Icelandic chef Gísli Matt's go-to lava rye bread recipe

Rúgbrauð, Icelandic rye bread, differs from the better-known Danish rye bread. Although both are rather dense, ours is much sweeter, and theirs is filled with a mix of seeds and grains. As Iceland has traditionally lacked wood to fire an oven, our loaves of bread are often steamed in casks buried under the ground near hot springs.

Today, bread is still baked in this way, and when it is, it’s called hverabrauð. While we don’t have hot springs on the islands, we do have a volcano that erupted in 1973. My grandmother used to put the dough inside a cardboard milk container, go to the lava fields, dig a hole, and bury the container in the ground. She would come back the next day, and the bread would be finished cooking. The temperature used to be much higher back then, but there are still a few places on the volcano where it reaches 140°C (284°F).

Here below, Matt shares his lava bread recipe with Vogue Scandinavia. The quantities can be halved to make one loaf if you like.

Related: Icelandic Lava Bread: The beautiful tradition of baking bread in the ground

Makes 2 big loaves

500 ml milk
500 ml warm water (about 50°C/122°F)
3 tablespoons active dried yeast
500 g sugar
500 g plain (all-purpose) flour
1.5 kg rye flour
3 tablespoons sea salt

In a bowl, combine the milk, water and yeast and stir to activate the yeast, then add the remaining ingredients. Mix everything together until a dough forms, then divide the dough between two loaf pans with lids, making sure not to fill them up more than two-thirds of the way. Slide on the lids and cook at around 90°C (195°F) for 12 hours. If you are baking in an oven (as most people will), it’s good to have a roasting pan of water in the bottom of the oven while baking to create steam. Remove the breads from the oven, take them out of the loaf pans and rest on a wire rack for at least 1 hour before slicing and eating.

The bread will keep for 3–4 days.