Knækbrød, called crispbread in English, is a staple in many Danish households, and even more so in other Scandinavian countries. When I visit my family in Sweden, it’s guaranteed that I can find knäckebröd (Swedish for knækbrød) in their pantries. Many U.S. stores sells it too. It’s delicious with hummus or cheese and it’s always part of the bread basket when we enjoy a delicious cheese plate for dinner at my house.

So what is it? It’s a dry, crisp cracker, usually baked with some type of rye flour although a number of new varieties have come on the market in the past years. If stored cool and in an airtight container, knækbrød will keep for a long time. This made it extremely useful back in the days when food storage was a lot more challenging than it is today. The tradition of baking knækbrød is actually very old. In Sweden and Finland, it is thought to go all the way back to the Middle Ages! Talk about sticking with tradition!

I love to experiment with bread so this summer, when my sister offered me some knækbrød she had made herself, it piqued my curiosity, but it wasn’t until she made a gluten free version at Christmas that I decided to start making it myself.

Once back in my own kitchen, the test baking began and I must say I was quite happy
with the result. I decided to jump into the gluten free arena and made my knækbrød with seeds, gluten free oats and buckwheat flour. Buckwheat flour, you may wonder – is that gluten free? And the answer is, yes it is! Despite the name, it is in fact related to….. want to take a guess? The buckwheat plant is related to rhubarb! It is the grinded small seeds of the plant that make up the buckwheat flour.

So now this gluten free knækbrød is on my menu. Check it out here under Bread and Breakfast.