Knäckebröd (Swedish Crispbread)

Swedish rye crispbread flavoured with crushed caraway, fennel and anise, rolled thin and baked hard on a preheated sheet in a very hot oven.

Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Flatbreads section and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.

Ingredients

50 g fresh yeast (or 2¼ teaspoons / 7 g active dry)
500 ml lukewarm water
2 tablespoons butter-and-rapeseed-oil blend, or soft butter
800 ml coarse rye flour
1 teaspoon salt
500 ml wheat flour
2 teaspoons whole caraway seeds
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
2 teaspoons anise seeds

Directions

Dough. Crumble the yeast into a bowl and stir in the water to dissolve it. Crush the caraway, fennel and anise in a mortar. Add the fat, rye flour, salt, wheat flour and spices. Knead about 10 minutes by hand or 5 by machine.
Rise under a cloth, about 50 minutes.
Heat the oven to 250 °C (225 °C fan) / 480 °F with a baking sheet inside to preheat.
Shape. Turn the dough onto a floured board and work it smooth quickly. Divide into 16 pieces, ball them, and roll each to a round about 20 cm (8 inches). Prick all over with a fork. If liked, cut a small hole in the centre.
Bake two at a time on baking paper, slid onto the hot sheet, in the middle of the oven for about 9 minutes, until dry, crisp, hard and lightly golden at the edges.
Cool on a rack. Store dry.

Notes

Source Adapted from Constance Loeper, “Knäckebröd,” Arla (Sweden), translated from Swedish volume measures. Swedish kummin is caraway, not cumin. The dry-yeast conversion, the pricking and the hole are not in the Arla recipe: pricking and a 1½-inch centre hole come from Saveur’s “Swedish Crispbread” (June/July 2012), which bakes 9-inch rounds ⅛ inch thick at 450 °F for about 10 minutes, flips them, and bakes 4 minutes more.

The hole Traditionally crispbread was baked only a couple of times a year and hung on poles under the ceiling to keep dry.

The Flatbreads section of the Breads pages on the Food site covers the history, the science and the griddles.