Rustic Limpa

I need a good name for this bread as I've combined two types of breads here to make one.

If you saw, a couple of weeks ago, I made traditional Swedish Limpa bread and, according to two Swedish friends, I hit the mark:

I loved the flavor of this bread and it certainly was great fresh out of the oven, as is.  After that, it was more of a bread for toasting.  A very dense bread.

I wondered if I could combine the bread making techniques I've learned in the Forkish book I've mentioned before with the flavors from the traditional Swedish Limpa to create a more sandwich-friendly, lighter, loaf.

I started with a hybrid leavened dough recipe -- using a sourdough started and a very tiny bit of yeast (1/4t). I made one loaf as a test. The traditional bread consists of about 40% dark rye (the rye equivalent of whole wheat flour) while mine is about 25% with about 8% whole wheat (all from the levain).  I included the same amounts of ingredients from my traditional recipe: milk, molasses, dark corn syrup, fennel, anise, shortening and orange rind and I adjusted the amount of water that I would use from a Forkish recipe to compliment the amount of hydration coming from these other ingredients. I missed the mark slightly and had to add 40g of flour in the end. Basically, the main difference between the two breads was time. My "Rustic" or "Artisan" Limpa, besides the usage of 180g of levain (sourdough) starter,  was that it spent about 5 hours in an initial proof and, after forming the loaf, about 12 hours in a final rise in the refrigerator.  The traditional recipe had about 3 hours of total rising time. 

The results were pretty much exactly what I was shooting for -- so I'll be making two loaves the next time -- one to give to my Swedish taste tester and one for me!

I made some veggie soup to go with it for lunch:

Full details (for one loaf):

270g white flour

130g dark rye

115g milk (scalded and then cooled to 90F)

60g water (about 90F)

Combined the above and let sit for 30 mins.  While that's resting:

Bring just to boil:

1/4c dark corn syrup

2T molasses

1/2t of fennel seeds and 1/2t anise seeds.

Pour through a sieve while hot to remove seeds. Then add 3T butter to melt.

Add 1/4t instant yeast to the resting dough and 11g salt.  Then add the molasses mixture and orange zest from one orange. And add your 180g of levain. 

Incorporate completely using your hands.  At this point, I added 40g of white flour to get the desired consistency.

Use Forkish's techniques at this point -- folding 3-4 times during the first 90 minutes.

After about 5 hours from the final mixing of all ingredients, form into a loaf, put in proofing basket, put in a lose fitting plastic bag and put in the refrigerator for about 12 hours.  Bake straight out of the refrig in your dutch oven at 475F for 30-35 mins and then with the cover off for 10-20 minutes. I found that the bottom burned a little bit -- probably due to the sugar content but it didn't taste burnt. I may  make an adjustment next time.