Country Bread

Ingredients:

Day 1

25 g fresh yeast

3 dl rye flour (rågsikt - a mix of rye and white flour)

3 dl water

Day 3

7dl water

1/2 dl oil

1 tbl. sp. salt

2.5 liter (about 1.4kg) rye flour

Day 1

Crumble the fresh yeast in a bowl. Mix it with luke warm water (37 C). Mix in the flour. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let stand at room temperature for about 48 hours (less is fine). After 24 hours add another 1/2 dl of flour.

Day 3

Mix the first dough with lukewarm water, oil, salt, and flour. Kneed the dough into a smooth dough, first in the bowl and then on a table with flour on it. Let rise under a kitchen towel for one hour. Gently kneed the dough on a table with flour. 

Make two big round loaves. Put the dough on an oven tray covered with oil or baking paper. Let rise again for 30 mins. under a kitchen towel. Make some cuts in the bread with a sharp knife. 

Let the bread bake in the oven for 45 mins. (Set the oven for 250 C. When you put the bread in the oven lower the temperature to 200 C). 

Let the bread cool on a metal rack under a kitchen towel. 

(source: Lindgren, Barbro & Andrews, Birgitta (ed.), Vår kokbok, Raben Prisma, Finland, 1994)

 My dad and I baking bread when I was a kid