Breads of Finland
Encyclopedia
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, bread
Bread
Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
is a very important food, served with almost every meal with many different types produced domestically.
In the Swedish-speaking region
Regions of Finland
Finland consists of 19 regions called in Finnish and in Swedish. The regions are governed by regional councils, which serve as forums of cooperation for the municipalities of a region. The main tasks of the regions are regional planning and development of enterprise and education. In addition,...
of Åland , there are other varieties of bread, the majority of which owe much to Swedish cuisine.
Rye bread
Rye bread
Rye bread is a type of bread made with various percentages of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat flour...
(Ruisleipä or hapanleipä (lit. sour bread) in Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
) is a dark, sour bread produced in quantity in Finland, where it is the most popular type of bread. Compared with the more internationally popular German
German cuisine
German cuisine is a style of cooking derived from the nation of Germany. It has evolved as a national cuisine through centuries of social and political change with variations from region to region. The southern regions of Germany, including Bavaria and neighbouring Swabia, share many dishes....
style, Finnish rye-breads tend to be less oily or moist in texture. The most common types of Finnish rye breads are not sweet, unlike Swedish rye breads. As well as traditional breads more modern, softer breads exist as well these days. Rye bread is notable for its resistance to spoiling; it may store for weeks or months without developing mold. Additionally, if left on the table, it quickly dries into a crisp that stores indefinitely.
Limppu
Traditional Eastern Finnish rye bread is called "limppu". The closest translation to English would be loaf, but that does not actually describe the round, bulbous bread that is actually known as limppu, and could cause confusion as rectangular loaves are also available and are not called limppu. This bread is dark, sour in taste, dense, heavy and comparatively dryish. Its mouthfeel still remains soft enough to be bitten off easily, and leavening is easily discernible even by eye. This kind of bread was usually produced at steady intervals throughout the year, whereas Western Finnish tradition stressed rare baking sessions combined with long-term storage.Limppu is common in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Upper Peninsula of Michigan
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is the northern of the two major land masses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan. It is commonly referred to as the Upper Peninsula, the U.P., or Upper Michigan. It is also known as the land "above the Bridge" linking the two peninsulas. The peninsula is bounded...
due to the high level of Finnish immigrants. Limppu can be served in many pubs and diners across the peninsula.
Reikäleipä
Traditional Western Finnish rye bread (reikäleipä lit. hole bread) was baked in flat rings to be placed on poles suspended just below the kitchen ceiling, to mature and dry in the relative warmth. The poles also remained the place of storage, so that the bread aged over the long winter into its many forms. Nowadays this kind of bread is available in all its forms and stages of aging throughout the whole of Finland, regardless of season.Unlike with limppu, there is no discernible difference between skin and core, and so the dark outer color and the soft inner core are missing. Considerably more roughage is present, and the bread is rather dense compared to the other traditional breads. Some flour, seed and even yeast remnants could top the bread, even less moisture is present, and the mouthfeel is somewhere between gummy, unyielding and downright crackery, depending on age. This reflects its role as an indefinitely storable foodstuff which would last from the fertile summer through the relatively long and harsh Northern winter.
As a result, reikäleipä takes some time and effort to chew down properly. In the process it then acquires a peculiar culinary quality: it starts off as rather sour and earthy in taste, but by the time it is ready to be swallowed, amylase enzymes in the saliva have already broken down enough of the starch in it to make it a bit sweet as well. In Finnish culinary folklore, this dynamic aspect of tough, sour rye breads, and in particular reikäleipä, is nowadays a well-known and even sought-after quality.
Ruispala
Vaasan Ruispala, a brand of rye bread by Vaasan & Vaasan, is Finland's "most popular bread" according to the company. It is otherwise similar to reikäleipä, but is more consumer-oriented. It comes in single portion size, it mixes condensed rye bread taste with zero-day delivery, it borrows from the German rye bread tradition in keeping a more humid, greasier texture than is traditional in Finland, and it makes the best of the humidity preserving qualities of traditional rye bread by serving each piece of bread as a pre-cut pair of two halves, which protect each other but can still be easily separated.The brand is not without competitors. Two of them are Fazer
Fazer
Fazer is one of the largest corporations in the Finnish food industry.The company was originally founded by Karl Fazer in 1891, as a "French-Russian conditory" in central Helsinki...
's Ruispuikulat (a newer competitor), which are oblong in shape instead, and Oululainen's Reissumies (preceding Vaasa's formulation by about a decade), which are round. Both competitors are distinctly more traditional in formulation than Ruispala, mainly changing the size and shape of the traditional rye bread. As rye bread is the staple one in Finland, the competition among the brands remains fierce to this day.
