Finnish Rye Bread (with starter)

Finnish Rye Bread (with starter)

Tuija

Servings

10

Prep Time

72 hours

Cook Time

20 minutes

Cuisine

Finnish

Category

Bread

Finnish rye bread, in Finnish "ruisleipä," is a staple of Finnish cuisine with a long history and cultural significance. 


It is dense, dark, and robust, made predominantly from whole-grain rye flour, which gives it a distinctive, slightly sour flavor and hearty texture.


If you are longing for Finnish dark rye bread, you'll need to check this recipe!


First, we'll prepare the sourdough starter with natural fermentation process to leaven the bread, giving it the characteristic tangy taste.


The Finnish rye bread is dense and firm, with a slightly chewy crumb. It often has a thick, crusty exterior.


A bread this good does not need anything else than a bit of butter on top!😋

Ingredients

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    • 2 slices of thin Finncrisp bread (about 10 g) or 1 slice of Vaasan Ruispalat (or similar, about 20 g)

    • 6 tablespoons water, slightly warmer than your hand

    • ⅓ cup rye flour

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    • ¼ cup warm water

    • ⅓ cup rye flour

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    • ½ cup starter

    • 1 cup warm water

    • 1 ½-2 teaspoons active dry yeast

    • 1 teaspoon salt

    • 1 ½ teaspoons dark sugar

    • 1 ½ cup rye flour

    • ¼ cup wheat flour (all-purpose or bread flour)

    • Some more rye and wheat flour for the table when kneading the dough

    Directions

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      1. Crush the Finncrisp bread or chop the Ruispalat to tiny pieces and put it to a clean jar

      2. Add water and flour, mix. It should be like a thick soup.

      3. Cover with kitchen towel, don’t close the lid and put to a warm place (e.g. cold oven or top of the fridge, icebox with closed bottle of warm water). Leave for 24 hours.

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      1. Add ¼ cup of warm (not hot) water and ⅓ cup of flour, mix.

      2. Cover and put to a warm place, leave for 14-24 hours (I continued after 14 hours because starter smelled tangy and there were even more bubbles, both excellent signs that it is working!)

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      1. Take ½ cup of the starter.

      2. Take 1 cup of warm water, add yeast and mix until yeast has dissolved.

      3. Add the water to starter and mix.

      4. Add sugar and salt to the starter and mix.

      5. Add rye flour in small portions to the batter and mix

      6. Add wheat flour and mix.

      7. Cover the bowl, put it to a warm place and wait for 3 hours or until the dough has doubled in size.

      8. Add ½ cup of rye flour and mix manually (or with a machine)

      9. Add plenty of flour to the countertop and knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.

      10. Roll the dough to about ½ inch thick rectangular.

      11. Slice the dough to the size you wish, e.g. with a pizza cutter. Or make small round ones.

      12. Add the small pieces of bread to a baking sheet (I used baking paper). No need to leave a lot of space, these will not spread in the oven. Remember NOW to save some dough now for next time starter, put it to a plastic bag and to the freezer. (I took approx 2 oz/ 60 g of the dough)

      13. Tuck all corners of the breads in so that they wont burn in the oven. Make small holes to the breads with a fork (they are not for decoration but to let the air out of the bread). Cover them with kitchen towel and wait for them to rise for 2 - 2 ½ hours in a warm place.

      14. Preheat oven to 435-440 °F (new oven, air circulating) or a bit more if you know your oven is not efficient.

      15. Add a cup of water in a oven tray to the bottom of the oven, we need some steam.

      16. Check the fork holes of the breads, if they are disappearing, it’s time to bake. Make them again with fork.

      17. Bake for 16-18 minutes. Cover after oven to make them soft (if you like them soft).

      18. When the bread is still warm, slice the breads with a knife (just the edges), rip them open and place them back together.

      Finnish Rye Bread (with starter), Ruisleipä recipe

      Finnish Rye Bread (with starter), Ruisleipä recipe - Feels like Finland

      When there is no more rye bread..

      I was inspired to make Finnish Rye Bread when I noticed my very last bag of rye bread from Finland very quickly disappearing..

      Rye bread like this is not commonly available in most countries outside Finland.

      Well, there is rye bread from Germany, but it is sweet and moist, Finnish rye bread is not like that at all.

      I of course freeze my treasures (Finnish rye bread) that I buy from Finland when visiting or online, and enjoy them as a treat, but this rye bread would be also something my stomach enjoys more than fluffy white bread..

      So how to make sure I can have all the rye bread I want (and need!)?

      I thought: "It's time to make a starter and bake the rye bread myself!"

      Sure rye bread can be made without a starter, but it does not taste the same.

      Traditionally, starter was the remains of the last dough that dried up in the bread-making bowl walls. There are many ways to make a starter, but I wanted to make something quick and easy, so I used my last piece of Finnish rye bread to make a starter.

      And the result is so much beyond my expectations that I cannot even say how surprised I was when the bread I made was so good! It even looks like famous Vaasan ruispalat bread, wow!

      How to keep the rye bread starter alive?

      I will definitely try to keep my starter alive. Next time the starter will be a piece of the ready-made dough.

      You can dry the starter, just spread it on baking paper and let dry, store in a closed jar. Or you can freeze a dough ball. Or just close the starter jar and store it in the fridge, it will stay good for 2 weeks. 

      Note: When making the starter, remember always to use a clean spoon to mix the starter to avoid too much / wrong kind of bacteria growth. Also boiled water is better than tap water.

      Back to blog

      17 comments

      I love the Swedish Rågkusar, which are closely inspired the Finnish tradition, but I live in the UK. Every holiday I bring packets of Rågkusar from Sweden to the UK and put them in my freezer. I will try with one of these for the starter.

      Is the cup in the recipe referring to an American cup – 237ml or an English cup – 250ml?

      Tove

      Greetings, is there a way to make the starter without the initial bread or cracker parts?

      Rodney C. Knight

      Hi Martin! I’m sorry it did not work for you! It sounds to me that there were maybe too much flour, rye is a bit sticky and if you add flour or wheat flour until it’s not sticky at all – it’s no longer soft. Try to add as little flour as possible. You can use more of the wheat flour to help as it’s less sticky. I hope you bake more – you’ll get the hang of it!

      Tuija

      Hi Joanne! Your rye sourdough starter sounds awesome and you can sure use that! You know what to do then, loaves, individual ones or even the one that has a hole in the middle :) Happy baking!

      Tuija

      Hi, what a lovely recipe. It looks delicious!

      I already have a rye sourdough starter that I feed and use regularly for all my loaves/rolls/pizza etc. as I like it’s flavour and strength. Do you think I could use this instead of making a new one with shop bought Finnish bread, which I have never found here, or would it not be suitable for this recipe?

      Joanne

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