Rye bread. There are so many variations. Pumpernickel, rugbrød, all-rye, flatbreads. Jewish rye has many variations: Russian, Polish, and Scandinavian. In Sweden, their preferred rye bread is sweet rye bread with spices. This is my recipe for sourdough limpa bread.
I love rye flour; it has a fantastic taste when baked. Even rye cookies are awesome. My favorite sourdough bread has 20% whole-grain rye flour, and the most perfect 100% rye bread is my danish rye bread.
![sourdough limpa bread in a pullman loaf pan on a wooden floor](https://foodgeek.dk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/F31A5038-Edit.jpg)
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Jump to Recipe Jump to VideoThe dough in this sourdough limpa bread recipe
Vitals
Total weight | 1385 grams |
Pre-fermented flour | 8.8% |
Hydration | 67.2% |
Yield | One large loaf |
The dough composition
The flour in this limpa bread is 100% sifted rye flour, called light rye flour in the states.
I developed this bread with enriched dough. It contains both butter, milk, and syrup. The salt content is a bit above 2%, which brings out the taste of the rye flour.
The inoculation is shy of 20%, which should give the bread a fermentation time of around 5-6 hours if you have an active sourdough starter.
![Limpa Bread on a wooden board in front of a brick wall](https://foodgeek.dk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/F31A5047-Edit.jpg)
The dough’s hydration is around 67%, and while that seems pretty low, for a 100% rye bread, that is pretty fluid, sticky stuff. That is why you bake this bread in a pan.
Weight | Ingredient | Baker's Percentage |
---|---|---|
620g | light rye flour | 100% |
430g | skim milk (0.5%) | 69.4% |
50g | butter, salted | 8.1% |
145g | light syrup | 23.4% |
120g | sourdough starter (100% hydration) | 19.4% |
13g | salt | 2.1% |
2g | cardamom | 0.3% |
2g | ginger, powdered | 0.3% |
1g | cloves, ground | 0.2% |
2g | bitter orange peel, powdered | 0.3% |
If you want to play around with the formula, change the quantity, the hydration, or other vital stats, you can do so here in my Bread Calculator.
![Limpa Bread in a loaf pan](https://foodgeek.dk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/F31A5044-Edit.jpg)
The conclusion of this sourdough limpa bread recipe
While this bread is a 100% rye bread, some key factors set it apart:
- The bread is not sour but a tad sweet. That’s both due to the sifted rye and the added syrup.
- The crumb is wonderfully soft and full of small holes. Quite unlike the usual dense crumb, you get from rye.
- The crust is dark and super caramelized. Not crunchy like everyday rye bread.
Sourdough limpa is a beautiful bread. It’s perfect with a homemade jam or jelly.
This bread pairs great with a generous layer of butter, which we call “teeth butter” in Denmark because you can see teeth marks after you take a bit. I love it with cheese.
It’s great bread; make it one of your staples.
![The crumb of this sourdough limpa bread recipe](https://foodgeek.dk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/F31A5113-Edit-2.jpg)
Please share this recipe for sourdough limpa bread on social media
This is my recipe for sourdough limpa bread. If you like the recipe please consider sharing it with like-minded bread lovers on social media.
If you make it and post it on Instagram, please tag me as @foodgeek.dk so I can see it. That would make me very happy.
![](https://foodgeek.dk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/recipe-132x132.jpg)
Sourdough Limpa Bread
Equipment
Ingredients
- 620 g light or white rye flour sifted rye flour
- 430 g milk
- 50 g butter
- 145 g corn syrup golden syrup/light syrup
- 120 g sourdough starter
- 13 g fine salt
- 1 teaspoon cardamom
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon cloves
- 1 teaspoon bitter orange peel
Instructions
Mix the dough
- To a bowl add: 620g sifted rye flour, 13g salt, ½ tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp cardamom, 1 tsp ginger, 1 tbsp ground bitter orange peel.
- Alternatively, use the zest of an entire orange.
- Mix it up so that everything is well dispersed.
- Pour 50g melted butter into 430g milk.
- Pour it into the flour mixture.
- Then add 145g corn syrup or golden syrup.
- And lastly add 120g sourdough starter. Grown to its peak.
- Mix until the dough is thoiroughly mixed.
Fermentation
- Put the dough in a pan sprayed with nonstick spray and let it proof until it’s grown by 50%.
- Put it somewhere warm and keep an eye on it. It took my dough about 5 hours, but you should monitor the growth instead of using a set time.
Bake
- When the dough is ready, turn on your oven to 190°C/375°F.
- When the oven is hot, add the pan to the oven.
- Bake for about 90 minutes or until a probe thermometer shows 99°C/210°F when put into the centre of the dough.
- If you'd like a darker crust, you can remove the bread from the pan about 1 hour into baking.
- You should take the bread out of the oven when it's done to your liking.
- Put it on a wire rack to cool.
That looks like a USA Pans pullman pan. They come in two sizes: 9″, which they call “medium” and is the one to which you provide a link, and 13″, which they call “large” and has 44% more capacity than the 9″. You say to use a “large” pan which hints at the 13″ but link to the 9″ which hints at the 9″ and provide a picture that looks to me like a 9″ loaf. Could you clarify? Thanks.
It’s the 9″. I’ve linked it in the recipe 🙂
What size tin please?
Medium Pullman. I’ve linked it in the recipe 🙂
Sune: Big fan of your recipes, but this Limpa one is a bit confusing to me. I just made it and the amount of dough is almost 2x what you show in the video. I think maybe your rye flour was too much?
If I already have rye starter, how would I go about making the Sourdough Limpa Bread using the rye starter? I love your videos, lots of info.
Hi, can I refrigerate the dough in the loaf pan overnight before baking?
And thanks for the great recipes!