A Foreigner's Guide to Finnish Breads
For many foreigners, dark bread is an entirely new experience, as they have not encountered it in their own countries before moving to Finland, where bread is often a lighter, white color. In Finland, however, they discover a wide array of dark breads, such as rye bread, available in various shapes and flavors, sparking curiosity and a desire to purchase and taste them.
This article explores several varieties of Finnish bread that foreigners are typically keen to learn more about. These breads can be found in supermarkets, bakeries, cafes, and restaurants.
Rye bread / Ruisleipä
Rye has been historically cultivated in Finland mainly because of the type of weather that makes it suitable for easier growing here. The variety of rye bread in Finland is large in taste, shape, and aspect, as fresh or dry. Some foreigners enjoy rye bread as fresh, but some prefer dry rye bread, which is often also found with various seeds, herbs, and spices.
Limppu
This bread is usually in a big, thick shape, not flat and thin. One can find it in various versions such as ruislimppu, made of mainly rye, in dark version (tumma in Finnish), light (vaalealimppu), for Christmas (joulu in the Finnish language) it is found as joululimppu which is delicious and slightly sweet with some spices in it such as aniseed, fennel, orange, cinnamon, for Easter as called pääsiäislimppu too which is sweet with fennel, ginger, and other spices. There is another type of limppu called peruna limppu (peruna means potatoes in the Finnish language), which is also made from potatoes, rye, and wheat flour.
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Saaristolaisleipä / Archipelago bread
Archipelago bread literally means saaristolaisleipä; saaristo is archipelago while saari means island in Finnish. As the name of the bread describes, it originally came from the region of the southwest coast of Finland.
This type of bread is also very dark (tumma) and slightly sweet because it has syrup. It contains rye flour and usually wheat flour, oat bran, and malt, too. This bread is a delicious type of dark bread because orange juice is often used in the recipe as well. Some people use apple juice in the recipe instead. This bread is eaten more during Christmas time with some topping. It is slightly sweet, aromatic, and delicious.
Ruisreikäleipä
This bread is another type of dark bread found in food stores. Ruis means rye, reikä means hole, and leipä is bread in Finnish. This bread is called this way because it is mainly made of rye flour and has a flat, round shape with a hole in the middle. Sometimes this rye bread is called short as reikäleipä. Traditionally, this bread was baked in Finland, and the hole was used to hang the bread on a pole while it was kept on top of the oven to cook it well and ripen it when warm. Also, these breads with holes were kept in the poles for storage purposes to dry and eaten in winter. It is delicious to eat with some toppings, such as slices of cucumber and tomato, or to use as a dip in warm soups and stews.
Rieska
Rieska is a traditional Finnish flatbread made of flour, salt, and water without yeast. It is found in various versions such as ruisrieska (ruis is rye), ohrarieska (ohra means barley), perunarieska (peruna means potatoes), and nowadays, one can easily find also kaurarieska (kaura means oats) in the shops. This bread is delicious and popular, especially among kids.
Korppu
Korppu is a traditional Finnish dry bread in small, flat thin shape, and one can find it in various versions of sweet and savory. The delicious, sweet version is usually crispy and dusted with sugar and cinnamon. It is very common in Finnish houses to have it with tea/coffee. Some are called sokerikorppu; 'sokeri' means sugar in the Finnish language.
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Sämpylä
Sämpylä is usually round and made mostly from wheat flour. However, nowadays, in the shops, various versions made with a mixture of wheat, oat, and rye flour, sometimes with seeds or carrots grated in them, are available. There is also the modern gluten-free version for people sensitive to gluten.
Näkkileipä
There are different kinds of dry bread in Finland, which people usually call crackers or dry crispbread. Traditionally, Finnish näkkileipä was made with rye flour and in a thick, flat, rounded shape. However, nowadays, one can find them in shops in other shapes, such as rectangular shapes, sometimes flavored with various herbs and seeds, such as sesame seeds, fennel seeds, and cumin seeds. Sometimes näkkileipä is called näkkäri. People like to enjoy them as snacks with some topping.
Hapankorppu is another type of dry cracker similar to näkkileipä. Most of them are made from rye, but nowadays, one can also find ones made of oats.
Jälkiuunileipä
This bread called jälkiuunieiipä means literally 'after-oven bread.' It is traditionally made of rye and is similar to ruisreikäleipä, a bit harder than usual rye bread. The word 'uuni' means oven. In old times, people used to bake lots of bread at once in the oven for convenience reasons, which were suitable for that time, and keep it for consumption for a more extended period. Nowadays, in the shops, it is possible to find jälkiuunileipä in round and rectangular shapes, too, and it is also made from oats, rye, and gluten-free versions. One can see the jälkiuunileipä bread in the shape of a flat, pre-cut into two half parts.
Oat bread / Kaura leipä
Rye bread is popular and common in Finland and is largely used in various shapes, aspects, and tastes. However, oats are also highly produced in Finland, especially in recent years. Therefore, bread made of oat is very popular, called kaura leipä, where kaura means oat in the Finnish language. Oat bread is deliciously milder than rye bread, a bit sweet because of its oats taste, and people find it more friendly to the stomach. Usually, it is written on the package, vatsaystävällinen leipä, which means stomach-friendly bread.
One can find oat bread sliced, oat roll, or flat-shaped pre-cut into two halves.
Nisu bread
Although Nisu bread is considered sweet coffee bread, such as pulla-bread, it has the word leipä; bread in it, but it is not viewed as usual salty bread served with savoury food. However, it is delicious and can be found in shops as a big loaf rope-shaped. It has a wonderful cardamom aroma and a golden-brown surface decorated with almond fakes sometimes. One can cut the bread into slices and toast it, which becomes crispy and dry like korppu.
Walking around the supermarkets, you will see even more bread packages with different names written on them, such as varras-leipä, rinkeli-leipä, musli-leipä, and so on. Therefore, it is better to finish this article with these breads mentioned and let you discover the rest.
"Bread is the gold of the table."
– Molière
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