The recipe starts out by mixing the rye flour and the yeast with some hot water, stirring it and letting it sit a bit. This is sort of like a sponge-light, since it only sits about 30 minutes, enough to proof the yeast, but that's about it. Rye flour is interesting to work with. It is really grainy and I have to say at the sponge stage, it's a little like freshly mixed cement, greyish and gooey.
Undaunted, I forged ahead, because I've played with rye flour before and I know it's just teasing and will grow up to be delicious. The recipe I used called for fennel, caraway and cumin seeds, ground and mixed into the dough with grated orange peel. Trusty mortar and pestle at hand, the seeds were measured and quickly ground up. I was speaking to an acquaintance from Sweden while I was working on this recipe, and he said that fennel, caraway and cumin seeds are packaged up and sold together as "bread spice" in Sweden. Huzzah! So, before grinding:
And here's the gooey mass with the orange peel and stuff waiting to be mixed in:
And now we go back to the basics, kneading in the bread flour a little bit at a time (I work with about a quarter cup and a time, until I start actually kneading, and then it's just a sprinkle at a time). I notice that the times I've worked with rye flour, the dough seems to get sticky really fast and stays sticky a long time. Rye's dense, though, and I'd rather work slow and end up with a lighter bread, instead of getting all crazy with the flour and winding up with a brick! So, after about 15 minutes of slow kneading, I had a lovely little ball of dough ready to set aside to rise.
While the bread was rising, I worked on the haggis a bit (I'll be detailing that later this evening! Stay tuned! No, seriously, it's ok!), did a little embroidery, etc. I always worry about flours other than wheat, and if they're going to rise properly. I probably just need to do lots and lots and lots of baking with the other flours so my confidence is more solid. Fortunately, this batch did just what it was supposed to. (I used the measuring cup for calibration in the pictures!) See?
So, I've never had limpa bread. I've never SEEN limpa bread. I've got nothing to work with other than the recipe and the description from the author who got the recipe from a woman who spent most of her life in Sweden, who makes both a flat style of bread and round loaves. Round loaves are familiar to me, and so that's what I opted for. There was no mention of slashing the loaves, but I like the look, so I went ahead and did a simple cross-slash pattern. (I'd rather do a Thor's hammer, but I don't think the loaf would rise evenly with an asymmetrical pattern. Hrmm.. have to try it and see what happens!)
Forty five minutes of rising, and the loaves went into the oven, where they baked until brown and hollow, the usual "bread test". The bread actually overpowered the smell of the haggis ingredients cooking, which is saying something. ;) They came out of the oven to rest for a bit before I couldn't take it anymore and had to cut a slice to taste. I was pleasantly surprised by how much more the bread rose while baking, too. I will definitely try the flattened loaves next time, just to see what they are like!
This bread is very tasty, with a nice light flavour from the ground seeds and the orange peel. It's much lighter than most commercial rye breads I've had, and the crust is very nice and chewy. This is another keeper, to be sure! Now to get Mama Thorhalla's family recipe and see how it differs!!
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