Swedish Thin Bread

Another Swedish recipe I learned from my mother-in-law is Thin Bread. 

My in laws were a farming family and ate hardy meals both at lunch and supper.  They always had bread, buns or thin bread with each meal.  The buns and thin bread were warmed in the oven if they had been frozen so were always eaten warm with butter melting on them.

The Thin Bread recipe I am including is from Treasured Recipes - 70th Anniversary of the Bethesda Lutheran Church - 1911 - 1981.

To make the thin bread you need a special roller or can use a fork to prick the dough.  Here is my regular rolling pin and my thin bread roller.

Notice the "nubblies" (I don't know what they are actually called but nubblies seems like a good word) on the surface of the roller.

Ingredients
3 c flour
3 c whole wheat flour
1 c marg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
(I use 1 1/4 c half and half and 1 1/4 c water instead of the following)
1/2 c cream 
1 c water
1 c buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients and cut margarine in, as for pie crust.  Combine with liquids and mix as dough.

Cut off small portions of dough and roll into a small ball.   This recipe makes about 12 large pieces so you may want to cut it into 12 before you start rolling them out.  You can make smaller pieces if you wish as you usually break off a piece to eat anyway.

Place on floured board and roll very thin.  Flip the dough and add more flour to the board as needed.  I don't get too concerned with odd shapes unless they don't fit on the cookie sheets.

Use a "thin bread" roller, or if you don't have one, prick entire surface with a fork.

I make several passes with the roller so there are lots of holes.  I usually flip the dough over and use the roller on the other side as well.

Place on ungreased cookie sheets.  I use all the cookie sheets I have and fill them all before I start baking them.

Bake in a hot oven 375-400F.  The cook time is between 5 and 10 minutes depending on the heat of the oven and the thinness of the bread.  I often flip them over once they start to bake.  You have to watch them carefully so they don't burn.

Set out to cool if you are going to freeze them.  When I freeze them, I place them either in a large plastic container (but that takes so much room) or in a large plastic bag and make sure they are on the top so they don't get crushed.  I usually don't freeze them, though, and we have a feed of thin bread for a few days.

Eat warm slathered in butter.  You can eat with a meal in place of bread.

We like ours as a snack sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.



Enjoy!  :)