Traditional Finnish Archipelago Bread

I baked four loaves of Archipelago bread for Sunday. This traditional bread has a sweet, malty and syrupy taste. Archipelago bread is eaten throughout the year but for many Finns it is also an essential part of the Christmas dinner table. The great thing about this bread is that it gets better by time and can be prepared a couple of days beforehand. 


Ingredients 
1l apple or orange juice
50 gr yeast – (1 piece)
3dl syrup
3dl rye beer malts
3dl wheat or oatmeal brans
3dl rye flour
1 tbsp salt
11dl wheat flour

Instructions
Heat up the juice and mix it in a pot with the yeast, syrup, salt, malts, brans and wheat and rye flour.

Butter either three 1 litre or two 1,5 litre baking moulds and fill them with the dough (leave them about 1/3 empty to give the dough space to expand). Let the dough rise for about an hour and a half until it reaches the brim of the moulds.

Heat up the oven to 175°C (347°F) and bake the dough for an hour and a half at the lowest level in the oven. After one hour, sprinkle the dough carefully with a mix of water and a bit of syrup.

Take out the bread after the full baking time and let it rest at a cool place for 2-3 days.


-1,5°C, cloudy