Traditional Latvian bread soup
Traditional bread soup is one of the most famous and ancient dishes of Latvian cuisine. Despite its name, this dish is more suitable for dessert than for lunch. The bread soup itself does not look very attractive, and presentation plays a big role here: in a bread basket it takes on a completely new look. Therefore, although it can be simply poured into plates, the restaurant chef « MyLife» Raisa Alieva offers a recipe for traditional Latvian soup in bread baskets:RECIPE FOR TRADITIONAL LATVIAN BREAD SOUP
recipe from menu.ru
NECESSARY:
500 g oven-fried rye bread
50 g dried apricots
50 g royal raisins
1 cinnamon stick
25 g vanilla sugar
100 ml blackcurrant juice
150 g sugar
Salt - to taste
200 ml cream
100 g fresh berries
20 g mint leaves
Bread basket:
Bread mixture (millet, rye, barley flour, dry rye bread starter, sugar)
HOW TO COOK:
1. In the pot for 3 minutes. cook the blackcurrant juice, then add a cinnamon stick, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and bring to a boil. Add rye bread toasted in the oven and cook for 5 minutes until smooth.
2. Beat the resulting mass in a blender, first selecting a cinnamon stick. Place the mixture back into the pot, add blackcurrant juice and raisins and dried apricots soaked in hot water, cook for 2 minutes over low heat.
3. Bread basket: pour the bread mixture onto parchment paper, fry in the oven for 5 minutes at 200°C, then shape it into a “basket”.
4. Place the soup in a bread basket. Whip the cream together with powdered sugar. Decorate the soup with whipped cream, fresh berries and a sprig of fresh mint.
What else can you make from bread? Gourmet Breakfast: Country bread tartine with sautéed eggplant and goat cheese. Watch the video.
Sweet bread soup is a dessert very popular in both Estonia and Latvia, and both countries consider it their national dish. In addition to these two countries, bread soup is also known in other northern European countries such as Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
Latvians claim that traditional bread soup is one of the most famous and ancient dishes of Latvian cuisine. But the same is true for other nations whose cuisine includes sweet bread soup.
I have two theories about this. The first is that sweet bread soup originated in Sweden and from there spread to those countries that were under Swedish influence for a significant time. The second is that the use of leftover dry rye bread was natural for the peoples of Northern Europe, where rye was the main grain. True, for some reason the Russians did not go this route and there is no sweet bread soup in Russian cuisine.
The simplest basic recipe for bread soup is described on Wikipedia:
Rusks are soaked in boiled hot water, sugar and honey are added to them. When the base is ready, it is heated and fruit slices boiled in liquid sugar syrup and whipped cream, slightly sweetened with powdered sugar, are added. The soup is served cold.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B1%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D1%81%D1%83%D0 %BF
In reality, bread soup has a sufficient number of variations and subtleties. Some always add cinnamon to it, some believe that cranberry juice is a necessary component, some insist on rubbing it through a sieve. There are a lot of recipes for different versions of bread soup on the Internet and, nevertheless, I believe that my favorite version of bread soup is worth documenting here.
Although I was born and raised in Estonia, our Russian-Polish family did not cook bread soup. It was not offered in our school canteen either, because the school was Russian and was located in the Russian-speaking area of Tallinn. As a dessert, semolina porridge with jelly dominated there.
I first tasted bread soup in the TPI institute canteen and immediately fell in love with it. It was always there, it cost a penny in those days, but it tasted extremely good - a thick, aromatic, sweet bread mass with dried fruits, topped with whipped cream. Actually, I have been preparing this same bread soup from the institute canteen for many years. Interestingly, in those days it was offered only in canteens, because a dish made from the remains of dry black bread did not fit into what was then considered restaurant cuisine.
And so, I offer my version of this Baltic dessert.
For bread soup, crackers made from any black rye bread without cumin and coriander are suitable. Depending on the type of bread, your bread soup will taste slightly different, but still delicious. Although, the tastier the bread itself, the tastier the bread soup will be.
The crackers need to be dried in the oven until golden brown. You can make bread soup without first browning the crackers, but crackers fried to a brownish color give it a brighter bready flavor. To do this, I place the rye crackers in a preheated oven at 350 degrees. F (176 g. C) for 10-20 minutes or until they are slightly browned but not burnt.
