Lingon Berry Bread

I was at Ikea on the weekend, scouring the shelves of their food section to look for ideas for Scandanavian food. I was surprised to find a pre-mix pack for Lingon Berry Bread, and it was so cheap, I thought I’d buy it and give it a go.

The mix itself was quite dark and very heavy on rye. It was quite bitter to the taste and I expected the bread would come out quite bitter as a result. Having worked in a bakery as a teenager, I know how much hard work is required to produce a really good loaf of bread. I’ve taken to using my Kitchenaid with the dough hook attachment to do a lot of the work dough requires to develop the glutens and made it taste great. After ten minutes of working the dough I sat it next to the heater and let it rise for half an hour.


I could hardly wait to get to the next stage, which is where you punch down the dough to knock out the air it's acquired is it rises. Then I divided the dough into two and formed the pieces into loaves by kneading it in a rolling action. This ensured the exterior remained nice and smooth and visually attractive. I scored the top of each loaf then put each one into a greased tin to let it prove by the heater a second time.

Surprisingly the dough didn’t double in size as I expected. The score marks had expanded, but I really thought the loaves would fill the tins, which they did not. The bread went into the oven at 200 degrees celcius for 40 minutes, while I whipped down to the store to buy a gorgeous piece of rib eye fillet. When I came back the whole house was filled with the smell of fresh bread. Yum! I knocked on the tops of the loaves and the sound was hollow, so I knew the bread was cooked! My husband and I could hardly wait to cut the bread and try it – and to our surprise, it wasn’t bitter at all!


If you fancy trying bread making and you’re able to pick up this mix from Ikea, I highly recommend it. But if I were to make this again, I think I’d work the dough into dinner sized rolls – perfect for the bread component of a formal dinner party. We ate the Lingon Berry Bread warm, smeared with butter, along with a beautiful lunch of rare roast beef, turned vegetables and garlic custard, followed by chocolate souffle with orange ginger biscuit crumbs, whipped cream and Vulcan's orange sauce.

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