It is a small miracle that when you combine flour, water, salt and air you produce a loaf of bread, and when human beings found a way to store grains and turn it into flour, the course of history changed. It enabled economies and populations to grow. Bread is in so many ways at the core of our history. Bread is culture, and it is about people. It’s also about love. Think about how we all bake for people we love, when we have something to celebrate or when we just want to make sure that we feed our families on proper bread.
I bake bread according to what I am going to eat, and what kind of flour I have in the house. My husband bakes rye bread once a week, which is our staple, everyday bread – often for both breakfast and lunch. I like to eat dense bread with a lot of fibre, like rye bread. I like to bake with different flours such as rye, spelt, oats, einkorn and various heritage grains. I also like buns with nuts and raisins and sweet bread for afternoon tea or a snack. I often think about how bread can be part of our meals at home. I like to have crispbread in my cupboard and I serve it with a light dinner, such as salad and cured salmon. I use leftover bread for cakes, in salads and in soup. It would be impossible to imagine life without bread.
Making bread is also about creating space for hygge at home: the rhythm the bread baking gives to the kitchen and the household. You make the dough, you wait, you pay attention, you bake, then the house transforms into something very homey that you recognize as the fragrance of bread spreads through the house, and then you eat and enjoy the moment.