Ruisleipä

Ingredients

• Rye flour900 g
• Rye sourdough starter200 g
• Warm water700 ml
• Salt20 g
• Rye malt — optional30 g
• Caraway seeds — optional1 tbsp

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Mix the starter with half the water and half the flour and leave it overnight at room temperature.

   15 min

2. 2

   In the morning take two hundred grams of the sponge back into a jar; that is the starter for next time.

   6 min

3. 3

   Stir in the remaining flour, water, salt, malt and caraway with a wooden spoon until even.

   12 min

4. 4

   Cover it and let it rise three hours; the dough roughly doubles and cracks appear on the surface.

   185 min

5. 5

   Turn the dough into greased tins with wet hands, smoothing the top with a wet spoon.

   12 min

6. 6

   Let it prove an hour and prick the top in several places with a fork.

   65 min

7. 7

   Bake at 250 °C for fifteen minutes, then at 180 °C for forty-five more, and rest it a day before cutting.

   65 min

About the dish

The bread is made on a starter that Finnish families pass down through generations. Yeast gives a different loaf: without a long sour ferment rye flour never opens up.

The dough is stirred rather than kneaded — rye has almost no gluten, and the structure comes from acid rather than mechanical work. It stays sticky, and that is correct.

The finished loaf rests a full day before it is cut. Fresh, it is damp inside and squashes under the knife; over a day the starch stabilises and the crumb sets firm and slices cleanly.

Worth knowing

• — Keep wetting your hands and the spoon. Rye dough sticks to everything and cannot be handled dry.
• — The first loaf from a new starter comes out denser. A starter needs several cycles to gain strength, and that is normal.
• — Keep the bread wrapped in cloth rather than a bag. In plastic the crust goes damp, and ruisleipä is valued for a firm crust.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

240 kcal

Protein

7 g

Fat

2 g

Carbs

48 g

More from Finland

• Lohikeitto — Finnish salmon soup with potato and cream, a heap of dill and a knob of butter in the bowl.
• Karelian pies — A rye shell filled with rice porridge, brushed with butter out of the oven and served with egg butter.
• Poronkäristys — Shaved reindeer fried in butter and braised in beer, with mash and lingonberry.