Makes one 15-inch/38 cm loaf
SHORT FOR VORTLIMPA—WITH VORT REFERRING TO THE FERMENTED BREWERS’ WORT left over from beer making, and limpa meaning “loaf”—this Swedish bread is a classic with many variations. In its most old-school form, the bread is a funky, spiced, dark rye made with that aforementioned wort, or more often for home bakers, a good stout. It’s intense.
Scandinavian bakeries across the Midwest tend to carry lighter, more crowd-pleasing versions of limpa that swap out the beer for water, buttermilk, or even orange juice, and contain light or medium rye flour combined with white flour, giving the bread a soft and spongy interior and a thin crust. Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant in Sister Bay, Wisconsin, a quirky place where unamused goats live and munch away on the grass-lined roof, serves stacks of light limpa with sweet butter alongside its paper-thin Swedish pancakes topped with plenty of lingonberries. This is the kind of limpa I love, and what I’m sharing with you here. It makes excellent toast and is a terrific foundation for those irresistible open-faced Scandi sandwiches called smørrebrød.
Limpa looks like a simple, humble loaf, but hold it up to your nose and take a bite, and a veritable carnival of flavors and fragrances come parading out. There’s a slight sweetness, and always some combination of potent seeds to add extra zing—usually fennel, anise, and caraway, and perhaps some cardamom, too. Please note that I’d rather hit up an Ikea on Black Friday than eat something with caraway, so I leave it out of my personal formula.
6 tablespoons/84 g warm water (110° to 115°F/43° to 46°C), divided
¼ cup/57 g firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons/28 g unsalted butter
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
¼ teaspoon granulated sugar
1 cup/225 g well-shaken buttermilk, at room temperature
2½ cups/320 g unbleached all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for dusting
1 cup/105 g medium rye flour, spooned and leveled
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
½ teaspoon anise seeds
Nonstick cooking spray or oil for bowl
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted, for brushing
In a 1- to 1½-quart/1 to 1.4 L saucepan, combine ¼ cup/57 g of the warm water with the brown sugar, butter, orange zest, and salt. Warm gently over medium heat until the butter is melted and the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool until warm to the touch.
In a small cup, whisk together the remaining 2 tablespoons of warm water, the yeast, and the granulated sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine both wet mixtures. Whisk in the buttermilk. Add the all-purpose flour, rye flour, baking soda, and seeds. Mix on low speed until the dough comes together in a shaggy ball. Exchange the paddle attachment for the dough hook, then knead the dough on medium-low speed until smooth and elastic, 5 to 7 minutes.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead by hand for a few minutes. Spray the mixer bowl with nonstick cooking spray or oil it lightly and place the dough in the bowl. Cover tightly and allow to rise in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Line a 12 × 17-inch/30 × 43 cm baking sheet with parchment paper. Transfer the dough from the bowl to the work surface and shape into an oval about 12 inches/30 cm in length. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise again for 1 hour. Meanwhile, position a rack to the center of the oven and preheat it to 375°F/190°C.
Brush the top of the loaf with the melted butter. Bake until golden and hollow-sounding when tapped, about 40 minutes (the internal temperature should register at least 190°F/88°C on an instant-read thermometer). Let cool on a wire rack before slicing.