Ingredients
Baking tool:
- baking tray
- lined with non-stick baking paper
Dough:
175 g bread flour
½ tbsp. granulated sugar
7 g easy-blend/easy-bake dried yeast
250 ml luke warm milk
2 tbsp dark brown muscovado sugar
25 ml liquid treacle
2 tsp ground anise seed
2 tsp ground fennel seed
2 tsp ground caraway seed
grated zest of ½ unwaxed orange
50 ml orange juice
375 g rye flour
butter for the dough bow
milk for brushing
We were on our way to the North of Europe and of course it rained and of course a splashing stone went through the windscreen of our car and of course it was 5 o’clock in the morning.
‘We should never have done it, this trip to Scandinavia’ is what you are thinking at that moment. ‘I wish I were sitting between palms on a sun-drenched white beach’ you think shivering. However, lo and behold, a gas station owner who just finished his service invites us at his home, because the garage where we stopped opens not before 9 o’clock. He turns his wife out of bed and goes himself to the baker, who is obviously at work that early. For us a splendid breakfast is set out that we will remember all our life. So many kinds of bread, from knäckebröd to coffee buns, from rye bread to milk bread. About nine we move on with a totally different idea of warmth in welcoming Sweden. We are not allowed to pay, ‘No no, on no account …’
Here you find the Limpa, an adventurous loaf of rye bread seasoned with the same spices that are used for Aquavit.
• In a bowl mix flour, granulated sugar and yeast. Slowly add the milk. Whisk a smooth batter. Cover and leave to rise for 45 minutes at room temperature.
• Warm muscovado sugar, treacle and butter with seeds, zest and juice in a small pan over low heat until a thin sauce is formed. Stir now and then. Leave to cool until lukewarm.
• Sift the rye flour onto the risen batter, add the treacle sauce. Knead for a moment, then add the salt. Now knead at least a quarter of an hour to get a firm but elastic dough. Grease the bowl, turn the dough through it. Cover with a moist cloth and leave to rise to twice its volume (about 1 ½ hour).
• Press the dough on an unfloured surface to obtain a piece of 20 x 25 cm. Make a roll with a length of 25 cm. Put it with the fold underneath onto the baking tray. Cover and leave to rise again for half an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 200˚C/400˚F/gas 6
• On the shelf above the lowest, bake the dough for 30 minutes until light brown and done. Then brush immediately with some milk and put back into the oven for 1 minute. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
