Blood Bread. I just picked up an old hand written recipe for this. My Finnish gram used to tell us it was chocolate bread but I knew better. You can use 1/2 dark and 1/2 light rye flours, or even substitute whole wheat flour for the graham flour.
INGREDIENTS (for 7 servings):
- 3 cups graham flour
- 3 cups boiling water
- 3/4 cup shortening, melted
- 3 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 2 (0.6 ounce) cakes compressed fresh yeast
- 1 quart blood
- 6 cups medium rye flour
- 4 cups bread flour
PREPARATION:
In a large bowl, use a wooden spoon to mix together the graham flour and boiling water until smooth. Stir in melted shortening, salt, cloves, allspice and yeast. Mix in blood until well blended, then stir in rye flour and bread flour 1 cup at a time, and stir until dough no longer sticks to the spoon or the sides of the bowl. Sprinkle flour over the top of the dough, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
When dough has doubled, stir down, and spoon dough into six 9x5 inch loaf pans. Let rise until dough is doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease the tops of the loaves.
Bake loaves for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until tops are browned and loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.