Try it at home

Baking rye bread in the boiling ground has a long tradition in the village of Laugarvatn. As you probably know, Iceland can be very cold, and this place is no exception. At Laugarvatn, we have exceptional heat underground. We bake our special rye bread in the sand close to one of the main hot springs. Under the sand are small cracks where the boiling water is able to get through, with a temperature of around 100 degrees Celsius.  Our guests are often curious about how to make it at home, so we wanted to share the baking method and process for home baking. If you have a hot spring somewhere nearby, we encourage you to try our method, but be very careful about the boiling water.

Our recipe:

2 cups rye flour
1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
500 ml. milk

Method: 

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 100°C / 220°F 

Step 2 

Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix them together.

Step 3 

Put the milk with the dry ingredients and mix together. 

Step 4 

Grease a pot with butter to prevent the bread from sticking.

Step 5

Pour the mixture into the pot

Step 6

Place the pot in the centre of the oven and put water tray below the pot to prevent the rye bread from drying out.

Step 7

Bake for 8 to 10 hours.