A Slice of Bread

In general, Swedes are a supermarket-bread-loving-people, never mind strange additives and perhaps a bit too much of the unwanted kind of sugar. Yes, also in this respect Swedes like to think of themselves as modern people, no fuss with small bakeries and fresh bread. Quick and convenient, that's the keyword, high quality and made with love is not.

I too have my convenient and semi-wholesome favourites - most of them are actually breadbrands I've eaten since I was a child. Well, not eaten all the time-non-stop-since-then, but you get the meaning... - but as much as possible I like to buy bread from smaller bakeries that use good ingredients and make bread with love and a personal twist. That is, when I don't bake my own bread, which I really don't do as much as I would like to, at least not when it comes to plain bread.

One bread I really like - that I discovered last year, is the huge sourdough loaves from Kringelgården. A bread slice of chewy, crunchy loveliness. This bread can also be bought from the Gateau bakery/café chain, since the bakery itself is a bit inconveniently situated if you don't happen to live or work in that particular suburb of Stockholm.

As I've mentioned a few times I think one very praised café/bakery/chocolaterie/restaurant by the name of Xoko is so completely overrated. Oh I do know many probably disagree, but I'm so very not impressed about most baked thingies I've bought there. It's a whole lot of surface and not much inside as far as I'm concerned - and I so miss the old-school-bakery of Dalpojken which was situated on that address for many, many years... A bakery who made wonderful bread, inside out - except for one thing. Their delicious sourdough bread - oh my does it make for the perfect chewy yummy breakfast treat!

At one of my favourite cafés/bakeries Bakgården - situated nearby the Woodland Cemetery - you can buy the most divine bread imaginable, I suppose the cakes aren't halfbad either, but it's really when it comes to plain bread they excel - and it's of course nothing "plain" about it! - my favourite bread is the dark lingonberry one, the ciabatta is de-lovely and the apricot one is unusual and rather nice, but a bit too sweet and cake-like for my preference of a breakfast sandwich.

At wonderful Saltå Kvarn I stocked up on a bunch of different breads to put in the freezer. Unfortunately only one of the freshly made ones, a big sourdough loaf, was good enough to re-stock. The other ones could just as well have been bought at a supermarket near you. I gather a far from intended pity.

However, I also discovered their spelt crisp bread - and now we're talking crisp bread addictiveness! I can't really put my finger on as to why it's so very tasty and so not like anything else I've tried when it comes to crisp bread - and hey, Swedes are pretty darn well-known for their plethora of Swedish crisp bread - it just is. The. Best.

Albert & Jack's is a deli/bakery/café which I'm, to be honest, not very impressed by when it comes to the food, but they bake quite lovely bread. This farm bread was a chunk of delicious chewiness too, just the way I like it. Perfect to freeze and unthaw when you want something special for breakfast.

This last bread - which happens to be appreciated by the bread basket curl furry one - isn't plain bread, but Karlsbader buns from bakery Sergelbageriet. Situated smack in the middle of the city at Sergels Torg (Sergel's Square), ever since the early 1970ies.

These type of buns holds a special memory to me; when I was a child and my mother had worked nights she sometimes bought fresh bread home with her in the mornings. Mostly plain bread for breakfast, but on special Fridays this simple looking but oh so nice Karlsbader bread. Although the bread weren't in shape of buns back then but in loaves. I got one slice before I went to school on those Fridays, and the weekend had begun in a very pleasant way. It's still always my mother who buys these buns now and then, I'm pleased to say they taste equally nice all these years later.