Joululimppu, Finnish sweet (Christmas) bread
I'll start with this:
I've decided I should draw the art for the last part of my story myself, as it seems waiting doesn't help. Also I have been lazy with Steem, but now I'll instead give you a bread baking post!
This is one kind of traditional Finnish bread, limppu. This limppu is more specifically joululimppu, Christmas limppu. It is somewhat sweet and it has some specific spices to give it flavor. There are other kinds of limppu, like ruislimppu which is rye limppu and typically has no sweetness in it.
The Christmas eve was one month ago, so this is a grand time to start baking Christmas bread!
Ingredients:
6 deciliters of buttermilk
50 grams of yeast
1-2 teaspoons of bitter orange peel
1-2 teaspoons of fennel seeds (crushed)
1 teaspoon of anise seed (crushed)
1 deciliter of scandinavian dark syrup (can be replaced with american light molasses)
4 deciliters of rye flour
10 deciliters of wheat flour
1 teaspoon of salt
I prefer not to use deciliters when I'm baking, but this recipe worked well with me. The issue with using capacity measures is that they're not as precise, but even by weighting the flours the humidity of the flours would affect the outcome.
So the flour amounts are always approximate amounts of flours.
The baking process:
If your fennel and anise seeds are whole, you should start by crushing them.
Then proceed to warming up the buttermilk to "hand temperature", which is around 36 degrees celsius.
This is great though as even if you'd use another temperature system than celsius degrees, you still know how warm your hand is.
If you have any hands that is.
You can mix the yeast, syrup and spices (except the salt!) to the buttermilk. On the photo below you can see my wonderful assistant helping me to mix it all.
Add the flour to the liquid and start mixing. I prefer using a machine to help you mix instead of mixing it with your hands, as to get a proper viscosity from gluten you need to mix it enough. Have the machine mix the dough for approximately 15 minutes on low speed.
After the 15 minutes, add the salt and increase the speed a little bit, then continue for 5-8 minutes more.
The minimum amount I'm aiming for is 20 minutes, but I tend to go a bit over it, but I have avoided going over 25 minutes (in total).
I have no actual clue if this is the best way to do this. I'm assuming this might vary based on the machine and the speed you are using.
Letthe dough to rise for around 30+ minutes, until the dough is approximately double in size.
This beauty is the ball of dough it became after rising in the peace.
Now we'll cut up the motherfucker dough.
Let them rest under a cover for 30+ minutes again until they can expand once again.
When they have been rising, you can heat up the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
However, at this point you can do the magic trick to the bread:
Mix some dark syrup (or american light molasses) and water, then spread this over the bread before baking.
I'm using a silicone brush for baking to do this so I can spread it evenly on the bread.
Bake the bread for approximately 40 minutes in the 200 C oven.
Enjoy the (sticky?) tasty, soft and syrupy bread.
Find love.
You can bake and have this limppu whenever you want, not only on Christmas. You can find bread like this around the year in Finland so it's not actually just a Christmas bread even though it's most common at Christmas.
Yes!!!!! Draw it in blood!!!!!!! or you know pencil is fine as well.......
Draw it in syrup.
Mmmm.... sugar....
Thanks for sharing, gonna try this one out at the EGG during the weekend. Think it will make a nice bread to try during breakfast?
Not sure what EGG is, unless it's an egg.. but not sure if this is good with an egg?
Any bread can be wonderful for breakfast :)
This EGG I'm talking about
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://www.barbecuecatering.nl/uploads/Green_Egg.jpg)
I do not have an oven now and love to bake bread, so your post is making me drool. Molasses has one of my favorite tastes, and I am sure this is a wonderful crusty bite of yum.
I am a kneader though, and have not used a machine. I just love the feel when the dough comes together and do a lot of good thinking while kneading.
Hello from Malaysia, a place you are lucky to get a stove burner and an oven is out of the question :)
I'm thinking it's weird that there are countries in which ovens are rare, as it's one of the cornerstones of the nordic cooking. Anything can be prepared in an oven.. at least almost anything!
I'm happy using a machine, I've never loved kneading with my hands but instead I'm appreciating efficiency brought by modern technology :)
It's too hot in SE Asia and few people have ovens or a/c - many "kitchens" are out on the balcony or a room closed off from there rest of the house. They use appliances such as rice cookers and grills. You would fit in with the tech. They are far ahead of what I saw in California before I got here.
There is also a big street food culture 24/7. Many people never cook a thing here.
I have city friends that do all their cooking on the street outside the front door and eat there too. It takes getting used to from my western point of view. I can't think of anyone I have met here that would dream of baking bread. Lots of rice and noodles though!
That's a difference we have, haven't heard it's too hot up here in north. Instead traditional ovens were also meant to heat up the house and they were built massive.
The rice cookers are a cpecialty, but I'm assuming they produce far less heat than the ways we are used to. When we have foreign students moving here, they're usually trying to find rice cookers as fast as they can!
The street food culture is reall interesting but also understandable. Can be a really good way for someone to earn his living while others can completely skip cooking :)
There is no heat output from the rice cookers at all. They are really efficient. I should invest in one, but I move so often it would be hard to drag with me.
The food stalls are often run by families. Grandma cooks at home and the kids are selling :)
I'm from Canada and used to run the shower in the bathroom for heat!
Running the shower in the bathroom for heat? Do you mean you're running the hot shower while you're not in the hot shower yourself..? :D
Running it for heat - my dad was outraged!
... I can imagine that.
I already assumed that's a common habit in Canada. It's even crazier than some people who put their oven on and keep it open, just to heat up the apartment.
It looks so delicious. It's not a Christmas time, but I think every time is a good time to make fantastic food. Thank you for showing the process of making. It's helpful. :)
It is! I'm also glad it's acceptable to eat it at any time. Kind of like chocolate.
People eat a lot of chocolate during Christmas, but luckily you can have it any time you want :)
I don't know how to pronounce the word "Joululimppu" in Spanish or English LOL. In any case, with your post I learned a new recipe and a word I did not know. the name of that bread will always be engraved in my memory: "Joululimppu":D thank you for sharing with us.
Just pronounce it like...
...
...
Like a Finn would do?
You can just come up with something and pretend it's the right way to say it!
Hi apsu,
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I'm all for sweet bread.
This one looks so easy to make and yummy.
I had not seend fennel seed used in bakery. We usually use fennel in some foods and / or salads.
Thanks for sharing
It is quite easy to make, as long as you have the required ingredients.
I was googling for different spice names in English to find the right ones and I was surprised fennel is used a lot as a plant, not only as seeds as we mostly do around here!
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