Knäckebröd with caraway and Nordic goat cheese
Whole rye flatbread, dry and crispy, with a hole in the center so it could once be threaded onto a pole under the ceiling. You break it and spread it with butter and a firm Swedish cheese.
Whole rye flatbread, dry and crispy, with a hole in the center so it could once be threaded onto a pole under the ceiling. You break it and spread it with butter and a firm Swedish cheese.
See this bread: it is poor in appearance, and that is precisely its virtue. In the North, we bake it in large rounds that we hang from a rod under the roof, where they wait out the winter without spoiling. I have learned to ask only for a piece, some butter, a slice of cheese — the soul, you see, is better nourished when the body is content with little. Break it without ceremony, and listen to it sing under your teeth.
- •Whole rye flour (rågmjöl) — as needed (base grain)
- •Cold water — as needed (binder)
- •Caraway seeds (kummin) — a generous pinch (Nordic flavor)
- •Salt — a little (seasoning)
- •Butter and firm farm cheese — for serving (topping)
Knäckebröd with caraway and Nordic goat cheese
Whole rye flatbread, dry and crispy, with a hole in the center so it could once be threaded onto a pole under the ceiling. You break it and spread it with butter and a firm Swedish cheese.
Why this dish? Rye crispbread is the quintessential everyday food of af Klint's Sweden, and its whole-grain frugality matched the anthroposophic ideal of sobriety she adopted after encountering Steiner's thought. In her studio on Hamngatan as well as her cottage on Munsö, this bread that keeps for months was the natural companion to a life turned toward the spirit rather than the table.
See this bread: it is poor in appearance, and that is precisely its virtue. In the North, we bake it in large rounds that we hang from a rod under the roof, where they wait out the winter without spoiling. I have learned to ask only for a piece, some butter, a slice of cheese — the soul, you see, is better nourished when the body is content with little. Break it without ceremony, and listen to it sing under your teeth.
Ingredients (period version)
- Whole rye flour (rågmjöl) — as needed (base grain)
- Cold water — as needed (binder)
- Caraway seeds (kummin) — a generous pinch (Nordic flavor)
- Salt — a little (seasoning)
- Butter and firm farm cheese — for serving (topping)
Ingredients
- Whole rye flour — 300 g (base grain)
- Warm water — 200 ml (binder)
- Baker's yeast — 1 tsp (light leavening)
- Caraway seeds — 1 tsp (Nordic flavor)
- Salt — 1 tsp (seasoning)
- Butter + goat cheese or Västerbotten — for serving (topping)
Method
- Mix rye, yeast, caraway, and salt, then add warm water to form a firm dough. Let rest 30 minutes.
- Roll out very thinly into large rounds (2-3 mm) on parchment paper, prick all over with a fork, and cut a hole in the center.
- Bake at 220°C for 8 to 12 minutes, until the rounds are dry and golden.
- Let cool and harden completely. Serve spread with butter and a firm cheese.
How it was made : Knäckebröd was baked twice a year, after the harvest, in huge batches that were stored for months threaded on poles under the ceiling — hence the central hole. It was the keeping bread of Swedish farms, eaten all year round.
The contemporary twist : Break it into irregular shards and stand them upright in a glass, like little abstract canvases — a nod to the large rolls of jute canvas in the studio.
Hilma af Klint · Charactorium