Kavring - dark Rye bread

If we happen to be out of Kavring in the shop, or maybe you just like baking, here is an easy, though time consuming recipe for this traditional sweet rye bread. It's used for Matjes Sill Tart but is also very nice, toasted with a mature cheddar, västerbotten or kryddost.

Day 1
Put 7dl rye flour in a bowl. Boil up 7 dl of water and pour over the rye flour. Add salt and caraway. Mix well. Cover with cling film or a lid and leave in room temperature overnight.

Day 2
Dissolve the yeast in 3,5dl of luke warm water. Add the rye/water mixture from the day before, as well as 7dl of rye flour. Mix well and cover with cling film. It's quite a loose mixture, but that's ok. Leave in a warmish place about 4 hours. It'll double in size, so make sure the bowl is big enough!

After 4 hours, turn the oven on 175°C/Gasmark 5/ 350°F. Take your bowl of dough, and add syrup, 10dl of Rye Mix and about 7dl of strong white bread flower, a little at the time. Mix vigorously or even better in a bread mixer unless you fancy a workout. Let it rest for for 30 minutes. Sprinkle some flower on your work top and turn out the dough. Knead thoroughly and then divide in to there. Shape 3 loaves and place in greased bread tins. Let prove another 30 minutes. Place in the oven with a greased baking sheet on top, to stop the bread from rising, in order to achieve the typical dense structure and bake 45-50 minutes.

Take out the bread from the tins, brush with water and roll the loaves into tea towels and let cool down on a rack.