Swedish Rye

 

Today I baked my grandmother's Swedish Rye bread recipe again.  It's not too sweet, just 3 T of sorghum, and it makes 3 loafs.  The house is filled with the scent of baking rye flour, and faintly, anise and fennel. I remember eating fresh slices of it with fresh raspberry jam, at my grammy's  house in Northern Minnesota, at the end of summer. Or, spread thickly with butter,  out at the lake when we were done swimming,

I remember learning to bake it myself when I was almost 16 yrs old.  I also remember one year, when I was still teenaged,  I baked Swedish rye loaves in our summer cabin's old wood cook stove.  The loaves came out very lopsided, and burned on top, on the side closest to the firebox.  I remember burning lots of kindling,  hot,  to get the old oven up to 400º,  and there was a crack in the top of the woodstove when I had finished baking, that I don't think was there when I started. The cabin was heated up like a sauna.  It's a wonder I didn't burn down the cabin.

I packed up one of the loaves in a box filled with spruce branches, and mailed it back to my sweet, new boyfriend.  Aha!  We've been married for many, many years now.  I think he was awestruck by my baking skills, and Grammy's recipe.

Happy New Year, and I hope you have sweet  memories of the old, good years, too.
 
Grammy's Swedish Rye Bread  (3 loaves)
3 c warm water
3 T molasses (or, sorghum)
2 t salt
2 cups med. rye flour
1 1/2 pkg yeast
1 cup graham flour (whole wheat)
3 T butter (melted in the warm water)
1/2 t fennel seeds
1/2 t anise seeds
5-6 cups unbleached flour

Let rise twice in buttered bowl,  then rise again in loaf pans.  Bake 15 min @ 400º
                                                                                             15 min @ 350º
                                                                                              30 min @ 325º