Kashubian bread. Baked the old fashioned way with recipes that are from the 1800s. Bake bread and learn all about sourdough bread and how it is supposed to be made. See Karola Bobers collection of recipe books and bread molds. 

Making Kashubian Bread

There are vacations that you take to relax and just lay on the beach. And then there are vacations where you want to learn something new. To visit the Kashubian district in Poland can be a great combination and to visit Karola Bober is a great way to learn loads of new things. We ended up at her place during a press trip so some of the things we got to experience were unique to us. However, Karola Bober do offer workshops in bread baking so as long as you make a reservation you can take part in this awesome experience!

Karolas place is not just a place where you go to make bread. This is also a museum where you can see things from the Kashubian district. There are super old marzipan forms and over 600 recipe books. Some of them dating back to the 1800s.

Did you know that in Norway, during the war they used moss instead of flour while making bread?!

Making sourdough bread

Everything you will make and bake here is homemade. Since the sourdough takes forever to make, that is made in advance but you will use homemade sourdough – that’s for sure! And I could not help but laugh when I saw what we would be making the bread in – cradles. Yes, baby cradles were acting like bread making machines during this day!

Now I know why it is called “having a bun in the oven”. We all took turns preparing the dough and the forms for the Kashubian bread. Karola told us that she had been up since 2.30, baking bread to get all the reservations made for the day. The smell was lovely and even if we came here straight after breakfast we all got really hungry again.

Baking bread in a cradle = lots of laughs

What do you get if you take a bunch of happy people and let them bake bread? Well in our case we got a great tummy workout because we laughed so much. First, we got the cutest aprons and headpieces. Most of them were in the traditional Kashubian colors and patterns.

We all helped out making the bread and at times it was sticky. Karola told us that one of the secrets of making amazing bread is to add the flour nice and spread out and not all at once. And we all took turns, playing with the dough and adding the flour. I am not a bread baker and we never make homemade bread but this was still so much fun. I’m pretty sure that I speak for all of us that were on the press trip that this was great!

While on the topic of clothes (in this case aprons). Make sure to check out the hanger that is inside Karola Bobers home. There is a clothes hanger for a uniform. It is a regular old wooden hanger but it has Adolf Hitler engraved in the hanger. This is morbid and scaring and fascinating all at once. Don’t miss to check it out!

Adding magic to the bread

Did you know that you can add fresh horseradish leaves in the form to add some extra taste to the bread? Well, now you know! Since it was season for horseradish during our visit in the Kashubian district, we ended up using the leaves in the forms while making the bread. It is up to you if you peel off the leaves afterward or if you eat it like it is!

The formes that we used for our bread that day were 120 years old! That is a lot of history and like always my mind wandered off to who had been using them before. Once all of our pieces of bread were prepared, it was time for them to be baked. And while they were being baked we all sat down for lunch.

Our visit to the Kashubian region

Like I mentioned before – we were here on a press trip. We got to meet the mayor, Miroslav Ebertowski, and he told us a lot about the region. For example that they have their own language and that there are about 4 000 people living in the region. We all got a teddy bear – he is called Remus and is a Kashubian symbol for Lipusz.

We enjoyed a lunch of traditional Kashubian dish, pike-perch that was delicious. And like that was not enough we got some incredible gingerbreads to take with us. They were so cute that we felt sorry to eat them. The best part about the gingerbread is that it has a long expiration date so no hurry in eating them.

Kashubian Bread in the Kashubian region

Once our bread was ready to eat from the outside oven where it had baked over an open flame, we were all to full to eat it. I think that the point was that we were supposed to eat the bread with butter but there was no way that any of us could fit more food. We ended up leaving and taking the bread with us.

This is truly a unique and fun thing to do while visiting the Kashubian region. Make sure that you come here and bake bread. And if you don’t want to take part in the baking – make sure that you buy some bread with you!

Recipe Kashubian homemade bread

As a token of appreciation all people that attend the workshop in bread making with Karola Bober, get a certificate. The most awesome thing is that there is a recipe on the certificate. We decided to share that recipe with you guys – in case you want to try and make a traditional bread Kashubian style!

Ingredients for homemade Kashubian bread:

• 1 cup of sourdough.
• 3 kilos of rye flour.
• 2,3 liters of water (whey or buttermilk).
• 3 tablespoons of salt.
• Caraway or fennel flower.

Preparation:

1. Sift 1,5 kilos of flour and add water (or whey) and sourdough.
2. Leave it for a few hours in a warm place.
3. When the dough is double in size, add the rest of the four.
4. Work the dough until it is smooth.
5. Place the dough in a loaf pan and wait (once more) until it doubles in size.
6. Preheat the oven to 200 – 220 degrees Celsius.
7. Bake in the oven for about an hour.
8. ENJOY!

Information about the Kashubian bread baking

Owner: Karola Bober.
Address: Bytowska 28, 83-424 Lipusz.
Phone number for reservations: +48 605 449 569.