The browned crackers are placed in a saucepan, poured with boiling water to cover the crackers, covered with a lid and left to soak for about an hour. If during the soaking process all the water has already been absorbed, but the crackers are still hard, then you can add a little more boiling water.
When the crackers are completely soaked, mash them into porridge with a fork or just your hand. While the crackers are soaking, wash the raisins and finely chop the dried apricots and dried apples. Some recipes suggest using prunes, but in my opinion they have too strong a taste, which overpowers the taste of the bread, i.e. I don’t use prunes.
Add chopped dried fruits and washed raisins to the mashed bread mass. Amount of raisins and dried fruits to taste. For example, I like there to be a lot of them. Some people prefer to have just a little dried fruit, just to highlight the taste of the bread. Add sugar and apple juice and put on low heat. You can use just water instead of apple juice, but it tastes better with apple juice. I add apple juice and sugar little by little as the bread mass warms up. The quantity is again to taste.
There are also recipes that suggest boiling the bread mass separately, rubbing it through a colander or grinding it in a blender, and then combining it with dried fruits cooked separately. I prefer the option when the bread soup is not pureed into a fine homogeneous mass, but still has some texture, i.e. I never puree it or grind it with a blender.
Stirring constantly, bring the soup almost to a boil and, without letting it boil, simmer for about 10 minutes. The result should be a mass similar in consistency to not very thick semolina porridge. It should be borne in mind that as a result of cooling, this soup becomes much thicker than when hot.
At the end of cooking, add more sugar, if necessary, and lemon juice to give the soup a sweet and sour taste. At this stage, some housewives add cinnamon to the soup, but I never do this, because for my taste, cinnamon, like the prunes mentioned above, overpowers the bright taste of bread, which I like so much in this dish.
The finished bread soup should be cooled - first under the lid so that a hard foam does not form on the surface, and then in the refrigerator. Bread soup is served cold with whipped cream or sour cream. However, this time I decided to deviate from tradition and served it with vanilla ice cream. And it turned out quite well!
This is what the crackers look like when browned in the oven: 
Rusks are filled with boiling water: 
Soaked and swollen crackers (note the increase in volume!): 
The crackers are mashed into a relatively homogeneous mass: 
Dried fruits and part of the apple juice were added to the swollen crackers (approximate proportions of dried fruits are visible): 
The soup is cooked and ready to chill: 
Dinner is served: 
The amazing country of Latvia - cold, amber-warmed nature, cozy little cafes with aromatic baked goods and delicious coffee, Riga balsam, sprats and, of course, rye bread... For us southerners, accustomed to white wheat bread, black rye is a real delicacy. But the most amazing thing is the sweet bread soup - a masterpiece of Latvian cooking. In the Baltics, it is prepared everywhere from rye crackers. This dish, unique in its simplicity and at the same time unusualness, has a centuries-old history. There is still a dispute between the North Baltic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Latvia and Estonia) as to who was the first to think of pouring boiling water over the remains of dry bread, adding sugar and dried fruits to prepare a delicious dessert. Be that as it may, in Russia this soup is known as a dish of Latvian cuisine and, if you need a tasty and healthy dessert, then sweet Latvian bread soup is the one.
You will need:
- rye bread 150 gr
- water 550 ml
- sugar 70 gr
- cinnamon 0.25 tsp
- vanilla sugar 0.5 tsp.
- cranberries 30 gr
This amount of food is enough for 4 servings. The finished dessert is stored well in the refrigerator, so I prepare a double portion and advise you to do so. Children love bread soup; it is an excellent option for a hearty breakfast.
Now about rye bread. Nowhere is there such delicious rye bread as in Latvia, and the very unforgettable taste for which bread soup is famous is obtained thanks to this bread. Real Latvian rye bread is dark outside and inside, dense in texture and slightly sour in taste, without yeast. Cumin is often added to it. Since rye does not grow in our south, it is almost impossible to purchase rye bread, especially Latvian bread. But, lo and behold, I found it frozen in one of the supermarkets!
