Knäckebrot

A trip to IKEA, which happens very rarely these days, would invariably include the purchase of these crispbreads to enjoy with cheese.
I'm happy to have created a recipe that allows me to make and share these.
The kitchen has recently turned into a bit of a cheese factory; since I began making kefir, I now regulalry make both hard cheese and soft cheese, so having a supply of knäckebrot and my crackers click here for the recipe to hand makes me happy.


For this recipe you will need;
260gm of bread flour
70gm of rye flour
160 mixed seeds (I use a combination black and white sesame seeds and sunflower seeds)
Plus 2 teaspoons of caraway seeds
2 teaspoons of malt extract
14gm of salt
20gm of fresh yeast
About 200ml of whey or water.
Oat bran for rolling out.

Begin by rubbing the fresh yeast into the flours and seeds, add the remaining ingredients (apart from the oat bran) to form a soft dough.

Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
Portion the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll out into circles on a board liberally floured with oat bran. The circles need to be roughly 2 to 3 mm thick. I cut out a hole in the centre, partly because it makes cooling easier and I have a beautifully made Knäckebrot holder made by Dick George it's a real pleasure serving them on the oak holder. After rolling out the rounds, dock with either a docker or a fork to create lots of holes, this helps the escape of air during baking and avoids air bubbles in the finsihed crackers.
Leave the rounds for 15 minutes while the oven heats up to 200C.
Bake for 14 to 15 minutes. Cool and store in an airtight tin.

Notes:
Add the whey or water gradually, you may need slightly less than the full 200ml in order to make a soft but not sticky dough.
You can vary both the flours and the seeds, but the caraway for me give them what I think of as an authentic flavour.
The crispbreads don't really rise, but I found they are not the same if I omit the yeast.
The oat bran makes rolling the rounds out very much easier and they add to the crunch of the finished article.