Blueberry Bread

Finally a good blueberry year in the Swedish mountains! After three or four very poor berry years, the woods and the lower mountain slopes are carpeted with luscious, ripe blueberries- some of them the size of grapes. The taste is intense, heightened by slow ripening during the long days and short nights of the the sub-arctic summer. (I am a bit too far south for proper midnight sun, but close enough).

Having stacked the freezer with enough jam to last us for the winter as well as for another stretch of poor berry years, I wanted to use some fresh berries in a bread.

I apologize for not presenting a proper recipe, as I never weigh or measure anything, but the method was something like this:

Please note that all measurements are more or less guesses on my part.

Primary Dough

About 1 cup of mature rye starter

3-4 generous handfuls of fresh blueberries

enough bread flour (wheat) to make a fairly sloppy dough

mix well, cover and let sit for a couple of hours

Final Dough

Add the following to the primary dough:

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp honey

25 grams fresh yeast dissolved in about 1 cup plain youghurt

1 egg

bread flour until dough is firm enough to knead on the counter

knead well

incorporate 1-2 tbsp of butter at room temperature into the dough

knead well, return to bowl, cover and let rise until appr. doubled in size

(I did 2 "stretch-and-folds" during the process)

Baking

On an oiled cooking sheet, form a boule.

Pre-heat oven to 250 C (482 F)

Bake at that temperature for 30 minutes, turn heat down to 175 C (347 F) and bake for another 25 minutes. Turn off oven and leave bread inside while the oven is cooling.

Do not cut into bread until fully cooled.