1/31/2011 - Swedish Rye (Limpa)

Definitely one of the more unique breads in BBA, Swedish rye features licorice-flavored spices on a sourdough background. In preparing to make this bread, I was unsure both of whether I would like it and of what I was going to do with it if I did.

Back when I had a thriving sourdough barm, I had the forethought to freeze a portion of it. I thawed it in the fridge and refreshed it as instructed in BBA. In spite of my best efforts, it never showed any activity. As I have pretty much zero interest in throwing myself back into sourdough right now, and in the interest of finishing this project, I decided to go ahead and use what I had rather than starting over and spending a week trying to rebuild a new barm. This bread is spiked with commercial yeast anyway, so all I really needed from the sourdough barm was the flavor.

The evening before baking the bread, I prepared the sponge. I combined water, molasses, zested orange peel, ground anise seeds, ground fennel seeds, and ground cardamom in a saucepan, brought it to a boil, and removed it from the heat. (The formula actually calls for dried orange peel, but a fresh orange is what I had, and the fresh zest sounded more appetizing to me anyway.) The mixture was extremely aromatic; it wasn't pleasing to me, personally, but I have a hard time with the smell of molasses. Once the mixture had cooled to lukewarm, I mixed in some sourdough barm and rye flour. I left the sponge to ferment at room temperature for four hours before putting it in the fridge overnight. I use the term "ferment" loosely, because it didn't appear to really do anything.

The following day, I let the sponge warm to room temperature. I combined bread flour, yeast, salt, brown sugar, and then mixed in the sponge and some melted shortening. I added probably 1/4 cup of water to my dough to get it to come together. I briefly kneaded the dough, since rye flour becomes gummy if it is over-kneaded. I left the bread to rise for two hours, shaped and panned my loaf, scored it, and let it proof for 90 minutes before baking. This bread made my whole house smell like black licorice.

I hate to end on a downer, but this is one of my least favorite breads I've ever baked. The problem isn't with the bread itself, the problem is that I don't like the flavor of licorice. This is a very flavorful bread, and I think the balance of flavors is very good, if you like all the flavors. I enjoyed the citrus and cardamom notes, and I think the sourdough flavor is a nice contribution as well. But I just don't enjoy the flavor of anise and fennel. I had never scored bread prior to the proofing stage before, and I really like the look of the cuts when they are made earlier and given time to spread and heal.