Coming Through the Rye

[BakerAunt]

Crispbread is great with cheese, with meats, with soups, or just as a snack. I have kept a batch around for about 2 weeks, but only if I have cheese crackers to divert my husband, who is a born snacker. It makes a great trip food also, not that any of us will be doing any traveling for a while.

I'll have to think about how I could substitute oil in the Ginsberg recipe for at least part of the butter. I have rye chops (from King Arthur) that I bought for a bread recipe, so it would be great if I could also use them in crispbread.

I try to stay below 11g of saturated fat per day, so there is not a lot of room, particularly since I want to get 75% of my calcium from dairy food. I loved Beatrice Ojakangas' crispbread, but it was close to 2g of saturated fat per piece, and they were only part wholegrain because I made them so.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by BakerAunt.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The crispbreads look good. Never thought about the straight edge. That's great. I've used square biscuit cutters and I've used a pizza cutter or knife against a yardstick.

Is there a technical difference between a crispbread and a cracker or just two names for the same thing?

[Mike Nolan]

I'm terrible at drawing or cutting straight lines, which is why I've started using the straightedge for cutting or scoring dough rather than a pizza or dough cutter. For things like a laminated dough, you can't just put the trim into the middle and roll it back in, though. So I take the scraps from a laminated dough, put them in a pan with lots of butter and brown sugar and bake them. The butter and brown sugar turn into a lovely butterscotch sauce. These always disappear quickly.

I think crispbreads are essentially just a type of cracker, but I'm not sure whether that's based on the ingredients used, a regional or ethic distinction or a size-based one, they do seem to be on the thick side and often use a lot of whole grains. Of course what we call a 'cookie' the English would usually call a 'biscuit'.

[BakerAunt]

I looked up Aaron's question in Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break, by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall. It actually does not have a crispbread recipe. Here is what is said in the headnote to Knackekex (think of the two dots over the "a."

"Knackebrod [Crispbread--double dots over the a and the o] is right up there with meatballs and herring in terms of iconic Swedish food. The crispbread that is served with almost every meal is a staple in most Swedish households. Baking traditional Knackebrod is an involved process, and it's so readily available in Sweden that few people venture to make it themselves. This crecker version, however, is a simpler way to try your hand at making this culinary cornerstone. If your don't have caraway seeds on hand, rosemary, crushed fennel, or anise seeds are also excellent toppings. These crackers are delicious served with little chevre and Fig preserves or a typical Swedish smorgas with sliced cucumber" (p. 152)

The only differences I see, based on the three crispbread recipes I have tried, is that the cracker recipe does not include any fat, and it does not have a second rise. It also has a six hour or overnight rise before the dough is rolled out.

It's an interesting recipe that would work for my dietary parameters. I need to try it. I had given up on this book, as almost every recipe is heavy on butter. So, Aaron's question has given me a new recipe to try!

[aaronatthedoublef]

Always glad to help BA!

[Mike Nolan]

I've been neglecting my rye starter a bit, and it got even with me today by going moldy. So I threw it out and I'll start a new one. But that means I won't be making any recipes from Ginsberg that use a starter for the next week or two. I think there are still a number of recipes that use commercial yeast that I haven't tried yet, though.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm slowing down the rate at which I'm making the Ginsberg rye recipes, mainly to make sure I don't run myself out of flours before the shortages subside, since so many types of flour are unavailable right now. Whether I can complete all 78 recipes by the end of 2021 or even 2022 remains to be seen.

[skeptic7]

I read about Crispbreads on Wikipedia. I didn't realize that they had so much history behind them. They seem to be the land based equivalent of hard tack.

BakerAunt, could you get your husband to rig up a pole so you can hang them in your living room?

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--I don't make the round circles with the holes in the center--too much work for no real reason these days. I also have a fair amount of plastic containers, although lids on the Tupperware seem to be cracking and breaking. I particularly like crispbread for trips, but is great to have as a munchie just sitting at home. My husband is consuming the Barley Crispbread (actually has more rye flour in it) a bit fast, but due to its density and size, it slows him down a bit.

