Kolonihagen bakery in Oslo has found a niche market by means of using traditional types of grain like spelt, baking manually and slowly, following nature’s requirements, and using organic ingredients.
A lot of bakers were competing on Saturday 16 October 2010, the International Bread Day. Kolonihagen Bakery won first prize with their spelt breadrolls in the category fibre/bran bread. Not unexpectedly, Åpent Bakeri won 3 first prizes.
The excellent, manually made baker’s products which have become popular in the Norwegian capital was started by Åpent Bakeri, which was founded by Emanuel Rang and Øyvind Lofthus in 1997. They were concentrating on manual baking, letting their bakery products mature naturally, and using a wood-fired oven, which was freighted from Hardanger in the west of Norway to Damplassen in Oslo and working with passion. Besides, by employing bakers who bake manually, lots of their bakers have gone on to found new bakeries like United Bakeries, Kanel Kafe in Sandvika, a baker called Morten Schakenda started a bakery in Lom, and of course, Kolonihagen Bakery in Oslo.
Kolonihagen Bakery delivers baker’s products weekly or biweekly to their customers who get organic food on their doorsteps and daily to the restaurant Kolonihagen Frogner. The remainder is sold to nearby hotels and restaurants.
From soil to table visited the bakery shortly after they had been awarded for their spelt breadrolls for which we naturally asked for the recipe. Below is listed a version for making them at home.
Ingredients:
- 3.5 decilitres of water
- 300-400 grams of spelt flour
- 100 grams of polished spelt (the bran has been removed)
- 100 grams of crushed spelt
- 100 grams carrots
- 10 grams salt
- 25 grams yeast
Pumpkin seeds to be sprinkled on the top of the breadrolls.
How to proceed:
The day before you want to bake, mix the polished spelt with the crushed spelt and put on water in order to soak the mixture such that the spelt will attract water overnight.
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and put the mixture in the food processor. Let it run slowly for 2-3 minutes. Then, turn up the speed such that the dough doesn’t touch the bowl. Let the dough raise for about 2 hours
Cut up the dough sized like breadrolls. Tip! Moisten the work bench and your hands such that the dough is not attaching to anything. The breadrolls should have round forms since the dough is quite loose. The diameter of the breadrolls should be about 10 cm.
Let the breadrolls raise at least 25 minutes. Start at a temperature of 250 C, turning it gradually down to 230 C.
Use organic ingredients only! Kolonihagen is only using organic, stone milled flour from Holli flour mill together with organic, Norwegian carrots.
