Latvia: vegan rupjmaizes kārtojums

Our first stop in Northern Europe brings us to Latvia where we try a Latvian vegan recipe called rupjmaizes kārtojums, or Latvian ambrosia. Based on the ever-important Latvian dark rye bread, rupjmaize, this dessert greatly resembles the more familiar trifle but with two Latvian twists. Read on to learn a little about Latvian cooking or jump straight to the recipe.

Latvia is one of the three Baltic states and is located on the eastern shore of the Baltic sea. Throughout their history, they have been invaded and ruled by German princedoms and the Swedish, Polish and Russian empires ​[1]​. After brief independence between World War 1 and 2, they fell under Soviet occupation until 1991 when, after years of peaceful protests, they and their Baltic neighbours Estonia and Lithuania, regained their freedom.

Latvian cuisine

As with other Northern European countries, the Northern location of Latvia has a large impact of what foods can be grown and eaten in the region and dictated what was served on the pre-globalization table ​[2]–[5]​. Fish, meat from pigs, and dairy – often fermented – are very important. The plantbased foods are sturdy crops that can easily be grown and stored for the long winters. Cabbage, onion, mushrooms, and tubers like potato and beets along with grains like wheat, rye, and barley are common. Spices are few and used sparingly but include dill, caraway and black pepper.

Reading about the different dishes and looking at photos, I am struck by how incredibly similar the Latvian cuisine is to the Swedish one. This is of course no surprise as both latvia and Sweden occupy similar lattitude, are both coastal and have a lot of shared history and trade with each other and their other neighbours around the Baltic sea. Sweden and Latvia are after all only separated by 140 km of sea.

Latvian dishes

Most of the popular and somewhat unique Latvian dishes include either fish or different parts of pigs ​[3]–[7]​. Such as grey peas with speck, pickled herring with potatoes, sour cream and dill, and blood sausage. Among the vegan and or easy-to-make-vegan dishes we find things like the side dish griķi (boiled buckwheat with butter), bukstiņbiezputra (a savory porridge made from potatoes, barley, and cream), and sklandrausis (little tarts with mashed potatoes and carrots). Dishes found outside Latvia like sauerkraut, red beet soup and mushroom soup are also popular.

Unique desserts are plentiful and many can be made vegan fairly easily. These include interesting things like berry fool (an airy, whipped semolina porridge seasoned with cranberries and served floating in milk) and pancakes similar to the ones I’m used to from Sweden. Unlike American pancakes, Latvian panckaes are made without a levener, are thin and soft, slightly thicker than crepes, and are eaten with jam and whipped cream.

Rupjmaizes kārtojums

Rupjmaizes kārtojums is a dessert (the first dessert on this blog!) made from old rye bread (rupjmaize), whipped cream, and a sour jam. All English recipes I found called for cranberry jam ​[8]–[10]​ whereas the Latvian sources (Google Translate to the rescue!) call for lingonberry, cranberry or black currant jam ​[11], [12]​. True to my Swedish roots, I obviously have a few jars of lingonberry jam at home, bought at my local IKEA. If you don’t have a trip to IKEA on the horizon, you can use cranberry jam instead.

Here I chose to bake my own rye bread (described here) and create my own whipped topping, based on Miyoko Schinner’s recipe in The Homemade Vegan Pantry ​[13]​. But you can of course buy bread and your favourite, plantbased whipped topping for a really easy dessert.

Rupjmaize – dark rye bread

Rye is one of the few crops that give a high, reliable yield in Northern Europe, and as such, rye bread is very popular throughout the region. In Latvia in particular they take their rye bread very seriously and it is surrounded by many customs. For instance, if you were to drop it (gasp!), you have to quickly pick it up and kiss it (no tounge!) ​[14]​. The very first slice of a fresh loaf has to be enjoyed in silence ​[15]​. And if you wipe the crumbs onto the floor, God will no longer place bread on your table (talk about parenting through fear!) ​[14]​.

The rupjmaize is a risen rye bread with caraway and a sweetener like molasses or malted rye. There are many different recipes for rupjmaize out there, many being fairly quick and easy, relying on instant yeast to give the bread its rise and adding buttermilk to give it acidity ​[14], [15]​. Here, I instead opted for a longer recipe relying on a rye sourdough and 4 proofing steps totaling ~26 h ​[16]​. (I just so happen to have a rye sourdough which I started in early 2018 and have kept alive since, what luck!)

The recipe I used for the rupjmaize is shared in this post.

Conclusion

I must admit that I was a bit sceptical when reading about this dish. Rye bread is, well, a coarse bread with heavy grains and lingonberry jam is more of a food condiment than a dessert jam in my book. But this dessert turned out really well and was very tasty. I was also very happy with Miyoko’s whipped topping (but then again, she is famous for homemade vegan dairy replacements). Next time you buy or bake a rye bread, give this recipe a try.

Latvian vegan recipe for rupjmaizes kārtojums

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Rupjmaizes kārtojums

This is a vegan version of the Latvian classic dessert rupjmaizes kārtojums where rye bread crumbs are layered with lingon berry jam and a vegan whipped topping. Using a dark rye bread in a dessert might sound peculiar but this combination works really well and is definitely worth trying.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Latvian, Northern Europe

Keyword bread, cream, lingonberry, rye

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cooling time 12 hours hours

Equipment

• Food processor

Ingredients

• 2-3 slices Latvian rye bread 200-300 g
• 1 tbsp sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 100 mL lingon berry jam or cranberry, black currant

Miyoko's whipped topping

• 2 tbsp cashew nuts 33 g
• 60 mL refined coconut oil 55 g
• 125 mL soy milk 117 g
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Miyoko's whipped topping

• This recipe comes from Miyoko Schinner's book "The Homemade vegan Pantry", a great book if you like making your own pantry items.
• Blend all ingredients smoothly.
• Let sit in fridge overnight. It needs to be cold for the whipping to work.
• Next day, whip the cream using manual or electric beaters.

Rupjmaizes kārtojums

• Tear the bread slices into pieces and chop them finely in the food processor.
• Toast them in a pan on low heat. Don't let them get colour, this is just to dry them out.
• Tranasfer the dryd crumbes back to the food process. Add sugar and cinnamon.

  Process the crumbs urther to divide them more finely.
• In serving glasses, layer crymbs, cream and jam.
• Enjoy straight away or leave in fridge until ready to serve.

Notes

The whipped topping comes from Miyoko’s book The Homemade vegan Pantry, a great book if you like making your own pantry items.