Chleb prądnicki

Appearance & taste

The dark bread is baked oblong or round. The oblong loaf tapers towards the ends and weighs either 4.5 kg (60 to 65 cm long, 30 to 35 cm wide) or 14 kg (95 to 100 cm long, 45 to 50 cm wide), each 12 to 15 cm high. The round loaf weighs 4.5 kg and measures 45 to 50 cm in diameter. Because it is shaped by hand, every loaf looks slightly different.

The crust is 4 to 6 mm thick, brown to dark brown, smooth or clearly cracked and covered with a thin layer of rye bran. The crumb is light, evenly porous and springs back after light pressure. The bread has the taste and smell of a rye sourdough bread; according to the specification, it “matures” after baking and develops both fully only on the second day. With normal storage it stays fresh for seven days.

Production

Rye and wheat flour are used, boiled potatoes or, seasonally in spring and early summer, potato flakes, as well as rye bran, salt, drinking water, fresh yeast and caraway. According to the specification, the potatoes ensure the long shelf life. The sourdough is traditionally made in five stages. The dough is divided and shaped by hand; the pieces of dough rise in baskets, are moistened with water, sprinkled with rye bran and baked; a special heat treatment gives them volume, surface and crust. All steps up to cooling take place in Kraków.

The bread may only be cut once it has cooled, no earlier than four hours after baking. Whole 4.5 kg loaves and larger breads carry a printed band; half and quarter loaves are packed in film or paper bags with the same logo and the symbol of the protected geographical indication.

Origin & history

The area is the city of Kraków within its administrative boundaries. The name comes from the villages on the small river Prądnik, above all Prądnik Czerwony and Prądnik Biały, where there were numerous mills; they have been part of Kraków since 1910 and are now separate city districts. Bakers from Prądnik are mentioned indirectly as early as the 14th century, and according to the specification the inhabitants of Prądnik Czerwony were famous for their huge loaves.

The oldest record dates from 1421, when Bishop Albert of Kraków granted land in Prądnik and obliged the inhabitants to bake bread for his court. A privilege of King John I Albert from 1496 allowed bakers of dark rye bread from outside the city, including those from Prądnik, to continue selling their bread once a week at the Tuesday market in Kraków; they were only allowed to bring it into the city without restriction from 1785. In the 1930s production was temporarily stopped; after the war, according to the specification, the bread was sold again at the Stary Kleparz market. The bread appears in poems by Wincenty Pol, in memoirs by Ambroży Grabowski and Maria Estreicherówna, on a copper engraving by Kajetan Wincenty Kielisiński from 1847 and in drawings by Jan Kanty Wojnarowski. The city of Kraków today uses it as one of its emblems in advertising.