Jälkiuunileipä
The old tradition was that all bread in the house for the year was baked in a few days, in a large oven that took a long time to cool after being fired. Thus, jälkiuunileipä (lit. after-oven bread) could still be baked in the residual heat. The longer baking time in the lower temperature gives it a darker color, higher density and hardness than regular rye bread, comparable to a fruit cake. In addition to the traditional reikäleipä shape, there are also rectangular ruispala-type pieces available.Crispbread
Crispbread (näkkileipä in Finnish) are leavened rye breads that are dried into thin crisp. They are sometimes made using sour dough. Crispbread are very common throughout the Nordic countriesNordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
and if stored properly will not spoil for a long time. Variants of crisp bread are thicker (½ cm), air-containing crisps (called just näkkileipä) and thinner sour crisps (hapankorppu). The most common type, often stereotypically associated with schools and other institutions, is rectangular in shape, e.g. Koulunäkki and Kunto brands. A round shape is another variant. Hapankorppu is rectangular.
Wheat bread
Because traditionally wheatWheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
wasn't as abundant as rye or barley, wheat is mainly used for baking of pastry, scones, pulla
Pulla
Pulla is a mildly-sweet Finnish dessert bread flavored with crushed cardamom seeds and occasionally raisins or sliced almonds. Braid loaves are formed from three or more braided strands of dough. The braids may also be formed into a ring. These braided strands or rings are typically coated with...
and nowadays is often combined with other types of flour to make things like Karelian pasties
Karelian pasties
Karelian pasties or Karelian pies are traditional pasties from the region of Karelia...
and meat pies.
There are a few wheat breads in Finland, although most are simple buns or loaves of sliced or unsliced bread.
Vesirinkeli
Other breads
There are countless varieties of breads throughout Finland and it would be impossible to catalogue them all, however there are some important types which do not fit in other areas, and they are mentioned below.Oat bread
OATS
OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...
(kaura) are the most commonly produced grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
in Finland so it makes sense that bread based on oats will be very popular, although not as popular as rye breads. The most common use in bread is in rolls or buns (sämpylä) or in flat soft bread pieces similar to ruispalat or reissumies rye breads.
Potato bread
The potatoPotato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
, although a late introduction to Finland, features heavily in the diet and has found its way into many kinds of breads. Usually dough made with potato will be very soft and the bread will be moister and fluffier than plain wheat or oat bread.
Christmas bread
There are several varieties of Christmas breads, however most are made in a similar way to a basic ruislimppu bread however they typically include molassesMolasses
Molasses is a viscous by-product of the processing of sugar cane, grapes or sugar beets into sugar. The word molasses comes from the Portuguese word melaço, which ultimately comes from mel, the Latin word for "honey". The quality of molasses depends on the maturity of the sugar cane or sugar beet,...
and other Christmas time flavours like orange
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
, cinnamon
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...
, fennel
Fennel
Fennel is a plant species in the genus Foeniculum . It is a member of the family Apiaceae . It is a hardy, perennial, umbelliferous herb, with yellow flowers and feathery leaves...
, aniseed and cumin
Cumin
Cumin is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native from the east Mediterranean to India. Its seeds are used in the cuisines of many different cultures, in both whole and ground form.-Etymology:...
.
Korppu
Korppu (ruskRusk
A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a baby teething food. In the United Kingdom, the name also refers to a wheat-based food additive.- Germany :The zwieback A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a baby teething food....
in English) are hard and crisp, resembling small bread rolls but usually halved and much harder. The sweet versions are often sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. There are also variations of korppu which are totally flat and unleavened, usually made of either rye or oats.
Rieska
Barley
Barley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
-based flat breads, which are made similarly to crispbreads, but are not dried into a crisp. They are often served warm and buttered and consumed with milk. The most common kinds of rieska are:
- Perunarieska (potatoPotatoThe potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
rieska)
- Ohrarieska (barleyBarleyBarley is a major cereal grain, a member of the grass family. It serves as a major animal fodder, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods...
rieska)
- Ruisrieska (ryeRyeRye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...
rieska) This kind of rieska is often made without barley flour.
- Maitorieska (milkMilkMilk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
rieska) is a local specialty and a traditional food in the YlivieskaYlivieskaYlivieska is a town and a municipality of Northern Ostrobothnia region, Finland. It has a population of , and it serves as the administrative centre for Kalajokilaakso and Pyhäjokilaakso, an area with about 90,000 inhabitants....
area of FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. It is very similar to the plain ohrarieska, but made with milk rather than sourmilk or buttermilk.
Pulla
PullaPulla
Pulla is a mildly-sweet Finnish dessert bread flavored with crushed cardamom seeds and occasionally raisins or sliced almonds. Braid loaves are formed from three or more braided strands of dough. The braids may also be formed into a ring. These braided strands or rings are typically coated with...
is cardamom
Cardamom
Cardamom refers to several plants of the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to India and Bhutan; they are recognised by their small seed pod, triangular in cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a thin papery outer shell and small black seeds...
flavoured, yeast leavened sweetened bread, often served with coffee. In contrast to other nationalities' sweetened breads, these are not buttered. Pulla, when made into a roll with cinnamon and sugar and cut into spirals before baking, becomes korvapuusti (cinnamon roll
Cinnamon roll
A cinnamon roll is a sweet pastry served commonly in Northern Europe and North America. It consists of a rolled sheet of yeast dough onto which a cinnamon and sugar mixture is sprinkled over a thin coat of butter...
).