FIRST PASTE:
3 slices famous Laitinen sour rye bread (or some frozen first paste
you saved last time)
4 cups water
Good 4 cups rye flour
SECOND PASTE:
3 tsp dry yeast
Half a cup of water
1 tbsp salt
About 6 cups rye flour (could take more!)
Remove the hard surface of bread slices and let
them soak for a while in lukewarm water (about 25C/80F). (Or just add your
previous first paste instead.) Add the rye flour, whisking lightly. Let
the first paste turn sour for at least 24 hours in warm room temperature,
stirring a couple of times. When ready, the first paste (or root paste) bubbles
or even foams and has a sour odour and taste. To enliven the root paste,
add a cup of rye flour a couple of hours before completing the second paste.
Before completing the second paste, you can refrigerate about quarter
cup of the root paste for the next paste, and repeat this procedure each
time. That way you will eventually have a seasoned root paste, which will
add to the aroma of your bread... Experts, such as Heli, educate it takes
at least three rounds to get the required sourness of a real Finnish taste.
For the actual paste, or second paste, dissolve the yeast in water and
add to root paste, along with salt. Add rye flour slowly and gradually,
blending with hands, until the paste becomes firmer. Cover the paste and let
the yeast widen it in a warm place to about 1.5 times the original size.
Prepare four round loafs of the paste, with a diameter
of about 6 - 8 inches each. Let the loafs widen again for half an hour,
covered and in a warm place. Right before baking, stab each loaf with a
fork for about a dozen times, as in the picture. Bake for 45 - 60 minutes
in 200C/400F. A baked bread sounds hollow when knocking its bottom. After
removing from the oven, cover and let chill.
And to enjoy a real Finnish treat, cut thin slices and enjoy with butter.
The Finnish rye bread is so healthy that you really shouldn't care about
the nutrition facts of a little butter!!
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