Knäckebröd

Freedom! I am finally off work and can do what I want all day, i.e. cooking, baking etc. These strange brownish-greyish things are my first home made knäckebröd ever, and I will present some of them as a Christmas gift for my in-laws. (And don´t ask how I am going to wrap them because I don´t know yet.) I got the beautiful wooden container this weekend as a Christmas gift from my grandfather who is a skilled craftsman and has this kind of containers as his specialty.
Ordinary knäckebröd (and those of you who doesn´t know knäckebröd: it is hard bread and comes in different sizes, shapes and flavours - a Swedish staple) is a bit boring I think, especially the rectangular ones they fed you with school lunch. At home we always had the big round cakes which you break a piece of yourself, but I am not very fond of that either. When I on occasion buy knäckebröd I go for the really old fashioned versions - VERY hard, uneven, rough cakes with a distinct rye taste. And these cakes of mine turned out just according to my taste, I am very pleased! A little fussy to make, but not worse than gingerbread and absolute bliss comparing to the truffles. I dont have the time right now to translate the recipe but I can tell my Swedish readers that I found it in the reliable Bonniers kokbok. It is rye, wheat, water, salt and fresh yeast. That´s it. And what a feeling to sit down, put some butter on the fresh knäckebröd and eat it while you stare into the oven on your next project for this day, the biscotti I found chez Oslo foodie yesterday. I followed the recipe exactly, only substituted the cocktail cherries with some dried cranberries I found at Hötorgshallen. You should all try it, they are fantastic (and also a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law who won´t get any chilli-chocolate truffles this year.)

And the gravlax (sugar-salted fresh salmon with loads of dill) is prepared now, and the lemon herring....