Rye bread layer dessert

Ingredients

• Dark rye bread — stale, crumbed400 g
• Double cream500 ml
• Cranberry jam300 g
• Sugar100 g
• Cinnamon1 tsp
• Vanilla sugar1 tsp
• Cranberries — to serve60 g

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

   Crumb the stale bread in a blender or by hand to a coarse crumb.

   8 min

2. 2

   Mix the crumbs with the sugar and cinnamon and dry them in the oven at 160 °C for twelve minutes, stirring twice.

   15 min

3. 3

   Cool the crumbs completely. On warm crumbs the cream collapses and the layers merge.

   20 min

4. 4

   Whip the cold cream with the vanilla sugar to firm peaks.

   6 min

5. 5

   Layer into glasses: crumbs, jam, cream, and repeat. Finish with cream.

   10 min

6. 6

   Chill for at least four hours, ideally overnight. Serve with cranberries on top.

   10 min

About the dish

The bread works as sponge would: dark rye crumbs are dried in the oven with sugar and cinnamon until they turn crisp and faintly sweet.

Once assembled the dessert must sit in the cold for at least four hours. The crumb takes moisture from the cream and softens exactly enough for a spoon to go through.

Latvian rye is dense and sweet-sour, made with malt. Borodinsky gets close; a plain rye loaf comes out noticeably drier.

Worth knowing

• — The jam has to be sharp. A sweet one makes the whole thing cloying, because the crumb is sugared too.
• — Assemble it in clear glasses: the layers are the only decoration this dessert has.
• — If the crumb has gone damp in storage, dry it again for five minutes before assembling.

Nutrition

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

Calories

470 kcal

Protein

6 g

Fat

26 g

Carbs

54 g

More from Latvia

• Grey peas with speck — Grey peas cooked soft with onion and rendered smoked pork. Latvian winter and Christmas food.