Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Viking Bread recipe

Learning about how the Vikings invaded France and other islands, including Canada, spurred us to make Viking Bread. Since the Vikings would have had to have ground their own barley, oats and rye by hand this is a rather heavy, coarse bread.
Viking Bread
3 cups whole wheat flour or use another coarse flour
2 cups white flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 cups warm water
1 cup oats
Mix all dry ingredients saving out a 1/4 of cup of oats for the top. Stir in the 2 cups of water until it become hard to stir. At that point start to knead it to incorporate the rest of the flour until it become stiff. Make it into a circle and place on a baking stone. If using a cookie sheet it needs to be greased. Sprinkle the rest of the oats on top. Put the bread into a cold oven and turn on to 375 degrees. Bake for one hour.

We enjoyed it with butter and raw honey. It was very, very filling since it is such a dense bread. We thought it would also be good with a chili or stew and plan on making it again. I also pointed out to the kids that when you read books and someone had a hunk of brown bread and water to eat that this was probably the kind of bread they would have been given.

3 comments:

Cougar fan said...

wow i gota try this

Silje Valkyrie said...

Baking soda?

Edward Gault said...

My daughter is participating in a study group built around the "How to Train Your Dragon" series by Cressida Crowell at our home-schooling co-op.

Since it's a rainy afternoon, she decided to make Viking Bread, and found this recipe as a resource, given to us by the study group leader.

We had a blast making it and love the bread straight out of the oven with butter on it. Would put raw honey on it too, but have no more in the house.

Thanks again for a great recipe!