Called Hverabrauð in Icelandic, this volcanic rye bread is made using one of the most unconventional baking methods. The bread is put in a pan which is then buried in the ground next to hot water springs. Iceland is a country with a lot of tectonic activity, 30 active volcanoes, and countless hot springs. The heat in the ground gives the bread a 24-hour long bake. Click here to watch a short documentary about the process.
Now, most of us don't have hot springs nearby, but you can mimic these environmental conditions by slow-cooking the dough in the oven overnight. In this case, the bread is called Rúgbrauð.
Canned bread may sound like a very strange novelty food, but it's actually a long-standing Boston favorite. The history of this New England special dates all the way back to the Pilgrims who had to adjust the way they made bread because of wheat shortages. They would replace a third of the wheat flour with rye and another third with cornmeal. The result was a sweet, sticky, dark bread that was often steamed to enhance all of those characteristics.
This recipe was embraced by Boston bakers, who made another important improvement to it during the early 19th century, when cans became more widespread. They reused coffee cans to prepare this steamed cylindrical bread and served it with baked beans and sausages. If you'd like to make this fun and unusual bread at home, here is an easy recipe.
Carta di musica, also known as Pane Carasau, is a Sardinian flatbread that is very simple to make and can last for months. The name 'carta di musica' comes from how thin the bread must be to turn out right, thin enough to be able to read a sheet of music through it. The result is a thin and crispy dried bread that goes perfectly with any kind of dip and smells divine.
Traditionally, carts di musica is the bread Sardinian shepherds would take with them in the fields, and they paired it with other simple local foods like wine, cheese, and olives.
This soft and moist Cherokee bread is nothing like you've tasted before, and it resembles a dumpling rather than a common bread. This recipe uses two staple ingredients of Cherokee cuisine, namely corn and beans. You might find corn flour under the name masa harina, but pay attention: this is not cornstarch. While the flour is yellow, the starch is white.
The recipe calls for the use of corn husks. Since finding those may be difficult, you can swap them with aluminum foil strips.
Beer bread was a popular recipe in 16th and 17th-century European cookbooks, and we totally understand why, as this bread is super easy to make and doesn't require any yeast. This means it also doesn't need time to rise, you simply stick it in the oven! Back in the day, “barm”, which is a foam made during beer fermentation was used by bakers to leaven this soft dough, but a 12-ounce bottle of beer will have the same impact. Any beer will do for this recipe, but dark ones and stout beers are best.
Here is a super easy and quick recipe for beer bread.
Peanut butter bread may sound like a novelty, but it is a surprisingly old recipe, from the Great Depression era. Most modern recipes are based on a 1932 version from a Canadian cookbook titled “Five Roses: A Guide to Good Cooking” by Elizabeth Driver.
