Swedish Rye Crispbread

 Several years ago, when I lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, my family and I bought a small cottage in Sweden, about an hour’s drive away. We bought the house on a whim after falling for the Swedish landscape and nature over the course of several road trips.Our brick-red cottage stood alone in a clearing at the end of a long, pine tree-lined dirt road. The rare passersby were typically either hunters on their way into the woods after deer or wild boar, or foragers in search of mushrooms.Wildflowers and tall grass surrounded the house, and I carved out a small patch of soil to grow asparagus. For other fresh produce, we’d often head to the local farm stand, where one day I coincidentally had my first taste of authentic Swedish crispbread.The round, vinyl record-sized crackers, made by the farmer’s wife and baked in her wood-fired oven, were like no other I’d tried before. They were wafer thin, brittle and with just the right amount of crushed caraway seeds and sea salt.Crispbread—knäckebröd in Swedish—is literally translated as “cracking bread” because of the bread’s distinctive crispiness. Traditionally, the breads were baked, threaded onto wooden dowels and stored just below the roof to stay moisture-free. Though new to me at the time, crispbread is a historic staple of Swedish cuisine, much like rye bread is to the Danes. Normally, shards of crispbread are topped with fish, cheese, sliced meat or vegetables and enjoyed for lunch or as a snack.Now that we’re here in San Francisco, and Sweden is so terribly far away, I’ve been forced to make crispbread myself. Surprisingly, the results have been surprisingly good, despite my not having a wood-fired oven for baking.Just last week, I made a batch and paired it with some blanched asparagus (in season now) and a creamy goat's milk cheese. Simple and scrumptious, crispbread is slowly becoming a staple in my own home kitchen too.Makes 8 (8-inch) crispbreads INGREDIENTS [tasty-recipe id="1957"]