After my recent flirtation with ice cream, I decided it was time to add a little fibre to my diet...

Danish rye bread (rugbrød) is a sort of bread which people from other cultures tend to dislike. It is made with sour dough, rye flour and sometimes whole rye grains. Additionally, you'll also find variants with different sorts of seeds in it, such as sunflower or flax seeds. This results in a hard kind of bread, which I guess is very much an aquired taste, resembling the German pumpernickel. Most Danes love it and miss it when away from home.

Apparently, the introduction of rye bread into the Danish diet, was the result of a deterioration in the climate during the Iron Age - wheat became too difficult to grow and rye proved to be a much more resilient crop.

Anyway, history lesson aside, I baked myself a rugbrød yesterday. Unfortunately, I can't claim that I made it from scratch... I used a bread mix. It was still good though. I'm ususally not a fan of bread mixes, but making a traditional rye bread from scratch involves making a sour dough a few days in advance, and I'm quite simply not that much of a planner. 

The best way to enjoy a freshly baked piece of rugbrød, is with a lump of butter and some cheese!