150 grams of bread is 5 such slices, for a double portion, respectively 10.
Step-by-step photo recipe:
Bread soup is made from rye crackers. It has long been known that the most delicious recipes are born from inventive poverty. Apparently, bread soup was born out of savings, so as not to throw away stale bread. Therefore, cut the bread and dry it in the oven at t 160° C 25-30 minutes. Stir the crackers every 10 minutes. It is important that they do not burn. Cool.
Cooled crackers transfer to a saucepan pour boiling water over it. You can break them into smaller pieces.
Cover the pan with a lid and leave the crackers to swell for 30 - 40 minutes.
While the crackers are swelling, wash. For a double serving: dried apricots - 10 pcs, prunes – 10 pcs., raisins - 2 handfuls. Traditionally, these dried fruits are used, but with today's abundance, you can add whatever your heart desires. There may be more or less dried fruits, depending on your taste.
In Latvia, dried fruits are added whole to soup, but I prefer cut dried apricots and prunes into 4 parts. It's more convenient to eat this way.
Meanwhile, the rye crackers have swelled. This is what they look like.
Swollen crackers grind with a blender. Previously, they were ground through a colander or sieve and the consistency of the soup was not so uniform. Using a blender, the crackers are turned into a creamy mass. Bread soup can be either thinner or thicker, creamier - depending on the amount of water.
Add to bread mixture sugar And cinnamon. The quantities are approximate, add according to your taste.
Add, stir and cook with continuous stirring for 10 minutes. During this time the soup will boil. The bread mixture burns easily, so use a non-stick or thick-bottomed pan and stir continuously, because the thick mass easily “explodes” when heated and can burn with hot splashes.
Remove the pan from the heat and prepare cranberry juice: Heat frozen cranberries in the microwave 30 sec and rub through a sieve.
Add to cooled soup and stir well.
Bread soup is a cold dessert, so after stirring put it in the refrigerator and while it cools, whip the cream with vanilla and powdered sugar - traditionally bread soup is served with whipped cream.
Advice:Properly whipped cream should retain its shape and not spread into a scone. However, don't overdo it. By whipping cream for too long, you can end up with whey and butter instead of whipped cream. The average whipping time for 33% Petmolov cream is 5 minutes, for 38% Valio cream it is 1-2 minutes.
To save effort and time, you can use cream from a can.
Decorate a bowl of soup cranberries And cinnamon stick.
ABOUT cranberries I would like to say separately, because this is an unusually healthy berry - a storehouse of vitamins and microelements, It's a must have in your freezer. Cranberries add sourness to a rich bread soup and therefore, when serving, I not only decorate the top of the dessert with an appetizing red berry, but also add 1 tbsp to the bowl. cranberries straight from the freezer.
You can dust the top of the dessert with ground chicken.
As you can see, making bread soup is very simple, and its beauty and deliciousness is indescribable. I really love this dessert! Prepare it, you will like it too!
My favorite coffee pairing is simple Latvian Elgava ceramics made from red clay - very homey flavor.
Latvian bread soup. Brief recipe.
You will need:
- rye bread 150 gr
- dried fruits (raisins, dried apricots, prunes) 120 gr
- water 550 ml
- sugar 70 gr
- cinnamon 0.25 tsp
- whipping cream 33-38% 60 g
- vanilla sugar 0.5 tsp.
- cranberries 30 gr
Slice the bread and dry it in the oven at 160°C for 25-30 minutes. Stir the crackers every 10 minutes. It is important that they do not burn. Cool.
Place the crackers in a saucepan with a thick bottom, add boiling water, cover with a lid and leave to swell for 30 - 40 minutes.
Grind the swollen crackers with a blender.
Add dried fruits, sugar and cinnamon to the bread mass, stir and cook with continuous stirring for 10 minutes.
Heat frozen cranberries in the microwave for 30 seconds and rub through a sieve. Add cranberry juice to the cooled bread mixture and stir.
Divide the bread soup into bowls and top with whipped cream and cranberries.
