Usually we are of the school of crusty, but soft, warm and fluffy ‘Polarbröd’ is no punishment either!
A few years ago I had braces, and for over a year crusty baguettes weren’t compatible with me. I was more comfortable with soft foods and things I could drink with a straw. That year we visited Norway and I found this wonderful soft bread in a Coop supermarket, which at the time was like Valhalla. It was called polarbröd and it turned out to be from Sweden (it’s actually a brand name, also called mjukt tunnbröd or soft tin bread). Back home I did some research to see if anybody sold this Swedish polar bread in Holland. At that time Ikea didn’t sell any, now they do, they call it something like arctic tunnbröd (please feel free to correct me people of the Nordic Countries). I also searched the web for recipes. I didn’t find much at the time, but managed to convert the information into a recipe of my own. The only thing that bothered me about the original polarbröd was that it contained some stuff I do not want to eat too often and also stuff you don’t need at all. So I wanted to make a healthy everyday version. This is the recipe I came up with.
I love flatbreads and I also love the idea of baking bread in a grill pan or skillet for a change. No two hour oven preheating and only one hour rest before you get to the baking. Great to have in your bread repertoire. Hope you like it too!
Ingredients for the Polar Bread
makes 8 disks of Polar Bread
325 g wheat flour
125 g rye flour
200 ml lukewarm water
60 ml creme fraîche or full fat yogurt
20 g honey
7 g salt
7 g instant yeast
a combination of fennel seeds and aniseed, 2 tsps in total (or to taste)
Making the Polar Bread
In the bowl of your mixer, combine the flour with the salt and fennel and aniseed. Add most of the water but keep a little aside, add the honey and the yeast. Now mix until the dough starts to come together, add the creme fraîche or yogurt. Carefully add some more water, see how much you need to make a dough that is slightly tacky (dough sticking at bottom of bowl but not too much). Knead for 7 minutes. Of course you can do the whole process by hand in which case you probably have to knead a little longer. Put the dough in a bowl greased with some oil, cover and leave to rest for about 1 hour in a warm place. Alternatively you can make the dough as described and immediately put it in the fridge, leave it there overnight and use it the following day. Just take the dough out of the fridge and start with the next stage of the recipe.
Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, shape into balls and cover. Put a skillet or grill pan over medium heat. Preheat it so it is hot before the first polar bread goes in. Shape the first ball into a flat disk. I do this shaping by hand, with my fingers mostly, so I can feel how thick it is (anything between 3 and 5 mm will do, see what you like best). With a fork, make a pattern of little holes in the bread (see pictures). Now carefully place the bread in the preheated but dry pan (so no oil or butter or anything), bake for 2 minutes then turn the bread and bake for another 2 minutes. Keep a close eye on it and check the heat, so they will not burn, adjust the heat if necessary. Use a stopwatch if you are easily distracted 
. Take the bread out of the pan and wrap it in a clean tea towel, where it will stay soft and warm for quite some time. Repeat the same process with the rest of the dough balls.
Your pan can get a little hotter during the process of baking so keep an eye on the bread so you won’t burn it. The bread will puff up slightly while baking, feeling soft but not doughy when ready. Eat some while still warm, it’s the best. We like it with cheese, or jam or both, maybe tuna salad, or…
Polar bread can be stored in the freezer after it’s cooled. It keeps amazingly well. Just put a piece in the micro wave and blast it for a minute at about 600 watt and you’ll have your lovely warm and soft bread ready to be dressed with whatever you like.
Variation: You can replace half of the aniseed or fennel seed by cumin seeds for a more distinctive savory taste that goes great with curry’s and other Indian or (Middle) Eastern food. But if you want to go down that road, you could also try our recipe for Indian Naan!
And I am sure there are lots of other variations with types of flour, herbs, spices and other ingredients you could think of.
Enjoy your very own version of Polarbröd!
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Lovely photos! I would maybe use black onion seed (nigella) for a middle eastern taste. I will try these next time I’m in a hurry for bread and don’t want to put the oven on. Thanks!
