Swedish Rye Bread (recipe mid-post)

My daughter, Michelle, came home from a diving meet the other day and was describing her new friend, a German exchange student. Her friend could not understand America's obsession with sharing that they are a quarter German or a half Swedish. In Germany, you are just German.

I thought long and hard about this, because I am very proud of my Swedish roots. So many of us in the United States are either second or third generation Americans, and our European roots are very important to us. My daughter, however, only thinks of herself as American. She does not obsess like I do on Old World traditions.

My maternal Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather both came to the United States from Sweden in the late 19th and early 20th century. They married, and began a family in the Swedish community of Montgomery County, Iowa. My grandmother grew up bi-lingual, speaking both Swedish and English. Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandparents and my great grandmother from Sweden, but as most children, never appreciated the history and traditions I was exposed to at that time.

As an adult, I am fascinated by the traditions of Sweden. I am also fascinated by the history of Swedish food and how it has evolved in the United States. When my Grandmother Buckley passed away, I inherited some of her cookbooks. Most of them are community cookbooks from local factories and churches around Red Oak, Iowa. I love it that one of the recipe names from the "Union Carbide Employees' 20th Annual Cook Book, Red Oak Plant, 1968," is "Spaghetti Which George Harshaw Won't Eat". You can pick up so much about people and communities just by looking through titles in a cookbook!

However, reading through these cookbooks (as well as my own mother's yearning for some Swedish Rye Bread like her grandmother used to make), prompted me to try my hand at one of these old recipes. Although there were six recipes for rye bread in the "Union Carbide Employees 20th Annual Cook Book," I picked Helen's Swedish Rye Bread because it used caraway seeds, which my mom remembered from my great grandmothers bread.

Helen's Swedish Rye Bread
A
2 c. boiling water
B
1/4 c. quick oatmeal
1/3 c. brown sugar
1T. salt
1/4 c. fat
1/4 c. molasses
1 T. caraway seed
C
1 pckg. yeast
D
3 1/2 c. flour
E.
3 c. rye flour

Pour "A" over "B", cool to lukewarm. Add "C". Add 2 c. "D". Beat and add "E". Add 1 c. of "D". Let stand 10 min. Knead 10 min. Let rise until double in bulk. Knead again. Let rise until double. Make into 2 loaves. Let rise ad bake at 375 degrees, 40-50 minutes.

I failed miserably at my first attempt at this bread. Although the outside looked done, the inside was still not fully cooked. I put it back in the oven, but the result was extremely heavy thick bread. It tasted okay, but I think it will end up in the garbage.

Today I have already mixed up a new batch of this bread and have it rising. I will post tomorrow about how it turns out.