The food attractions of Latvia are known to all guests and tourists - fish, dairy products, meat. And, of course, bread! That same airy rye, aromatic sweet and sour, which is called “Rizhsky”, and which in the 20-30s, according to legend, was delivered daily by plane to F.I. Shalyapin. Well, the great Russian bass could not be in his voice until a loaf of fragrant malt bread reached the table.
But today we are not talking about urban legends, which any Riga resident is ready to tell for days, we are talking about a unique dessert that has a centuries-old history and bears the paradoxical name “Bread Soup”.
Actually, to this day there is a dispute between the great North Baltic powers (Sweden, Latvia, Denmark and Estonia) whose brilliant head was the first to come up with the idea of pouring boiling water over the remains of rye bread, adding sugar, dried fruits, boiling, squeezing, cooling and decorating with cranberries and a cap from whipped cream. Most likely to cover up the not-so-impressive appearance of the main course. Perhaps it was Milda with many children from a farm near Aluksne, who was tired of the children throwing away crusts of black bread, and this is a sin! Or it was the sedate farmer Swensen from near Maalme, who dreamed of pleasing his bride with whipped cream, but nothing except the remains of black bread and a handful of raisins was at hand. Or, it was the leisurely seamstress Annie from Tartu, whose capricious daughter just didn’t want to eat raisins and dried fruits, and couldn’t scrape together enough money for chocolate before Christmas...
Be that as it may, it is known that the most exquisite and delicious recipes are born from inventive poverty, otherwise who in their right mind would come up with the idea of eating snails, and even calling them Escargot. But, about snails another time!
Let's leave the almost international conflict alone, because it was Latvia that made this dish practically its calling card.
Today this dessert is included in the menu of almost every catering establishment in Latvia. From democratic cafes and bistros to gourmet restaurants. True, chefs are constantly coming up with new ingredients, ways of serving and serving.
We invite those who wish to try making this dish themselves.
500 grams of rye bread, cut into slices, brown in the oven
50 g dried apricots
50 g raisins (seedless)
1 cinnamon stick
25 g vanilla sugar
100 ml cranberry juice or blackcurrant juice
150 g sugar
200 ml fat (!) 35% cream
Fresh berries, mint leaves.
Boil the juice for 3 minutes, add cinnamon, sugar, vanilla, bring to a boil, add toasted bread, stir, cook for 5 minutes until smooth. Then take out the cinnamon stick, beat with dried fruits in a blender, cook for another 2 minutes. Cool, place in bowls, decorate with whipped cream, berries, mint.
"BREAD SOUP" is a dish of Northern European cuisine. Bread soup is present in the national Danish, Latvian, Swedish, Estonian, Finnish cuisine. There are many types of bread soup. Bread soups can be divided into: fruit soups (depending on the specific fruits added), beer soup, chocolate soup, etc. etc. I tried almost everything. But I think the most delicious is the “bread soup” that is prepared in Latvia. In my opinion, it is balanced, both in the set of ingredients and in their composition. Moreover, it is tasty and useful. And both are not unimportant! Thus, this dish prepared according to the recipe of Latvian national cuisine, I consider, is optimal in all respects of a SWEET DISH! In addition, we can say that “bread soup” is universal - it can be served as both as a dessert and as a main dish. And having learned the recipe, having prepared and tasted “bread soup” in Latvian, you can understand what an amazing country Latvia is, where there is cold, amber-warmed nature, but cozy little cafes with aromatic baked goods and delicious coffee, the famous "Riga black balsam, sprats and, of course, rye bread. And for those accustomed to white wheat bread, black rye is a real delicacy. But the most amazing thing is the sweet bread soup - one of the masterpieces of Latvian cooking. In the Baltics It is prepared everywhere from rye crackers.This dish, unique in its simplicity and at the same time unusualness, has a centuries-old history. There is still a dispute between the North Baltic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Latvia and Estonia) who was the first to think of pouring boiling water over the remains of dry bread, adding sugar and dried fruits to make a delicious dessert? History is silent about this. Whatever it was, but this soup is known precisely as a dish of Latvian cuisine and, if you need a tasty and healthy dessert, then sweet Latvian bread soup is just it! You will need: - rye bread 150 grams; - dried fruits (raisins, dried