Trivia about the Flatbread Roll's Flatbread
An important component of a flatbread roll is of course its bread, which is not only an ingredient but also serves as packaging for the dish.
The Swedish flatbread is an unleavened thin bread that was traditionally based on barley or oat flour, but in the modern style is usually based on wheat or rye flour. The most common flatbread in our grill kiosks is based on wheat.
You can find more information about flatbread and its history at Tunnbrödsakademin (the flatbread academy).
The flatbread roll bread is traditionally a crescent-shaped or rectangular flatbread that is folded and/or rolled up into either a roll or more or less cone-shaped flatbread roll.
The traditional half-round shape probably comes from the fact that the bread was traditionally prepared on round, shield-like plates made of metal ink.
If you can't get hold of soft Swedish flatbread, pita, lavash or gyro bread usually works as a substitute.
Wholesale stores often have large so-called "sausage flatbreads". If you don't have such a shop in your vicinity, baking your own flat bread also works perfectly, of course.
Before rolling
Heated – and sometimes fried
Flatbread is usually delivered frozen and needs to be thawed and heated before it can be rolled. The common, and traditional, approach is simply to quickly heat the bread on the grill table, without butter, until it becomes soft and pliable enough to roll without cracking.
Frying the bread in butter, on the other hand, is not standard in the traditional flatbread roll – but it's far more common in modern rolls, where it has become a widespread technique among kiosk owners and something of a hallmark of luxury rolls. The origin is likely practical: a flatbread that has sat around too long and dried out is hard to roll without cracking, risking the filling spilling out. Frying the dry bread in a little butter was a way of trying to soften it up – though in practice this doesn't work particularly well.
The butter-frying nevertheless became popular, but for a different reason: it simply gives a better flavor. If you choose to fry the bread, though, it's easy for it to crack, so it's important to add a little butter to keep the bread soft and pliable while frying. Nowadays, many kiosk owners of modern luxury rolls therefore deliberately fry the bread – often in seasoned butter and fairly hard – to give the roll an extra dimension, whether the bread is freshly baked or not. Among flatbread roll enthusiasts, it's not unusual to explicitly ask the kiosk for fried bread.
Mainly it's so the bread becomes soft and pliable. If fried, the bread easily cracks. The bread should feel "fresh" with a light buttery taste, preferably a little salt. Butter one side of the bread and then place it on the grill table for 20 seconds.
Erik Videgård, Facebook, Tunnbrödsrullens vänner, 2026-08-07T13:37:00.000Z
When assembling the roll, the warm side is normally turned inward – regardless of whether the bread was just heated or butter-fried. In the case of butter-fried bread, this is especially important, since otherwise you risk a greasy surface on the outside of the roll.
If you want to present an extra beautiful roll, you can instead choose to turn a butter-fried side outward. In luxury rolls, it's also not unusual to butter-fry the bread on both sides, in order to handle and present the roll exactly as desired.
In winter, some consumers also prefer to have the warm side facing outward, so the food feels a little extra warm in the hand.
There are also those who advocate only heating the side of the bread that will later face outward on the roll, in order to avoid fresh ingredients like lettuce and tomato resting against a warm surface and turning limp. The argument is somewhat vague, though, given that the roll is filled with warm ingredients like sausage and mash anyway – which should make the bread's own warmth a negligible factor.
Spread with browned butter
Browning the butter gives a different taste experience that is also appreciated by many.
Seasoned
Some kiosks have become known for also adding spices, especially barbecue seasoning (which is common in barbecue kiosks) when they heat the bread with butter to enhance the taste experience and differentiate themselves from other kiosks' flatbread rolls.
As an example, in Videgård's "Jubileumsrullen", the flatbread is seasoned with garlic and lemon butter.
Double fried
A variation where you first fry the flatbread in butter and then let it rest while the rest of the accessories are prepared. The flatbread is then fried again before assembly. Gives a very well-fried flatbread with an increased taste experience.
The custom probably has its origins in the fact that fried flatbread has become so popular that you simply have to adapt the process to keep up with all the customers in the kiosks.
Rolling
You can read more about rolling here.
Roll
A flatbread roll shaped like a roll, has been folded and then rolled. In traditional rolls, however, actual rolling is usually omitted. You then get a straighter shape on your roll and avoid that the contents can flow out at the bottom at the same time. the roll gets a more stable shape and it is easier to distribute the contents along the length of the roll, which is considered by many to be well-executed packaging as you can get all the ingredients in each bite.
Cone
A flatbread roll shaped like a cone leads to a looser packing of the ingredients and there is usually a need for a plastic cup or similar at the end of the cone to ensure that the contents of the flatbread roll do not spill out.
Producers
The two largest producers of large flatbreads are Polarbröd and Korvbrödsbagaren.
Polarbröd
Polarbröd ("Polar bread") has a long history of baking large flatbreads. At the end of the 80s, they released their large rectangular flatbreads. under the name "sausage flatbread". As part of the introduction campaign, in collaboration with their wholesale/catering customer AB Slotts, an event was held for sausage kiosk owners and other "Fast Food" restaurants, where they learned how to make flatbread rolls with hot dogs and mashed potatoes with accessories. Polarbröd assisted with advertising material, e.g. a greaseproof paper pocket with Polar bread advertising (reading: "Polarrulle så klart!" – "Polar roll, of course!") and even a tool for price calculation for the finished roll.
At the end of 1990, the larger half-round and milk-free flatbread was launched as "sausage flatbread" which is intended to be used for flatbread rolls in kiosks around the country.
There were plans to release Korvrtunnbrödet to end consumers, but all that had to be put aside after the fire at the bakery in Älvsbyn in 2020.
Korvbrödsbagarn
Korvbrödsbagaren ("The sausage bread baker") is owned by Lantmännen Unibake and supplies both rectangular and crescent-shaped flatbreads. The sausage bread baker has a long history of making sausage bread for the Swedish market, while thin bread production is a relatively new phenomenon.
Rättviks tunnbrödbageri
Rättviks tunnbrödbageri ("Rättviks flatbread bakery") manufactures, among other things, a traditional soft flatbread from Siljansbygden in Dalarna, of the variety Tuttul (also called, among other things, Tult, Strut, Bitå or Läfsa), which was used for flatbread rolls in Dalarna in the past.
Bergli bröd
From the family bakery Bergli bröd ("Bergli bread") comes the Rälta flatbread, which they have baked since 1997. The flatbread is rectangular and each sheet is enough for two normal-sized flatbread rolls.
Bullerbyns Boende & Tunnbröd
Bullerbyns ("The noisy village") built their baker's hut in May 2022 and opened the bakery in June. Bakes thin bread according to a recipe from Ångermanland that is sold in the farm shop. Also offers courses in flatbread baking.
Stödebröd
Stödebröd is a family business from Norrland that has been producing traditional flatbread in a modern way since 1958.
Recipe
Kiosks that stand out for their good bread
The following five kiosks have the best bread according to our users: