Ättika

In Sweden we have something we call ättika. This is like a really strong vinegar that has a distinctive sour taste and pungent smell and is commonly used for pickling and baking. Unfortunately you cant just replace ättika with vinegar when it is required in cooking, I have tried, the result was not what I desired. As a swede living in NZ it is sometimes hard to even know what to look for as you don't always know how to translate things, but after doing some research I have found that what I'm looking for is called glacial acetic acid. So for all you swedes living abroad, glacial acetic acid is ättika and it is usually found at the chemist. Important to remember though is that the ättika we cook with in Sweden is usually 12% (ättiksprit) or 24% (pure ättika), the glacial acetic acid is 100% so it need to be diluted in water. I have now tried to pickle herring, made "mint kisses" and finally yesterday marinated some fresh cucumber for our roast pork. All of the above worked a treat and the "right" taste was achieved. 

Mission completed

My bread finally done and it does taste delicious. We enjoyed with a hearty seafood soup, not quite the traditional swedish way, but still great.

I used the recipe on the back of the spice-mix bag with some small modifications:

1 large or 2 small loafs

25 g butter

100 ml golden syrup

1 (330ml) dark beer

1 bag Santa Maria Vörtmix

500 ml rye flour

500 ml plain flour

1 tbls dry yeast

50 ml raisins 

Melt butter and mix in syrup, beer and spice mix, heat to approx. 45 C.

As I mentioned in previous post, I used a bread-maker to make the dough as I find it just doesn't rise otherwise.

Pour the liquid in bread-maker, add flours, yeast and rasins. Turn bread-maker to the dough making mode and start. I found I had to add some flour as it was mixing to get the right consistency on the dough. 

Once the dough is ready, take it out and knead, add some more flour if needed. Make one loaf or cut dough in half to make 2 smaller loafs. Place on baking tray and place in a warm spot to rise, approx. 30-40min. Turn oven on to 175 C, I used fan bake. 

Bake for 30-40 min. Brush with black coffee a few times during baking.

Vörtbröd-Swedish Beer Bread

Might not look so good right now, but it smells delicious.

Today my kitchen smells delicious, I'm attempting to make Vörtbröd.  For those of you that are not Swedish, Vörtbröd is a traditional dark rye bread that we eat mostly around Christmas in Sweden, it is commonly dipped in the broth you are left with once the ham has been boiled and and consists of beer and a special spice mix made out of malt extract, cloves, bitter orange peel, anise, fennel and cardamom.

I came across this "Vörtbröd Mix" in a scandinavian online shop and thought I'd give it a go. Of course you can make the spice mix yourself, but this just seamed a lot easier.

Not far away

Fresh yeast is not available to buy here in NZ (as far as I know anyway) so I have put the ingredients in the bread-maker on the dough making mode (I hate the hole you get in the bread if you complete the loaf in the machine).

Now I'm just waiting for the dough to rise before I can bake the loaf, looking forward to see how it turns out.