Sklandrausis

As tradition built it

Makes 15 to 20. 220 to 250°C for 15 to 30 minutes, then at least 5 more with the topping.

Ingredients

The base

• 600 g rye flour, coarse or fine
• optional 40 to 60 g wheat flour
• 60 g butter or margarine
• 250 to 330 g warm water
• to taste salt
• as needed fat, for the baking sheet

The potato filling

• 0.8 to 1 kg potatoes
• to taste salt
• optional 150 to 200 g melted butter or 50 to 100 g cream, 1 to 3 eggs, caraway

The carrot filling

• 1.5 to 2 kg carrots
• 100 to 300 g sugar
• optional 200 to 300 g sour cream, 1 to 2 eggs

The topping

• 200 to 300 g sour cream
• 200 to 300 g sugar
• optional cinnamon or caraway

Method

The bases

1. Put the butter and salt in the warm water and mix in the flour, with the wheat flour if using, to a firm dough that rolls easily.
2. Roll it out 1.5 to 2.5mm thick and cut rounds 10 to 15cm across.
3. Turn the edges up 1.5 to 2cm, so they stand firm, and set the rounds on a greased baking sheet.

The fillings

4. Boil the potatoes and mash them smooth, kneading in salt, and butter or cream, eggs and caraway if using.
5. Boil the carrots and mash them smooth, kneading in the sugar, and sour cream and eggs if using.

Baking

6. Spread the potato in the bases and the carrot on top, one part potato to one or two of carrot.
7. Bake at 220 to 250°C, 15 to 30 minutes, until the base is dry.
8. Spread with sour cream, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon or caraway, and bake at least 5 minutes more.

Notes

The first documented recipe, from 1893, used no potato at all: only rye dough, a barley-and-soured-milk middle layer and a mashed turnip or carrot top. Potato only entered the now-standard version as it stabilised in published cookbooks between 1980 and 1990.

The recipe is Renāte Blumberga's, for Livones, the Livonian heritage site (18 May 2024), in the proportions of the EU registration, which makes 22 to 26 from 1 kg of rye. A Suiti workshop sheet from a Nordplus project gives the same, with less water, and allows raw grated potato or carrot and a little semolina to firm the fillings.

What a modern chef changes

A whole-roasted carrot layer and a torched caraway custard top

Method

1. Roast the carrot whole in its skin at low, even heat, rather than boiling it, then mash and blend with a touch of brown butter for depth.
2. Rest the unleavened rye dough under vacuum for several hours before rolling, relaxing its gluten more evenly than a bench rest, so it rolls thinner and bakes with a cleaner shatter.
3. Finish the caraway-and-cinnamon top layer as a torched, thin custard rather than a baked cream skin, for a genuine crème brûlée crack.