In Search of the Swedish Companion – Tunnbröd
Emma Lundmark shows off some tunnbröd dough.
My first encounter with Tunnbröd (thin bread) came in the form of local street grub I’d quickly grabbed after a day at Vasamuseet a couple years ago. The concoction I’d ordered – soft thin bread rolled up funnel-style and filled with sausage, mashed potatoes, onions, mustard, lettuce, and other dubious condiments – was called Tunnbrödsrulle.
Integral to most meals in Sweden, I would later be introduced to varied and crispier versions of Tunnbröd. Thin bread topped with cheap caviar squeezed from a tube and cucumber slices adorn tables across the country. Crispy thin bread heavily smeared with butter regularly accompanies lunch and dinner. Crushed tunnbröd is eaten with sour milk and lingonberry jam cereal-style in a fashion called bryta (also known to Northerners as smolanedi).
Tunnbröd also plays supporting role to Surströmming (fermented Baltic herring), of which I have firsthand experience sampling.
While spending last summer up in Norrbotten (Northern Sweden), we’d convened at the local neighborhood joint for lunch – a small convenience store/pub/restaurant/bakery – all rolled into one in the small village of Klöverträsk; population – 260.
The only item on the menu that day – a pasta and meatballs with brown sauce dish – also happened to be the lunch special.
Young Emma Lundmark serves us our meal.
“You know Jonny makes his own tunnbröd,” someone chimes in just as we dig into baskets of freshly baked crispy bread.
I immediately set up a date with Emma, Jonny’s oldest daughter. She agreed to take me the very next morning behind the scenes of their bakery – Klöverträsk Bröd – an icon in the village for the last 40+ years.
1. Located in the village of Klöverträsk, The Lundmarks run their small one room bakery right next to the equally small convenience store where they sell groceries and toiletries. Their attached pub/restaurant is just a door away behind the store.
2. “It’s fun to work with your hands,” shares Emma as she kneads and prepares dough early in the morning. Each batch makes roughly 40 kg of tunnbröd so two batches are made per day.
3.A grooved roll pin is used to aerate the dough and to give it its texture look.
4.The bread is passed multiple times through a “kavelmaskin” – a machine that is used to stretch out the dough into a near paper-thin layer.
5.Once the dough has been stretched to the right weight, it is sliced into manageable pieces for baking.
6.The sliced up dough is then flash-baked for 20-25 seconds.
7.The baked crispy bread is cut into stackable pieces while still hot, and piled into boxes to continue their cooling down process.
8.Each box is weighed to make sure they meet the 400g (800g for larger boxes).
9.Simple clear cellophane tape is applied to seal the boxes up.
10.The freshly baked tunnbröd is ready to be delivered to local stores, including the Lundmarks’ own convenience store.
11.Another Lundmark specialty is cardamom-infused biscuits called Bettans Biscuits.
12.It takes about 20 minutes to mix and prepare each batch of dough.
13.The dough is left to rise for 45 minutes before baking for another 45 minutes.
14.Once the bread cools down and edges are cut away, they’re left to dry out for about two days. After that, they are put in a cutting machine to continue making smaller pieces which are baked one more time for close to two hours to give them their signature crispy taste.
15.Once ready, the biscuits are bagged and ready for sale. The Lundmarks also sell breadcrumbs accumulated from the baking process so that these cardamom-flavored breadcrumbs can be used for other baking purposes.
16.The finished products end up in the backyard pub and restaurant for guests.
17.The boxes and bags of thin bread and biscuits also end up in their convenience storefront for local customers to buy. The store is literally a door away that leads from the bakery.
18.Twice a month, the Lundmarks deliver tunnbröd and cardamom biscuits to roughly 60 local stores and supermarkets all across Swedish Lapland and in neighboring towns of Luleå, Piteå, Älvsbyn, and Boden.
More on Klöverträsk Bröd (Bread)
For more than 40 years, Klöverträsk Bröd has remained a family-owned business, providing fat free, sugar free, and milk free tunnbröd. The bakery was purchased roughly five years ago by The Lundmarks – Jonny, Monica, and their five children – from previous owner Robert Öhman who, after 18 years of running the business, was ready to move on.
In addition to Klöverträsk Bröd, the Lundmarks also purchased a 20+ year old recipe for old fashioned cardamom biscuits called Bettans Biscuits, which originated from a little village called Niemisel.
Since both purchases, Jonny has expanded the bakery’s offerings to include the following four products:
• Bettans Biscuits
• Bettans Breadcrumbs which can be used for baking
• Smaller 400g boxes of Klöverträsk tunnbröd
• 650g boxes of regular breadcrumbs
22 year old Emma continues to tend the bakery, shop, and restaurant alongside her parents.
Contact Information
Klöverträsk Bröd
Klöverträsk bya väg 21
975 91 Luleå
Phone: (46) 0920-85200
E-mail: jmltrading@telia.com
About the Author
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13 Comments... join the discussion!
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Thanks Luke! The caviar-in-a-tube took some getting used to.
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Lovely pictures, and I’m a huge fan on thinbread, although my source for it is Norwegian.
However, the croissant isn’t French, it’s Austrian.↵ -
Thanks Jens. Though the source of croissants is Austrian and pita bread is originally Arabic, I was referencing cultures who’ve embraced those food items to the point where they become the popular association.
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I just love this, seeing how food is made. Should be a regular feature here!
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I agree. Getting behind the scenes of how food is made gives you a whole new respect for it no matter how mundane the food item might be.
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A photo essay on tunnbröd! Very cool!
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I agree with Candice!
I’ve never been to Sweden, but wrote a piece about a Swedish bakery in Seattle and fell in love. I’d never heard of Tunnbröd or seen it made. Very cool!↵ -
YUM. What an amazing process. And I third the “more how food is made” request!!
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I found tunnbrod to be an acquired taste since I’m used to more traditional bread. I is pretty addictive though and light so when in Sweden I found myself constantly nibbling the stuff.
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Yes Anil! It’s definitely an acquired taste. Nothing a little butter wouldn’t make better though
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Late to this but great work Lola, really nice bit of “food reportage”. Matador needs more of this kind of insight – as does the “developed” world at large…
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Many thanks Paul!
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