Icelandic Dark Rye Bread

It's not surprising that rye is used in Iceland. The grain (closely related to wheat and barley) does well in poor soils and in colder environments. Well, that would be northern (in general), central and eastern Europe, and Iceland. It has much less gluten than wheat. As if that matters... Except to a baker.

The latest issue of Saveur (#170, December 2014) had something in it that grabbed my nerdy geology loving mind:

Nanna starts in on her last task, prepping the dense, sweet dark rye bread that she'll bake at a very low temperature overnight to mimic the traditional lava-pit method. The bread was once commonly baked in holes in the ground heated naturally by Iceland's copious geothermal steam.

I'm hooked. I have to do this. Recipe is straight from Saveur.

Dökkt Rúgbraud

Icelandic Dark Rye Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

Unsalted butter, for greasing and serving
3 cups dark rye flour
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup golden syrup

Procedure

Heat oven to 200°F. Grease 2 loaf pans with butter. Whisk flours, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. Stir in buttermilk and syrup to form a smooth dough. Pour dough into prepared pans and cover with aluminum foil; bake until cooked through, about 8 hours. Let cool slightly and unmold: serve with butter, if you like.

Discussion

First. 200°F is not a typo. Neither is "about 8 hours." This seems less about baking than Pasteurizing.

Second. OK, that was easy. The waiting to taste it was the hardest part. Seriously, cooking underground with geothermal steam? How cool (hot) is that?

I'll serve this at my party tomorrow night. I snicky-snacked a few slices off after the loaves cooled a bit, slathered with a bit of butter. OK, this is good. Something I've never seen or heard of before, but good.

Oh, and as usual, I made a mistake. As many times as I read the recipe (I blame bad lighting), I read it was one CAN of golden syrup. Not, as I found out when I typed the recipe in, that it is one CUP. The difference? 3 ounces (8 vs. 11). Yes, the bread is a little sweet. But not too much. Delicious. Besides, if you were to pour the golden syrup into a measuring cup, get the right measure, and then pour the syrup into the batter mix, you'd likely leave an ounce or so on the sides of the measuring cup. Meaning, you'd be not adding 1 cup, but something less. So imprecise! My suggestion? Get over the precise stuff, and just pour, and stop when it doesn't flow fast anymore. That should work. And so you won't have to wonder what to do with the leftover 3 or so ounces, I would suggest to anyone making this, just pour the can in, and don't be so fastidious about getting it all in. Yes, waste some. It's OK. And then, you could make yourself and a companion a cup of tea, and drizzle a bit of the leftover syrup into the tea. And turn off your smart phones and have a conversation...