Thanks Johanna, for your nice words and the tip. I know I have some nigella seeds somewhere,..
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Lovely recipe – have made this twice this week. First with cumin seed and chopped coriander leaf which went with a chicken & lentil curry. Second time I doubled up the quantities and made ‘plain’ ones so we could eat some and freeze some.
It’s a lovely bread: crisp on the outside and soft and moist on the inside.
Thanks so much for sharing, this will be a family favourite .
Thank you so much for the feedback Carl. Did you already notice how well they keep in the freezer?
In addition for fellow bakers: If you want to keep the bread soft inside and out, you have to wrap them completely in a tea towel so the heat and moisture will keep the bread completely soft. If you like crisp, do not use the tea towel of course.
Happy baking,
Marieke
I am gonna try this recipe very soon im getting hungry just looking at the pictures. But i have some homemade chilipowder with different grades of heat level. Can i use this for the breads? Keep up the great site!
Hello Peter,
Thanks! Homemade chilipowder sounds really intriguing, but we can safely say we have never tried this ingredient with our bread making (only thing I can think of is a hint of cayenne in cheese cookies). But we see no reason at all why this should not work. So, if you are a chili man you must definitely also try it in (this) bread AND let us know how it turns out!
Happy baking!
Marieke & Ed
I finally made the polar bread but i had flower with the bran still in it so it looked a little different than the ones you made. But they still tasted great. I put chilli powder in it and you feel a little heat when you eat it but it didnt have a lot of flavour so next time im gonne try anis and fennil seeds. Thanks for the great recipe.
Hi Peter,
Thank’s for the comment. We found that the quality of the flour can also make a difference to the taste. We use organic wheat and rye flour from the mill and it makes a big difference. If you like the taste of cumin seeds you can also add them, I like it very much myself, it adds a lot of flavor and goes well with cheese and soups and curries etcetera.
Making the dough the night before and leaving it in the fridge also helps develop more depth of taste. Adding the chili powder sounds great too, I am definitely going to try that!
Happy baking,
Marieke
I made these last night and love them – I do have a query though:
they were more like chewy pitta breads in texture, any reason?
I tried making them thicker, to see if they would be spongy and they were just very dense.
I have dough leftover, so I will try again tonight, maybe they needed to rise more?
Thanks
Hello Nina,
My suggestion would be to make sure the dough is not too dry (like it says in the recipe the dough should stick to the bottom of the bowl, so maybe your flour needs some more water than indicated in the recipe), make sure your water is lukewarm so your dough is not too cold and let it rise in a warm place, maybe a little longer. Also make sure your yeast is working properly. Do not forget to prick the holes in the dough with a fork, otherwise air pockets can form and this may also lead to a more pita bread type bread.
Hope it helps,
Marieke
Thanks – do you use flour to shape?
I found the dough to be very sticky, too sticky to make into balls or shape, so I had to add flour to be able to handle it. It was better tonight (same dough, 24 hrs later), but they still don’t look anything like yours!
:-/
I use very little flour when shaping as you can see in the pictures. If you find it very sticky of course you can try the recipe with a little less water (maybe your flour absorbs less water than mine) the consistency should be slightly sticky, so you have to adjust accordingly. Also make sure the dough is kneaded long enough. I do not know what else could be different, I now of several people who made the recipe and as with all bread recipes, they never are exactly alike, but you will hopefully get the soft texture maybe next time because that is the essence of this bread. Wrapping it in a tea towel is also essential for the softness.
I used wholemeal rye, this may have made them a bit heavy, they were certainly a lot darker than yours!
I will try again using all white flour and a bit less water, will keep you posted!
Many thanks
Haha, intriguing recipe. Being Swedish, and my dad being from the north of Sweden, I’ve grown up with the different flatbreads of this country, and the Polarbröd was one of my favourites as a child (even though, or maybe because, my dad always shunned it for being too sweet and spongy). It was great for toasting out of the freezer.
I haven’t had it in a long time though, and the idea of making it myself had not occurred to me, but this I must try. Too bad I don’t own a grill pan, I will miss out on the nice patterns.