Recipes

Norwegian Flatbrød

Baked Goods · Flatbreads · Norwegian · Vegan

Norwegian Flatbrød
Prep 1 hr + chilling
Cook 1 hr
Serves 15
Level Medium

Paper-thin, crisp Norwegian flatbread of coarse flour and boiling water, rolled with barley flour and baked dry on a griddle. It keeps for months.

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

  • 700 ml boiling water
  • 1 kg coarse whole-grain baking flour (Norwegian grovbakstmel; see Notes)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 200 ml barley flour, for rolling

Directions

  1. Dough. Mix the salt into the flour and pour the boiling water over. Let it cool a little, then knead to a firm dough. Put it in a bag and refrigerate until cold all the way through (it can wait until the next day).
  2. Divide. For a 60 cm (24-inch) griddle, use about 200 g per sheet; use less for a smaller griddle or skillet. Shape each into a thick flat round and keep covered.
  3. Roll on a board with plenty of barley flour, from the centre outward, into a large thin sheet, keeping it loose on the board. Brush off the flour.
  4. Bake. Transfer to a hot dry griddle on a long flat stick (or rolled loosely around the pin), turning it so the side that was up on the board goes down. Brush off the flour and run the rolling pin over it so it lies flat against the griddle and does not shrink. Bake until the surface starts to dry, turn, and bake until lightly brown-spotted. Watch the heat.
  5. Dry. Or fold each sheet in two and dry it in a 100 °C / 210 °F oven with the door ajar until crisp.
  6. Store dry, stacked, in a tin.

Notes

Source Adapted from “Hjemmebakt flatbrød,” Matprat.no (the Norwegian egg-and-meat board’s recipe site), translated. The source gives metric measures only and does not give a griddle temperature.

The flour Grovbakstmel is a Norwegian coarse baking-flour blend; the source does not give its make-up. A mix of whole-wheat, rye and barley flours is a reasonable stand-in, but that substitution is not tested.

History First written down as flatbrød in a 1519 account book of Bergenhus castle, Bergen. It was the everyday bread by the end of the Middle Ages and keeps for over a year.

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

The photo The photo shows a stack of thin flatbrød sheets.