Swedish Limpa ~ the butcher, the baker

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Swedish Limpa

    Meet Limpa, a Swedish holiday bread. You'll also see this called vortlimpa, since traditionally the wort from brewing beer was added to the dough. To approximate this flavor and fill a similar role in the makeup of the dough, I've added dark molasses and malt powder, for the bitterness/sugar content and the flavor respectively. Malt powder, the powder of malted barley, comes in two varieties: diastatic and nondiastatic, referring to whether or not it is enzymatically active. Diastatic malt powder contributes more to the bread's flavor and would be best if you can get it. I only had nondiastatic on hand.

orange-laden limpa
Recipe follows.

Yields: 2 Small Batards
Time to complete: 3-4 hours 
Click here to get your own copy of this recipe in a spreadsheet in Google Docs(File- Make A Copy to get your own). Also take a look at the guide to using the spreadsheet, which will allow you to print a recipe for any weight of dough or flour in any unit of weight/mass that you enter.
Ingredients
    Preferment:
      None
    Soaker:
      None
    Final Dough:
      478g Rye Flour, Whole Grain
      400g Bread Flour 
      18g Salt
      13g Instant Yeast
      16g Orange Zest
      484g Orange Juice, Fresh Squeezed
      34g Dark Molasses
      65g Butter, melted
      47g Light Brown Sugar
      2g Anise Seed
      2g Cumin Seed
      2g Caraway Seed
      35g Malt Powder
Procedure:
  1. Toast the spices until fragrant. Allow to cool to room temperature.
  2. Mix together the salt, yeast and flours in your mixer bowl.
  3. Juice the oranges and mix with the remaining ingredients.Gently warm it to tepid on the stove. If your oranges came out of the fridge, skipping this step would leave your dough too cold to ferment in the time we're expecting.
  4. Mix on a low speed in a mixer for 3 minutes or by hand for same, keeping care not to over-mix since the rye can get gummy. It won't ruin the bread if you overdo it, but come eating time you'll be able to feel the difference in your mouth.
  5. Ferment, covered, for 1.5 hours. It will not quite double in size, since the large proportion of rye flour reduces the bread flour's ability to create a stretchy dough.
  6. Shape into whatever you like. In the photograph above I left it at a simple batard. Let this rise for one final hour. Heat the oven to 375F.
  7. Brush with egg wash(optional but nice) and bake until internal temperature registers 195F. Took me about 30 minutes.
  8. Cool.
What to Do With This Bread
    Toasted or not, eat it on Sunday morning with cream cheese or butter. Bonus points for caraway and/or orange compound butter.
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