When life hands you a huge loaf of bread...

Last week I went to the farmer's market and saw an incredibly crusty loaf of bread. Yes, it did look a little big, but little did I realize just how huge the thing was until the bread man packaged up my loaf in a shopping bag. Needless to say, I had to stretch the creativity a bit beyond your typical bread and cheese snacks to use up the bread before it went bad. Below is a pictorial adventure of me and the huge loaf of bread.

Of course, to start things off, I sliced into this thing and topped it with Cowgirl Creamery's St. Pat, an Echo Mountain blue, and tomme de Bordeaux.

For breakfast, I made an egg strata. Recipe coming later...

For lunch we topped thick slices with a Nicoise-style tuna salad.

Our final meal with this loaf was a very large panzanella, which we will probably be eating for the rest of the week.

Overall, it was a fun experience, and believe it or not, the bread was still pretty good by day 4.

Knäckebröd (Swedish crisp bread)

Knäckebröd is a staple at the table for every meal. We encountered it everywhere in Sweden, along with another kind of flatbread called tunnbröd. There are many different recipes for knäckebröd, though it is essentially a rye hardtack. Ever seen Wasa crackers at the supermarket? That's the mass produced stuff. Homemade knäckebröd has a slight but not unpleasant chewiness that makes it more bread-like than cracker-like.

The knäckebröd we had was almost always served with butter and some kind of jam, usually lingonberry, though it is also eaten with sandwich toppings like sliced cheese and pickles.

From The Swedish Table by Helene Henderson

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 cups warm water, divided
• 2 packages dry yeast (1/4 oz. each or 4-1/2 teaspoons total)
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3-1/2 cups rye flour
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• olive oil spray

Directions:

• In the bowl of an electric mixer add sugar, 1/4 cup warm water, and yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes or until yeast begins to bubble and foam.
• Stir in remaining water, salt, rye flour, and all-purpose flour. Beat with dough hook until well combined, about 5 minutes.
  
• Transfer dough to a lightly oiled (or buttered) bowl, sprinkle with flour, and cover with plastic food wrap. Let rise in refrigerator overnight.

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Divide dough into 16 pieces.
• On a floured surface, roll each piece into a thin, 8-inch round. Poke out a small, 1/4-inch center hold and poke the round all over with a fork.
• Brush off excess flour, spray with olive oil on both sides, and transfer to a baking sheet covered with a Silpat liner or parchment paper.
• Bake 10-15 minutes. Let cool before serving.

Makes 16 knäckebröd.