Kayte and I are still working our way through Reinhart’s Bread Bakers Apprentice. Last week we made the Stollen. This week we made Limpa and Tuscan Bread.
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Swedish Rye aka Limpa
I like rye bread and this one is no exception. It is slightly sweet due to the molasses and brown sugar. The recipe calls for fennel, anise and cardamom as well as orange peel or oil {which I used}. I didn’t have any fennel, but the 1/2 tsp for one loaf didn’t really change the flavor.
The dough was not easy to work with. It is very firm and I kept thinking I had failed totally at this bread. But in the end, it came out just fine. Even the top slashes were good!!!The Limpa reminded me a lot of pumpernickel. But sweeter.
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The other bread is this Tuscan Bread.
This was a beautiful simple bread to make. But it is different from other breads. And it is different for one reason. It contains NO salt. None!! Which means there wasn’t a lot of taste in the bread. According to Reinhart this makes it perfect for “…lavishing it with intensely flavored spreads and pastes, or eating it with flavorful dishes…”
I followed Reinhart’s suggestion and ‘lavished’ it with a Cajun Olive spread.
I also tried it with EVOO flavored with roasted garlic and other spices.
But now I have another idea for this bread – but that’s another post!! {and now you are curious!!}
The bread had a beautiful texture and with a tsp of salt it would be a perfect bread.
Check out Kayte’s Limpa and Tuscan Breads while you are browsing around.
January 14, 2012 at 7:30 AM
I AM curious! Whatever did you do to rescue the Tuscan bread?! because it was sure not a favorite around here! The limpa looks beautiful!
January 15, 2012 at 8:08 PM
Curiosity will be satisfied this week!!
January 14, 2012 at 8:22 AM
Your limpa looks really wonderful, those slashes are the best…I think mine was a little dry as the top all bubbled up (who knows how I managed to do that!). Your Tuscan is beautiful as well. I probably won’t make that one again unless I put salt in it…bread without salt just doesn’t seem right, you know? Thanks for baking with me, it was lots of fun. Vienna on Monday!
January 14, 2012 at 1:22 PM
Glad to see you and Kayte are still limpa-ing along in the BBA Challenge. I recall making the limpa, but I don’t remember whether I liked it or not. The Tuscan was a big NO here, and nothing I did could rescue it. So I’m curious to see what you have up your sleeve.
January 15, 2012 at 8:07 PM
Limpa- ing!! LOL!!
January 14, 2012 at 5:32 PM
I’m not sure I’ll ever go for the Tuscan (although yours looks beautiful) but the limpa bread is definitely on my list for when I get my copy of BBA back. But I might need you to come over and slash the loaves because you are an expert!
January 15, 2012 at 8:07 PM
That is the best slashing I have ever done on a bread. Thank you, KAF!!
January 15, 2012 at 11:14 AM
Those look gorgeous! I’ll probably skip these two, but hope to jump back in with you guys once you get to something I want to make.
January 15, 2012 at 8:07 PM
Hope so, Di. The more the merrier!!
January 16, 2012 at 1:22 AM
Both breads look lovely – I am intrigued by the flavours in the Limpa.
January 17, 2012 at 9:19 PM
Kudos to you guys for getting through the book! I haven’t been making homemade bread nearly enough in the past 6 months.
February 6, 2012 at 12:37 PM
[…] rest of us. She is an incredibly talented baker – look at this amazing Vienna Bread, and this Swedish Rye! Being on a buckwheat flour kick, I strongly considered making her Blueberry Buckwheat […]