A fun way to turn Swedish Knäckebröd into festive crackers.
By Johanna Kindvall
After being tired of not finding great Knäckebröd(Scandinavian Crisp Bread) in the stores around my neighborhood in East Village, I started to make my own. Traditionally they are made as round wafers with a hole in the middle so you can store them hanging on a stick in the roof. They are often made with rye flour and rolled out with a special rolling pin with knobs. However I usually don’t use this tool and I like my home made knäckebröd as small crackers flavored with either or a combination of some: caraway seeds, fennel seeds, sesame or rosemary. My recipe is based on Alice Brax knäckebröd recipe. 
Knäckebröd Crackers
- Total Time: 3 hours
Description
A way to turn Knäckebröd into festive crackers
Ingredients
- first
- 25 grams fresh yeast
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 200 ml (almost 1 cup) yogurt
- 400 ml (1 2/3 cup) water
- 600 ml (2 ½ cup) rye flour
- about 600 ml (2 ½ cup) regular flour
- and later
- 100–200 ml ( ½ – 1 cup) regular flour for rolling the breads
- caraway seeds, toasted and crushed
- fennel seeds, toasted and crushed
- sesame seeds, toasted
- dried Rosemary, crushed
- flaky sea salt
- some olive oil to grease the baking tin
Instructions
- Warm the yogurt with the water to 37°C (100°F). Dissolve the yeast in some of the warm yogurt mixture. Add the rest of the liquid and blend in honey and rye flour. The dough will be quite sticky.
- Cover the bowl and keep at room temperature in a draft-free area overnight or for at least 6 hours.
- When the dough is ready, work in the regular flour. Continue to work the dough on the counter top until the dough is smooth. Preheat the oven to 225°C (435°F).
- Divide the dough into 15-20 equal parts.
- With your fingers sprinkle either caraway, fennel, sesame, rosemary together with flaky sea salt over each part and roll them into balls.
- Use a rolling pin and some regular flour to roll out every ball of dough very thinly. Using a cookie cutter or a sharp knife, cut into approximately 5 cm (2 inch) shapes.
- Place as many as you can fit on a baking tin greased with olive oil. Bake the crackers immediately for about 8-10 minutes in the middle of the oven. Depending on your oven you may have to turn them over to get a nice all around color. Repeat until all your dough is rolled out.
- When finished let the crackers cool on an oven rack or a clean table. Keep the crackers in sealed containers.
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hour
I have been wanting to try this recipe–I’ve also seen a version in the Ojakangas “Great Scandinavian Baking Book.” Are they anything like the Finnish Ryvita crackers (though likely not as thin…)? We use them to eat our hummus! Thanks for this and the cute illustrations, as always.
Thanks Sara,
If you roll them super thin you will get a much lighter and thinner cracker than Ryvita (which is one of my favorites). My crackers are also crispier than Ryvita “softer” texture.