| Rye %: | 91% |
| Stages: | Sponge, Final dough |
| Leaven: | Rye sour culture, Instant yeast |
| Start to Finish: | 17-21 hours |
| Hands-on Time: | 30-40 minutes |
| Yield: | Two 1¼ lb/575 gram loaves + two 2¾ oz/50g rolls |
During the 2019 Rye Tour to Finland and Latvia, our guide in Helsinki, sourdough baker and author Eliisa Kuusela, arranged a visit – actually two (of which more in a bit) – to Leipomo Halme, a 120 year-old bakery in Espoo, about 30 minutes northwest of central Helsinki.
| Rye %: | 100% |
| Stages: | Straight dough |
| Leaven: | Instant yeast |
| Start to Finish: | 4 hours |
| Hands-on Time: | 20 minutes |
| Yield: | Two dozen 1¼ oz./35 g rusks |
Someone recently asked me if I had a good recipe for rye rusks and this one immediately came to mind. Rusks – that is, bread that’s purposely dried for long storage – are not common in the US: biscotti and zwieback perhaps come closest. In northern Europe especially, however, they’re far more common.
This recipe comes from the central Finnish region historically known as Tavastia (Hämä in Finnish), and was a bread traditionally baked and eaten at the talvennapa – a pagan feast that took place in mid-January to mark the end of the joulu (Christmas) observance and to welcome the sun, Pälvätär, back into the sky after the long, dark days of midwinter.
| Rye %: | 50% |
| Stages: | Straight dough |
| Leaven: | Instant yeast |
| Start to Finish: | 3½ hours |
| Hands-on Time: | 30 minutes |
| Yield: | Two 1½ lb/725 g loaves |
In terms of rye baking, it can be said that Finland is where East and West meet: The breads of eastern Finland are dense, dark and sour, much like the breads of their immediate neighbors, Russia and the Baltics. To the west, the breads have more in common with the sweet, fragrantly spiced mixed-grain breads of Sweden.
| Rye %: | 100% |
| Stages: | Sponge, Final dough |
| Leaven: | Rye sour culture, Yeast |
| Start to Finish: | 12-14 hours |
| Hands-on Time: | 25-30 minutes |
| Yield: | Two 2¼ lb./1.0 kg loaves |
Ruislimppu, which translates to “rye loaf,” is the traditional bread of eastern Finland, with a nutty-sour flavor profile that reflects the strong Russian influence on the region’s food culture. Unlike the sour ring ryes (hapanleipäa) of western Finland, which were baked only once or twice a year and stored over the winter on poles hung from the ceiling, the eastern Finns baked their rye bread regularly throughout the year.