I'm going to try a more oil-based version (possibly keeping a bit of the butter) of Ginsberg's rye crispbread at some point. We'll see how well the KAF Rye Chops do in it.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
I was making a point of buying Tupperware at thrift stores in the early Spring. These were handy for Hot Cross Bun deliveries, although I had to put a number of the Ziploc semi reusable boxes for that purpose too. The lids tend to crack with age or with cold or with exposure to too much sunlight. I needed boxes with enough depth to accomodate the Hot Cross buns and frosting. I used to give out the buns unfrosted and then I found some of my friends couldn't/wouldn't make appropriate crosses.

The pictures of bread hanging from rafters looked so interesting. I guess dust and mice would have been a problem. Can you recommend an easy recipe? Is there a whole wheat version?

[Mike Nolan]

The rye crispbreads I made are a lot like hardtack. I read somewhere once that a lot of hardtack was made from rye flour rather than wheat flour because rye flour was, at least historically speaking, cheaper.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike and everyone else - a local bakery is selling ingredients online. Does anyone want me to see what they have and how much it costs?

I will ship it to you at cost. 50 lb bags of flour would be prohibitively expensive to ship but I might be able to send smaller amounts and yeast would probably be okay. They used to use KAF flours and SAF Red instant yeast. I do not know what they use now.

[Mike Nolan]

I think I"m good for now, I've still got a pound of Fleischmann's IDY unopened, though the package in the freezer is getting low, and I've got most of a pound of SAF Gold in the freezer, too. I just got a 10 pound bag of Wheat Montana AP unbleached at WalMart. I bought 15 pounds of medium rye in early February, and am less than a third of the way through the first bag. The flour section at WalMart didn't have any KAF flour, though. They had quite a bit of TP, just not ones we'd normally use. Hy-Vee's flour shelves were still pretty bare.

I'm seeing a lot of out-of-stock things, like the soft margarine we like. I hear the latest shortages are hair coloring products, since all the hair salons are closed.

I bought about 6 pounds of semolina at the coop last month, before everyone started shutting down bulk food bins. Unless we get on a pasta kick, that'll last me 2 months or longer.

We've been in a winter storm warning since late last night, but no snow yet. If we're going to get any, it may start before noon.

[Italiancook]

Thanks, Aaron, but I think I'm okay, too. I had a supply of bread flour, so when I couldn't find AP at the stores, I checked KAF blogs and found I could successfully sub bread flour for AP in bread. I've been doing that and conserving my KAF AP. I haven't tried bread flour in sweet goodies, and the blog didn't test those, as I recall. Does anyone know if I can successfully use bread flour in place of AP in things like cookies and cakes? I bought SAF Gold yeast from KAF when they still had it. So I have both red and gold yeast -- enough to last me a while in the freezer. I'm thinking that when the economy opens up again, many of the new bakers will quit baking and supply chains will return to normal. Of course, how long it takes for the economies of all States to return to normal remains to be seen! My guess is that some of the new bakers will continue baking, but I doubt all will.

[BakerAunt]

I am tempted by Aaron's offer if I could get some whole wheat flour. That's the one I'm particularly concerned about, as I use a lot of whole wheat. I still have a 5 lb. bag, and about 4 cups of the previous bag. I thought about that when I baked that pumpkin rye bread, as it used a fair amount of whole wheat flour, but I don't regret baking that bread. I am trying to bake more breads that draw from my other flours. I could also sub in some white whole wheat to stretch it out. I wish I knew when Bob's Red Mill and/or King Arthur would be ready to ship again, and if I'd be allowed to order enough to get the free shipping.

Italiancook makes a good point in that we don't know for how long we need to plan. My husband does not eat eggs that are not in some other food. I like the occasional single egg omelet, but I'm saving my eggs for baking, and hoping that the local grocery will be able to score another load of "restaurant" eggs.

If you have flax meal, Italian Cook, you could use 1 Tbs. flax meal mixed with 3 Tbs. water in place of one of the eggs. That way you would just need to use two.

Italiancook, the protein in bread flour will make your cakes tough. I find KAF AP even a bit too high for my cakes and always used Gold Medal or Pillsbury AP, which are lower in protein. That is likely the case for cookies as well, although KAF does have a vanilla cookie where the recipe specifies bread flour.

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