apricots, prunes) 120 grams; - water 550 ml; - sugar 70 grams; - cinnamon 0.25 tsp; - whipping cream 33-38% 60 grams; - vanilla sugar 0.5 teaspoons; - cranberries 30 grams. This amount of food is enough for 4 servings. The finished dessert is well stored in the refrigerator, so you can prepare a double portion at once. Children love bread soup; it is an excellent option for a hearty breakfast and afternoon snack. Now about rye bread. I believe that nowhere else there is such delicious rye bread as in Latvia, and the very unforgettable taste for which bread soup is famous is obtained thanks to this bread. Real Latvian rye bread is dark outside and inside, dense in texture and slightly sour in taste, without yeast. Caraway is often added to it. Since rye does not grow everywhere, it is difficult to buy rye bread, especially Latvian one. But you can find it original in company stores. Frozen is also suitable. 150 grams of bread is 5 slices, for a double portion, respectively 10. Bread soup prepared from rye crackers. It has long been known that the most delicious recipes are born from inventive poverty. Apparently, bread soup was born out of savings, so as not to throw away stale bread. Therefore, cut the bread and dry it in the oven at 160° C for 25-30 minutes. Stir the crackers every 10 minutes. It is important that they do not burn. Cool. Place the cooled crackers in a saucepan, pour boiling water over them. The crackers are soaked in boiled hot water, sugar and honey are added to them. You can break them into smaller pieces. While the crackers are swelling, wash the dried fruits. For a double portion: dried apricots - 10 pcs., prunes - 10 pcs., raisins - 2 handfuls. Traditionally, these dried fruits are used, but with today's abundance, you can add whatever your heart desires. There can be more or less dried fruits, depending on your taste. In Latvia, dried fruits are put whole in the soup, but I prefer to cut dried apricots and prunes into 4 parts. This makes it easier to eat, especially for children. Meanwhile, the rye crackers have become swollen. Swollen Grind the crackers with a blender. Previously, they were ground through a colander or sieve and the consistency of the soup was not so uniform. Using a blender, the crackers are turned into a creamy mass. Bread soup can be either thinner or thicker, creamy - it depends on the amount of water and how you will serve it: as a dessert or main course. Add sugar and cinnamon to the bread mass. The quantity is indicated approximately, add according to your taste. But do not “overdo it”! The taste should be bright, but delicate. Add dried fruits, mix and cook with continuous stirring for 10 minutes. During this time the soup will boil. The bread mixture burns easily, so use a non-stick or thick-bottomed pan and stir continuously, as the thick mass easily “explodes” when heated and can burn with hot splashes. Remove the pan from the heat and prepare cranberry juice: heat frozen cranberries in the microwave for 30 seconds and rub through a sieve. Add cranberry juice to the cooled soup and mix well. Bread soup is cold sweet dish and dessert, so after stirring, put it in the refrigerator and, while it cools, whip the cream with vanilla sugar and powdered sugar - traditionally bread soup is served with whipped cream. Tip: Properly whipped cream should retain its shape and not spread into a scone. However, don't overdo it. By whipping cream for too long, you can end up with whey and butter instead of whipped cream. The average whipping time for 33% "Petmolov" cream is 5 minutes, for 38% "Valio" - 1-2 minutes. To save effort and time and/or with a large number of guests, you can also use cream from a can. I'm not a gourmet, but this is not the same as freshly whipped cream. Decorate a bowl of soup with cranberries and a cinnamon stick - this is in the case of a separate and main dish. And as a dessert - it is not forbidden to serve in bowls and small bowls. A cinnamon stick is also more an aesthetic than a necessity. They can be replaced with mint leaves. But we need to say something about cranberries separately, because this is an incredibly healthy berry - a storehouse of vitamins and microelements, it should definitely be in your freezer. Cranberries add sourness to a rich bread soup and therefore, when serving, I not only decorate the top of the dessert with an appetizing red berry, but also add 1 tbsp to the bowl. cranberries straight from the freezer. You can dust the top of the dessert with ground cinnamon. As you can see, it is very difficult to prepare bread soup, but the result is beautiful and tasty. And most importantly - not ordinary. I have loved this dessert since childhood! Prepare it, and you will like it too! BON APPETITE !
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