Rye bread. There are so many variations. Pumpernickel, rugbrød, all-rye, flatbreads. Jewish rye has a whole bunch of variations: Russian, Polish and Scandinavian. In Sweden their preferred rye bread is a sweet rye bread with spices. This is my recipe for sourdough limpa bread.

I love rye flour. It has an amazing 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.

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The dough in this sourdough limpa bread recipe

Vitals

The dough composition

The flour in this limpa bread is 100% sifted rye flour, which is called light rye flour in the states.

This bread is made with an enriched dough. It contains both butter, milk and syrup. The salt content is a bit above 2% which really brings out the taste of the rye flour.

The inoculation is just shy of 20% which should give the bread a fermentation time around 5-6 hours if you have an active sourdough starter.

The hydration of the dough is around 67%, and while that seems pretty low, for a 100% rye bread that is pretty fluid sticky stuff.

Which is why this bread is baked in a pan.

If you want to play around with the formula, change the quantity, the hydration or other key stats, you can do so here in my Bread Calculator.

The conclusion of this sourdough limpa bread recipe

While this bread is a 100% rye bread, there is some key factors that sets 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 a common rye bread.

Sourdough limpa a wonderful bread. It’s perfect with a homemade jam or jelly.

This bread pairs great with a wonderful layer of butter, which we call “teeth butter” in Denmark, because you can see teeth marks after you take a bit.

Personally I love it with cheese.

It’s a great bread, make it one of your staples.

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Sourdough Limpa Bread

Course: All

Cuisine: Swedish

Keyword: limpa, rye bread, sourdough

Prep: 15 minutes

Cook: 1 hour 30 minutes

Proofing: 6 hours

Total: 7 hours 45 minutes

Servings: 1 limpa bread

Calories: 3319kcal

Author: Sune Trudslev

Nutrition Facts

Sourdough Limpa Bread

Amount Per Serving (1 limpa bread)

Calories 3319 Calories from Fat 585

% Daily Value*

Fat 65g100%

Saturated Fat 35g219%

Trans Fat 2g

Sodium 5687mg247%

Carbohydrates 626g209%

Fiber 75g313%

Sugar 140g156%

Protein 85g170%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

A delicious Swedish rye bread with syrup and some wonderful spices. It's a delight.

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Equipment

• pullman loaf pan (medium)

Ingredients

• 620 g light 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 completely mixed.

Fermentation

• Put the dough in a 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 measure 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 brad from the pan about 1 hour into the bake.
• When the bread is done, take it out of the oven.
• Put it on a wire rack to cool.

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