Over the last decade or two, we’ve rather fallen for Nordic minimalism. The form and function of the furniture, the normcore aesthetic of the fashion; once it was modish and cool – now it’s just a normal part of life. Everyone has been to IKEA at least once in their life, right?
The story is the same when it comes to food, and baking particularly. Baking is one area where we still value our own traditions – bread, pies, pasties and puddings all have time-honoured roots, but are easily available to us all. That said, we’ve come to greatly admire the simplicity of Nordic baking, which stands in vast contrast to the butter and sugar-laden French style that has influenced much of central Europe. Look at the things that have entered our baking lexicon over the last decade and you’ll find many of them have their roots north of our little island, not south. Cinnamon buns (kanelbulle) hail from Sweden, as do semla and saffron buns. Soft, custard-filled Skoleboller are a Norwegian speciality, whilst crispbreads and rye breads – both big sellers in the UK these days – developed independently all over the Nordic region.
Climate has had a huge influence on the functional nature of Nordic baking practices. The Nordic region includes Scandinavia (which technically refers to the three kingdoms of Norway, Sweden and Denmark) as well as Finland, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. This is a part of the world where people deal with borderline-arctic climates for much of the year and, as a result, traditionally needed food that would keep well and provide sufficient calories. The answer lay in ancient and hardy grains – predominantly rye, which grows well in the cold, but also wheat, oats and barley. By growing whichever grains they could and milling them into flour, people had a food source that would keep through the inhospitable winter and was also nutrient-rich and calorie-dense.