
I’ve been asking Happy Monk customers what they like to do with their bread. The answers thus far have been tummy-warming. They never fail to make my stomach rumble. To hurry home and try whatever they’ve described for using their Happy Monk loaf.
Some pick up their bread and tell me their immediate plans. Commonly, they are taking their loaf straight home for lunch and pairing it with soup. All kinds: tomato, split pea, barley, french onion. Perhaps a bowl of chili.
How do you use your bread?
In the summer, someone posted a picture on Facebook of a slice of Salish Sourdough, spread with mayonnaise and layered with a juicy, salt-and-peppered tomato slice. It looked glorious!
Another Facebook picture showed a poached egg on top of a slice of toasted sourdough and a generous dollop of nettle pesto!
One woman, a U.S. resident and regular Pender visitor, told me she’d served a loaf for breakfast to her family: French toast, with butter and maple syrup. She pronounced it, “Awesome!”
Another fellow told me he loved to spread peanut butter on his olive bread, a unique combination, and not the first time I’ve heard it!
It will sing inside you …
Nothing, however, prepared me for this use for rye bread I recently stumbled upon:
Bread Soup: An Old Icelandic Recipe1
By Bill Holm
Start with the square heavy loaf
steamed a whole day in a hot spring
until the coarse rye, sugar, yeast
grow dense as a black hole of bread.
Let it age and dry a little,
then soak the old loaf for a day
in warm water flavored
with raisins and lemon slices.
Boil it until it is thick as molasses.
Pour it in a flat white bowl.
Ladle a good dollop of whipped cream
to melt in its brown belly.
This soup is alive as any animal,
and the yeast and cream and rye
will sing inside you after eating
for a long time.
The poem was part of a section on poetryfoundation.org, called Poetry and Food. It was originally from Bill Holm’s 2004 collection, Playing the Black Piano, Milkweed Editions, 2004.
To be clear, no one on Pender, to my knowledge, has made bread soup with a Happy Monk loaf. If you’ve made any kind of bread soup, I’d love to hear about it. Along with a picture.
But what an eye-popping, heart-warming, sumptuous example of a way to see bread and use it. I found the poem startling!
Brauðsúpa
I’ve baked Scandinavian-style rye loaves. I’ve heard of tomato-based Tuscan bread soups, like Pappa al Pomodoro, Pancotto, and Ribolita. But have not heard of anything like this.
And this is no figment of the poet’s imagination! It’s called Brauðsúpa 2, or Sweet Rye Bread soup, a legitimate Icelandic bread soup!

Bill Holm was an American poet who lived most of his life in Minnesota. Enthusiasts of the NPR radio program, “A Prairie Home Companion,” might remember Holm as an occasional guest.
He was the grandson of Icelandic immigrants. He owned a home in Hofsós, Iceland. Holm spent a part of every year in the village, between terms at Southwest Minnesota State University, where he was professor emeritus of English.
He died in 2009.
Search for Sweet Rye Bread Soup online, and you will find a recipe, published here. It is Icelandic, a little different than Holm’s take, but it carries the same spirit.
A Recipe: Sweet Rye Bread Soup
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 slices light rye bread, chopped
- 3 slices dark rye bread, chopped
- 1/2 cup lingonberry jam, or sour cherry jam
- 1/4 cup sugar, or to taste
- 1/2 cup raisins, if desired
- water, as needed
Instructions
- Add the cubed bread to a pot and cover with water. Stir in jam and bring to a simmer.
- Puree with an immersion blender until smooth.
- Add raisins and sugar to taste while continuing to simmer until the bread thickens up, about 10 minutes.
- Serve hot or chilled, garnish with raisins and/or whipped cream.
If you have half a loaf of last week’s Rye and Buttermilk bread, use seven or eight slices of it, instead of the combination of ryes. Or follow Holm’s poem, as if it were a set of precise instructions. And listen for the singing inside you!
Please report your results. Bonus points if you include a poem describing its taste!
And let Bill Holm’s sparkling poem guide your imagination for new ways to use your bread!
Happy Monk Tidings - November 30, 2022 🍞 - Bakers Choice: Cranberry-Pecan Sourdough; BLOG: Tassajara Wisdom/Perfect Loaf Mastery; REMINDER: Happy Monk holidays fast approaching! [ See LinkTree in Profile ]
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#theperfectloaf #perfectloaf #perfectloaf #maurizioleo #tassajarabreadbook #tassajarabread #tassajaracookbook
Just rockin’ the Olive Sourdough at 4:30 a.m. in the morning. Into Mildrith’s fire they go!
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#woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredovenbread #bread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #bakery #bakerslife #bbga #artisanbread #breadhead #breadmaking #breadmaking🍞 #sourdough #sourdoughbread #coboven #earthoven #earthenoven #olives #olivebread #olivesourdoughbread #penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery #happymonkbakingcompany #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbakers #southerngulfislandsbakeries #penderisland
Cinnamon-Raisin bread, an enduring Happy Monk favourite. And here’s proof of Mildrith’s (the wood-fired oven) recent health check, as she just baked 41 loaves of this (and another 40 of Seed Feast) with lots of heat left to spare. Long live Mildrith and long live Cinnamon-Raisin bread!
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#cinnamonraisinbread #cinnamonraisin #woodfired #woodfiredoven #woodfiredovenbread #bread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #bakery #bbga #artisanbread #breadhead #breadmaking #breadmaking🍞 #sourdough #sourdoughbread #coboven #earthoven #earthenoven #penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery #happymonkbakingcompany #southerngulfislands #southerngulfislandsbakers #southerngulfislandsbakeries #penderisland
Bread (AppleRye), bread (a homely looking Salish Sourdough) and bread (fire brick authenticity) … and my new oven arrives!
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#rackmaster #rackmasterrm2020 #rm2020 #bread #sourdoughbread #woodfired #woodfiredsourdoughbread #woodfiredforever #artisanbread #realbread #naturallyleavened #baker #bakersofinstagram #bakery #breadhead #sourdough #sourdoughbread #sourdoughbaking #ryebread #appleryebread #ryeapplebread #apples #applebread #penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaker #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery #happymonkbakingcompany
Dog days. The beginning of summer mellowness. Baked in languor. But sometimes it's hard to let go. Shouldn't I be baking something? [See LinkTree in Profile ]
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#penderisland #southpenderisland #happymonkbaking #happymonkbakery
#happymonkbakingcompany #dogdays #dogdaysofsummer #southerngulfislands
#southerngulfislandsbakers #southerngulfislandsbakeries #southerngulfislandsbc
This is James Morton, my father, who would have been 100 years old today if we hadn't lost him 36 years ago. I've surpassed him in living age and spent more years without him than with him, yet he still whispers in my ear and is a great listener when I talk to him. Taken at 14th Ave. and Burgess St., Burnaby, 'round about 1955. Handsome devil, ain't he?
“Bread Soup: An Old Icelandic Recipe” from Playing the Black Piano: Poems by Bill Holm (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2004). Copyright © 2004 by Bill Holm. Reprinted with permission from Milkweed Editions. milkweed.org↩
The letter ð is used in the Icelandic language and pronounced as “th,” as in “that”. It originated in Anglo Saxon, and was included in Old English and Middle English letters).↩
It’s always a joy to read your weekly missive, Happy Monk!
Thank you, Susan!
Always informative as well. The sweet rye bread soup brings to mind bread pudding. It’s such an amazing way to use left over bread. I grew up enjoying my grandmother’s bread pudding made with her homemade brioche – heavenly! Thanks David.
I was waiting for someone to mention bread pudding! I wooed my wife on an early date, when I made two different versions of bread pudding!
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