 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a heatproof bowl and cool slightly. Place the eggwhite and icing sugar in an electric mixer and whisk on medium speed for 5 minutes or until stiff peaks. Add almond meal, flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk on low speed until almost combined, then, with the motor running, slowly add the browned butter until completely combined. Remove bowl from mixer and gently fold in apples, cardamom and breadcrumbs. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes. Remove cake from pan, then place a wire rack over top of cake and dust with icing sugar to create lines. Serve cake with double cream.
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RECIPE TINA FERNLUND BAKERY PHOTOGRAPHY MARTIN RUNEBORG FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY JEREMY SIMONS STYLING KIRSTEN JENKINS
EVEN A VISITOR TO IKEA can recognise Swedish culinary classics such as kanelbulle (cinnamon rolls) or the open-faced smorgas sandwich, but beneath the pearl sugar and the smoked salmon there’s another ingredient that’s even more essential to Nordic food: rye flour. It’s only when I find myself in front of the sweltering ovens in a downtown Stockholm bakery at four in the morning with master baker Tina Fernlund, that I begin to appreciate how varied and underrated rye bread really is. A few minutes with Fernlund and I discover a range of Nordic breads, each with its own special qualities: Finnish ruis bread, Swedish limpa, German pumpernickel and Danish rugbrod. From her tiny Green Rabbit bakery in the Vasastan district of Stockholm, Fernlund is leading the charge for a return to old rye-baking traditions. Working exclusively with rye and heritage wheat sourced from two small local producers just outside the city, she makes traditional sourdoughs, dark rye loaves, sweet breads studded with plums and almonds, and even crisp bread. “Rye is an ancient food,” Fernlund says. “Although wheat long ago replaced rye as the industrial baker’s go-to grain, various people in Northern Europe have grown different varieties of rye for centuries, and each rye has its own special qualities.” Rye can produce breads that are dense and dark, or sweet and fruity, and each needs its own kind of treatment. “At the moment I’m working with a rye that results in a wetter
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29/03/2016 10:51 am