National cuisines (recipes welcome!)

[Mervi]

Actually I just realised that my favourite breads in Sweden are actually the Finnish rye breads you can buy there, so I think we'll have to ask Mervi and the other Finns for the recipe! The Swedish pastry-type recipes I know are pretty standard: gingerbread biscuits, cinnamon buns and so on. But I'll be happy to post them if anyone wants.

Now rye bread is one the (many) Finnish cuisines that seems to be an acquired taste. It's one of those things Finns living abroad report missing the most (alongside salmiac which is just , er... ammonium chloride) but most the rest of the world seems to manage just fine without! However, rye bread is supposed to be very healthy, so at least it's a good acquired taste! I have to confess never having actually baked rye bread (oh the shock! the horror!) but I do eat it regularly so I guess I should try out a recipe or two and then share them here. I think the most difficult part for you guys would be to obtain a piece of authentic "leipäjuuri" (sorry, don't know the English equivalent, it literally means "bread-root") which is a piece of the dough that was separated before baking the previous loaf that is then used to "waken" the new dough. I think a dried piece of the actual bread would suffice too.