Poplamenice with cabbage and cracklings

These bread pancakes used to be used to test whether the oven was already hot enough to bake bread, or to use leftover dough that would not bake the whole bread. They were baked both savoury, classic caraway, and sweet, for example with plums or apples.

Ingredients:

350 g of rye flour 250 g wheat flour 440 ml of drinking water 1 tbsp ground cumin 2 tsp salt smooth flour to dust the work surface Other: lard for browning, whole caraway seeds for sprinkling salt, sauerkraut and minced crackling to serve

Procedure:

1. Prepare the starter the day before; mix 350 g of rye flour and 200 ml of skimmed lukewarm drinking water into a smooth dough, cover with a clean cloth and leave to ferment, ideally overnight but at least 8 hours at around 22 °C
2. Use 2 tablespoons of the sourdough starter for this recipe, the rest can be put in the fridge with a lid with a hole in it for future use
3. Add 250 g of flour to the bowl with the sourdough starter, pour in 240 ml of water and add 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 tablespoon of ground cumin, knead for about 15 minutes until a smooth dough is formed, in the past housewives used to do this with a kneader, but you’d better use a food processor with a dough whisk
4. Turn the smooth dough out onto a floured work surface and fold the edges over each other with your hands until it forms a nice loaf, cover again with a tea towel and leave to rise for 80-90 minutes until doubled in volume
5. Preheat the oven to 250-260 °C, place a baking tray with water in the bottom
6. Remove the dough from the loaves and shape them into pancakes 1.5-2 cm high and about 15-18 cm large, spread them on a baking tray, which is then placed in the centre of the oven for 2-3 minutes, then turn the oven down to 160 °C, brush the loaves with lard, sprinkle with caraway seeds and bake for about 25-
30 minutes until they turn golden brown and sound hollow when tapped
7.

Recommendation:

The pancakes can only be pre-baked, then stored in the freezer when cooled and then just cooked on a plate, baking sheet or grill. In this case, only bake them for about 15-20 minutes so that the batter gets nicely browned but stays almost white. To toast the pancakes, brush them with lard, drop them on a heated surface of a baking sheet or grill and finish toasting, on both sides, nicely golden brown, again they should sound hollow when tapped.

Note:

Photo from Ratibořice, where Poplamenice are sold at the mill in the valley where the famous grandmother of Božena Němcová lived.