Rúgbrauð

Ingredients

Dough

• 500 grye flour
• 200 gplain flour
• 100 gsugar, or 150 ml golden syrup
• 2 tspbaking powder
• 1 tspbicarbonate of soda
• 1 tspsalt
• 700 mlwhole milk or buttermilk

Optional

• 2 tbsptreacle, for colour
• 1 tspcaraway seed

Equipment

• a tall lidded tin, or a well-sealed pot
• foil and string

To serve

• salted butter
• smoked lamb, hangikjöt
• pickled herring
• smoked trout

Directions

1. Whisk the rye flour, plain flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate and salt together. Use a fine rye flour rather than a coarse wholegrain one, which gives a heavier and more crumbly loaf.
2. Add the milk or buttermilk and mix into a thick, wet batter. It should be a batter rather than a dough, closer to a thick cake mixture than a bread, and it is not kneaded at all.
3. Pour it into a well-greased tall tin. This loaf is steamed, and any gap lets the moisture escape and gives a dry, cracked loaf instead of a dense moist one. Cook at 100°C (210°F) for 10 to 12 hours.
4. Top up the water bath with boiling water as it evaporates, and never let it run dry. The loaf develops its colour slowly over those hours, going from pale grey-brown to a deep near-black.
5. Let it cool sealed, because the steam trapped inside keeps the crumb moist as it settles.
6. Turn it out and wrap it, and leave it a day before cutting. Cutting it warm gives a sticky ragged slice. Cut it very thin with a sharp knife.
7. Serve it thickly buttered with salted butter, which is the standard. It keeps well over a week wrapped and it does not stale in the way a wheat loaf does.

Technique

• At Laugarvatn the bread is dug out of the black sand beside the lake in front of visitors, and it is genuinely how the local bakery works.
• It contains no yeast and needs no proving.
• It is dense and sweet enough that some people eat it as a cake.

Substitutions

• Buttermilk in place of milk, which gives a slight tang.
• Golden syrup or treacle in place of some of the sugar.

Variations

• Baked geothermally, as hverabrauð.
• With caraway seed through it.
• Made darker with more treacle.

History

Dark sweet rye steamed for many hours; at Laugarvatn and Lake Mývatn it is buried in hot ground and baked by geothermal heat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rúgbrauð?

Rúgbrauð is a bread & pastry from Iceland: sweet dark rye bread traditionally baked in geothermal ground. Dark sweet rye steamed for many hours; at Laugarvatn and Lake Mývatn it is buried in hot ground and baked by geothermal heat.

How long does Rúgbrauð take to make?

Rúgbrauð takes 20 min of preparation and 12 hr of cooking. The recipe makes 1 loaf. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Rúgbrauð?

Yes, within limits. Buttermilk in place of milk, which gives a slight tang. Golden syrup or treacle in place of some of the sugar.

What is the most important thing to get right in Rúgbrauð?

Whisk the rye flour, plain flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate and salt together. Use a fine rye flour rather than a coarse wholegrain one, which gives a heavier and more crumbly loaf.