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What did the Vikings eat? How did they cook? What sort of flavours did they add to their food? We’re in the depths of learning all about the men for the north, the Norsemen or Vikings and decided to cook some of their staple foods. So one of them was bread. This recipe is one that I found in an old teaching book and is similar to Norse Soda Bread. So here you go a Viking Bread Recipe to cook with kids.
Before we get to the recipe a little about what the Vikings ate and also about bread.
The Vikings ate a very varied diet, they kept farm animals like Pigs, Cows and Chickens so meat, eggs and milk were commonly used in their dishes.
They also hunted and because of being sea faring people they ate a lot of fish either from the sea or rivers where they lived.
Along with the meat they had a healthy diet of fruit and vegetables. Root vegetables and leeks were very common. An interesting fact, the carrots grown weren’t orange like we get today but instead either purple or white!
They also collected honey from bees and used this to sweeten food as no sugar was available.
Grains were grown, harvested and then ground to flour. Barley, Rye, Oats and in warmer areas wheat were grown. The barley (along with hops they found in the wild) were used for making beer whereas oats, rye and wheat for flour to make bread.
Bread was a staple of the diet, however, depending on where you lay in the village hierachy is what type of bread you ate.
Whereas, this bread which is slightly risen due to the bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) in it would have been for the richer Vikings. The bread would have been torn and dipped into the stew or served with homemade butter and honey or jam for a sweeter dish.
The recipe at the bottom of the post has everything in grammes (just scroll down further), however, we measured out our ingredients and below you will see them in cups.
Start by putting all of the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix together.
Add in the warm water and use a wooden spoon (just like a Viking) to stir the ingredients to start to form a dough.
When you can’t stir any more turn it out onto a surface and knead with your hands until firm.
Place on a lined baking tray and into an oven.
With the bread on the tray in the oven switch it on to 180C (fan assisted) and set the timer for 45 minutes. Once cooked, remove let cool and a little and then enjoy!
We served ours with butter and honey, but you could try making a stew to cook with kids and dipping the bread in that to soak up the liquid.
Gina LoBiondo
April 04, 2023
This recipe looks good, but how would I do it in a bread maker? Thanks in advance! 😊