‘Ukraine Is a Bread Country’
By Erik Ofgang
Photos by Bogdan Krasnoperov
Ukrainian style country loaf is made with breadcrumbs and roux. Recipe below.
Bread is the only thing keeping Bogdan Krasnoperov going.
As Russian warships appeared on the Black Sea near where he lives and works in Odesa, he made bread. When a mortar round destroyed his mother’s apartment in Kharkiv after she’d fled to West Ukraine, he made bread. When his fiancée was killed in early March after Russian troops attacked a bus she was in while fleeing her home in Izym, not far from Kharkiv, he made bread.
“If I don’t bake bread, I don't know what happens to me, because I must self-destruct,” he says during a Zoom interview.
Krasnoperov works for a private bakery in Odesa. Since the war began, he has kept a go-bag at the ready with his passport, toothbrush and other essentials. However, that has not stopped him from baking. He has worked 10-hour shifts at the bakery making sourdough breads and pirozhki, or stuffed, buns. These baked goods are distributed by local volunteers to soldiers and journalists—except on days such as a recent Monday when sirens warning of a bombardment of the city led him to shelter in a nearby basement.
The accomplished baker grew up eating rye bread and sweet mustard bread, which are both popular in Ukraine, and he enjoys employing advanced fermentation techniques while making these breads. One of his favorite breads is a rye bread made with coriander and dark malt.
As he bakes, he hopes for a better tomorrow.
“I think about my fiancée, and I think about peace in Ukraine,” he says.
The 35-year-old baker is known internationally among breadmakers thanks to his participation in the Mondial du Pain, an international baking competition held by the Les Ambassadeurs du Pain (The Ambassadors of Bread).
Mitch Stamm, the former executive director of the Bread Bakers Guild of America and former baking and pastry instructor at Johnson & Wales University, met Krasnoperov at the Mondial du Pain in 2019 and 2021. Stamm is impressed by Krasnoperov’s spirit today.
“I am inspired by his calm stoicism. He hasn't asked for anything, including sympathy,” Stamm says. “Instead, he assures everyone that he is ok.”
In mid-March, Stamm helped organize a #BakeforBogdan fundraiser with The ADAMÂ Foundation, a nonprofit baking organization that works with refugees.
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The accomplished baker grew up eating rye bread and sweet mustard bread (pictured here), which are both popular in Ukraine, and he enjoys employing advanced fermentation techniques while making these breads.
As an adult male under 60, Krasnoperov is registered with Ukraine’s armed forces but has not been called into active service yet, though he is willing to fight if necessary. In the meantime, his contribution has come in the way he skillfully combines flour, yeast and other ingredients.
“I bake the bread, that’s all I can do at the moment,” he says.
At the start of his career, Krasnoperov worked as a chef and baker. He has always been fascinated by the way in which food is prepared and intrigued by the unspoken bond between chefs and those who eat their food. When a customer goes to a restaurant or a bakery, they are showing faith in the skill of the chef or baker, he says. It’s a trust that Krasnoperov takes seriously.
In 2014, as war with Russia started in Donbas region, the Ukrainian economy was hurt and jobs were lost. Krasnoperov accepted an offer to work at a bakery in Russia, but he was discriminated against because he is Ukrainian and decided to return to Ukraine in 2016.
That year, Krasnoperov began learning how to make sourdough bread and using the technique to make Ukrainian rye and spelt breads became his focus as a baker. He also attended a master class in Kyiv with Peter Yuen, a well-known baking consultant.
“He loves what he does and that is to make great bread,” says Yuen, who’s based in Chicago.
“We don’t have a lot of craft artisan bakeries here in Ukraine,” Krasnoperov says, noting that much of the bread consumed is made at supermarket bakeries. “They make bread with bread mixes and commercial yeast,” he says. However, Ukraine has a rich baking history that Krasnoperov wants to build on.
“Ukraine is a bread country, and we have a centuries old bread-baking culture,” he says.
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Bogdan Krasnoperov has worked 10-hour shifts at the bakery making sourdough breads and pirozhki, or stuffed, buns (pictured above). These baked goods are distributed by local volunteers to soldiers and journalists.
In 2018, Krasnoperov traveled to Stratford-upon-Avon in England to a friend’s bakery to host a workshop on Ukrainian breadmaking traditions. While competing in the Mondial du Pain in 2019, he was tasked with baking a bread to represent his country. The competition was held in July when linden trees are blooming in Ukraine. Krasnoperov chose a recipe that incorporated linden honey and tea and uses spelt flour, which is common in Ukrainian bread.
“When you eat this bread, you can imagine that you are in Ukraine,” he says.
He has mentored other Ukrainian bakers, including Margaryta Bredikha, who went to Mondial du Pain with him and now works at a bakery in Kharkiv.
“I am so proud of that young lady, she will have success in the future as a baker,” he says. “I try to teach people in such a way that they must respect the baker’s profession and love bread in all its manifestations.”
Many of Krasnoperov’s friends and colleagues across Ukraine continue to bake, but many of them are not able to communicate as much with the international world as he has, because Odesa has, so far, been spared the intense attacks other parts of the country have endured. So Krasnoperov has shared recipes with the international baking community and is eager to share the story of Ukrainian bread.
“The recipes can help people to understand that we here in Ukraine also have bread culture,” he says. “We also love the bread, and we also have some tasty and fancy breads.”
Despite everything he has endured, Krasnoperov has not given up. He looks forward to the day when the war is over and he can start to rebuild his life and help rebuild his country.
“We live by hope at the moment, hope that that nightmare will come to an end,” he says.
When that happens, he looks forward to gathering with his friends and family who he has been separated from since the fighting began. He says everyone will gather and say some variation of: “Thank you, you’re alive, and I love you so much.”
Ukrainian Style Country Loaf
This simple loaf has a few ingredients beyond the typical flour, water, yeast, salt. Liquid malt and honey help make for a tender loaf, while breadcrumbs are sometimes used in bread dough as a means of reducing food waste. If you find yourself with a stale end left from this loaf, simply crush it up to make the next. Finally, there’s a roux in this bread recipe, which Krasnoperov says “allows bread to be stored longer, gives it a delicate flesh.”.
250 grams all-purpose or bread flour
50 grams whole wheat flour
33 grams whole rye flour
50 grams roux
5 grams liquid malt
10 grams honey
8 grams salt
67 grams fine breadcrumbs
100 grams sourdough starter
In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix all ingredients with 267 grams of water. Mix on low speed for 10-12 minutes on low speed, and then for 3 minutes on medium speed.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Stretch and fold it, and then let it sit for 45 minutes. Repeat two times. Return the dough to a bowl, cover it loosely with a towel, and place it in a warm, dark place for 3 hours to ferment.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Shape it into a loaf or bowl and place it in a proofing basket, loaf pan or bowl. Cover loosely with a towel, and place it in a cool spot overnight.
In the morning, heat the oven to 475° Fahrenheit. Once oven is heated, add a small, oven-proof bowl of water. Place the loaf on a pan and put it in the oven. After 20-25 minutes, carefully remove the water. Continue baking the bread until its crust is golden brown and you hear a hollow knocking sound when you tap your fist against the bottom of the loaf.
