the nordic baking book
Has anyone here baked anything from Magnus Nilssen's The Nordic Baking Book. I tried one interesting recipe last week -- a potato bread with rye and wheat.
It attracted me for a number of reasons
--the rye portion (25% of the total flour) was scalded the night before
--the potatos were to be boiled, cooled and riced (I didn't know what that was and just crumbled them as much as I could and mixed them in ... in retrospect, I should have looked up what 'ricing' is.)
--the final mix -- 930 grams of rye and wheat -- called for 50 grams of fresh yeast. This seemed mammoth to me.
--the baking temperature specified was a mere 175C (350F) without steam.
--the suggestion was to dock the bread with a fork and not to score it.
I wasn't wowed by the result and have been mulling the idea that turning it into a sourdough recipe might bring up the complexity of the flavor.
I wonder if anyone else here has had any experiences they might want to share regarding recipes from The Nordic Baking Book.
Rob
I don't have anything very useful to share, but I admit I got turned off the book when the author said that he doesn't like sweet things made with sourdough because he prefers the pure flour flavor. That indicated that my tastes are very different from his...
I think I did make the Icelandic lava bread from the book, which was very sweet but a fun novelty.
When you wrote riced potatoes thinking you meant diced potatoes. Just googled it...
https://www.midwestlifeandstyle.com/easy-old-fashioned-riced-potatoes/
One day I do hope to make the Icelandic Lava Bread.
just recently, found out that before potatoes, history wise, a soft dough was pressed dropping strands into boiling water to make noodles. Gotta try that. Might be one of my presses is for potatoes, the other for dough. :) Both are antiques and look like giant garlic presses. One can also just crush cooked floury potatoes with a fork or grate them fine but they tend to cool down more. Hot and steamy from the ricer may react with the flour differently.
I havent tried that recipe but to make potato dumplings the potatoes are riced, salted and then flour is sifted over the potatoes and using hands gradually fluffed-blended into the potato to coat the crumbs. It's a dry sort of crumbly mixture. I wonder if your mixing instructions are somewhat similar. The crumbs are then packed together to shape.
thanks econ, abe, mini for the responses.
I admit I was surprised to read a Nordic bread book that doesn't feature sourdough front & center.
Also, according to the online descriptions I've read, ricing adds air to potatos -- much more so than simple mashing. So it probably adds loft or at least a pillowy feel to any bread with potato in it.
I always wondered what those giant garlic presses were that I saw in some well-stocked kitchens. Now I guess I'll have to get one.
Rob
One rices potatoes in a ricer. It is our preferred way to make mashed potatoes. It creates an aerier version than smashing them
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