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.

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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, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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Sourdough Limpa Bread

Course: All

Cuisine: Swedish

Keyword: limpa, rye bread, sourdough

Course: All

Cuisine: Swedish

Keyword: limpa, rye bread, sourdough

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%

Sodium 5687mg247%

Carbohydrates 626g209%

Fiber 75g313%

Sugar 140g156%

Protein 85g170%

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

This recipe makes delicious Swedish rye bread with syrup and wonderful spices. It's a delight.

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Equipment

• pullman loaf pan (small)

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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.

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