Knäckebröd

This is the corrugated rolling pin

Knäckebröd (Swedish) and Knekkebrød (Norwegian) is crisp flat bread that was a Holiday tradition in my Norwegian family.  It is also known as hard tack.  Growing up Norwegian, I always assumed that my grandmothers recipe was from Norway.  A few years ago, my cousin and I made this for the Holidays.  We noticed in my church cookbook that my grandmother had it listed as Svensk Knäckebröd.  We called her to ask her what that meant, she informed us that her recipe was actually from Sweden, not from Norway.  We were quite surprised by this, as we do not have any Swedish ancestry.  It is one of my favorite Holiday foods.  It is very simple to make and has staples as ingredients.  This Thanksgiving, my father and I are both making it and bringing it to dinner, using my Grandma's recipe.  We are going to have the family choose which one is best.  Don't tell my dad, but I really hope that my Grandma likes mine best, even if it does not win overall.


Ingredients:

Pop any air bubble with a fork as it bakes

• 1 Cup Whole Milk
• 3/4 Cup Lard (sold in the meat department, 1 box of lard will make 3 batches) - Can substitute shortening
• 2 envelopes yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 4 Cups Flour

Directions:

Finished Product.

Heat milk, with lard, sugar and salt to boiling.  Let cool to room temperature.  Add dissolved yeast and stir.  Add flour a little at a time until well blended.  Form dough into pieces the size of a bun.  Let rise 1 hour.  Roll with corrugated rolling pin.  Use a pizza cutter to cut into smaller pieces for baking.  Bake in oven on cookie sheets at 450F until light brown, flipping once.  Pop any air bubble with a fork as they bake.  These bake in about 3-4 minutes.  Need to work very, very quickly not to burn.  May need to take some out of the oven if they bake quicker than the others.