Finn Bread

To start - no we haven't heard anything yet on our extension. Eh... par for the course. Told you will know one day and now just waiting. I am still doing pretty good at being patient.

Now onto Finn Bread. Finn bread is a bread my Grandma Betty always made. I discovered as an adult the reason it is called finn bread (by my family. I have no idea if it has an official name or not) is because my Grandma learned the recipe from her mother-in-law who was a Finnish immigrant. That's it. Finn bread which is the creation of a Finn. Okay.

My Grandma baked bread twice a week when my dad was growing up. My dad is the oldest of four, and this recipe makes four loaves of bread. I can only guess she had to make bread this often just to keep up with her growing kids. For my brother and I it was always a special treat to go to Grandma's house and have finn bread, as Grandma was the only one who made it. Finn bread is a dense cracked wheat bread which has a wonderful crust. We used to eat it with everything and used it for toast and sandwiches, but I do believe it is the perfect soup bread.

When I got older I asked my mom why she never made finn bread. She told me she had the recipe and had tried to make it, but it didn't turn out right. I accepted this answer for a few years... and then after my other Grandma passed away, I realized there were so many things I had wanted to know, to ask her, to learn... and I would never have the chance to. However, I still had the chance to learn about finn bread. If I didn't learn, the recipe would die when Grandma did. That year at Christmas I asked Grandma to go through step by step how she made her bread, and we wrote down a recipe. As you can imagine, my Grandma was one of those bakers who didn't really measure. Everything she did was by sight/feel, and she knew the steps by heart. So I had to slow her down a bit and make her measure things out, and we would have to add more of things here and there to make it "look right." It turns out the recipe my mom had gotten had all sorts of wrong measurements. No wonder her bread didn't turn out. After my lesson (and with the proper recipe) I was able to make finn bread many times after that. When my Grandma Betty passed away last year it made  me even more grateful that we had spent our time together in the kitchen.

Now Josh has been bugging asking me to make finn bread since I got to Germany. He's heard about it, but never had it. It has taken me awhile to agree to it. First, to make finn bread does take a bit of time devotion (let the bread raise, punch it down, let it raise, knead it, form loaves, let them raise...) and I basically have to get started in the morning on a day off to do it. Second, I was a bit intimidated by my small German oven. In the states I could bake two loaves at once, and I knew how my oven worked (it's quirks). Over here I'm still adjusting to the small oven, and I'm still learning the quirks. I just wasn't sure if it would make a difference if the last loaf had to sit out and "raise" for a considerably longer time than the other loaves, and I didn't want to try freezing the dough. The other obstacle I kept facing was finding the ingredients I needed. This recipe uses molasses, and I thought it would be easy to find on base, but it wasn't. It took me months of looking to find molasses on base. Or rather for the base to get it in stock. My mom was about to ship me some from the states when I found it. The other ingredient I struggled to find was cracked wheat. Not cracked wheat flour, the actual wheat. After searching and searching on base, I figured my last hope was to try and find it at a German grocery store. Josh and I were grocery shopping at our local German store last week when he remembered to look for cracked wheat. Low and behold, we found it. I finally had everything I needed.

Yesterday we woke up to about four inches of new snow. Not much by Montana standards, but it is the most snow we've had since we've been here. The base will rate the road conditions (a color system - green, amber, red, black. You can figure it out I'm sure) and based upon these road conditions determines if there is a "snow day." Yesterday was a snow day - schools were closed, and Josh didn't have to go into work. It was kind of weird having him home, and it sort of threw off my daily game plan. Instead of being productive and doing things I would normally do during the day, I sat around with him. It was nice, and relaxing... I just didn't get anything done. Except making finn bread. We were up early, we had nothing to do, and the house was cold. I had everything I needed so... what the hell. Let's make some bread.

 Here is my tiny oven - a friend of mine refers to it as the "Barbie oven." Hopefully my stock pot on top could give you a bit of a size frame of reference.

 The best thing I bought at a Christmas market this year - kitty cat coffee cup. AND in Germany they already had my name - spelled correctly and everything! No special request needed.

 Welcome to my life. The giant box next to my beautiful mixer is a transformer - which changes the electrical current so I can use my US 110 volt appliances. Many people offered to "watch" my Kitchenaid for me when I moved overseas. HA! In your dreams. Look at me now.

 Done raising - ready to go in the oven.

I was surprised to discover I could fit both loaves in there. Please do not judge my dirty oven door. 

All in all it was a success, and it took less time than I thought it would. I did not take any pictures of the after products (because I was busy sampling, and keeping Josh from eating an entire loaf of bread), but I promise they turned out beautiful. Success!!