From Beard on Bread, by James Beard, one of my favorite books about bread. One of the reasons I like Beard on Bread so much is that James Beard spends a lot of time discussing how delicious the breads are, especially when buttered. His gingerbread recipe, for example, advises that “it is best, I think, served slightly warm with plenty of butter.”
Swedish Limpa requires about 7 hours from start to finish. I must warn you that eating this bread, of course toasted with butter, can become addictive. James Beard comments, “Unlike the usual recipe for limpa, which is so popular all through the Scandinavian countries, this calls for beer and extra honey, which gives it quite a distinctive quality. The dough is very pleasant to handle, and the finished bread has great flavor, nice texture, and an attractive appearance.”
(After just reading Bob Gottlieb’s wonderful Avid Reader about his life as editor-in-chief at Knopf, with mention made of the fabulous Knopf copyediting, I wonder how “which” managed to appear twice in James Beard’s first sentence above. Perhaps cookbooks did not receive the same attention as novels. But enough of grammar–back to baking.)
Makes 1 large free-form loaf or 2 small free-form loaves
1 package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup warm water
2 cups ale or beer heated to lukewarm
1/4 to 1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
1 tablespoon caraway seeds or
3/4 teaspoon aniseed, crushed
2 tablespoons chopped candied or fresh grated orange peel
2 1/2 cups rye flour
3 cups all-purpose flour, unbleached if preferred
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water in a large bowl and let proof for 5 minutes. Combine the lukewarm ale or beer, the 1/4 to 1/2 cup honey (depending on how sweet a bread you like), the butter, and salt and stir well. Add to the yeast mixture. Add the cardamom, caraway seeds, or aniseed, and the fresh or candied orange peel. Mix the rye and white flours together. Add 3 cups of this to the liquid mixture and beat very hard with a wooden spoon. Cover with a cloth or foil and let rise in a warm place about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir down and add enough remaining flour to make a fairly stiff, although sticky dough. Turn out on a board, using 1/2 to 3/4 cup additional flour if needed to work the dough until smooth and elastic. Knead well, and while the dough will not lose its tackiness entirely, it will become much smoother. Shape into a ball, place in a buttered bowl, and turn to coat with butter on all sides. Cover the dough and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Punch down, shape into one large ball or two smaller balls, and place on a greased baking sheet. Brush with butter, cover loosely with waxed paper or plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and preferably 3. Remove from the refrigerator and let sit, uncovered, at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes. Then bake in a preheated oven at 375°F until the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, which will take about 1 hour or 15 to 20 minutes more for the large loaf and 40 to 45 minutes for the small loaves. Cool on racks before slicing.