Crackerbread

The trick with cracker bread is to use plenty of flour and roll it extremely thinly. You then need either to prick it thoroughly with a fork or use a poky Swedish rolling pin to make indentations in the dough. Insufficient indentation = dough puffs up in the oven. Cut a hole out of the middle with a cookie cutter and the place both the cracker bread (and the cracker bread hole) on to a baking tray that is covered with polenta. Spray with water, sprinkle with what ever you have on hand (we had sea salt, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, and sesame seeds) and bake in a very hot oven for 8-10 minutes until brown and crisp crisp.

Servings:

Ingredients

Knead for 10 minutes the night before you want to make the crackerbread:

500 g Whole milk
40 g Honey
25 g Fresh yeast Or 12 g dry yeast Or 6 g instant yeast
500 g Light rye flour
250 g Whole wheat flour
20 g Salt
5 g Bicarbonate of soda
10 g Ground anis I used ground fennel seeds

Instructions

Cover and let sit overnight.
In the morning, divide the dough into balls of 50 grams each and let them rest, covered for 10 minutes.
Then roll them into very thin circles on a well floured board. Prick well with a fork or roll with a Swedish rolling pin made to poke indentations in crackerbread.
Cut a hole in the centre with a cookie cutter.
Place on a baking tray that is covered with polenta. Spray with water and top with the seeds and/or salt of your choice.
Bake at 225 degrees C for 8-10 minutes. they should be completely crispy when they come out of the oven.
Cool on a wire rack. If they are not totally crispy, you can put them back in a warm oven and then turn the heat off.
Let them stay in there overnight and they will be crispy in the morning. String them up or store them in an airtight tin.
Eat with herring, boiled potatoes, sourcream and chives, beer, acquavit and plenty of rousing Swedish songs. Or just any time.