The Nordic Baking Book: Plain Wheat Loaf (Loff/Vitt bröd)

This bread recipe couldn't be any easier, especially for a first time bread making experience. The yeast thing is not too difficult actually. I used the book’s recommendation, which is to (always) use fresh yeast, though I have heard differing opinions on this. I purchased active yeast cakes from the grocery store that were in stock. This is what it looks like if you are wondering. It does not dissolve easily. It does not smell great either.

The amount of flour this recipe calls for seems excessive at first (over a pound), but it goes a long way.

All-purpose flour works for making breads, but the ideal is to use strong (bread) flour. Soft flour is a cake flour. The difference is the amount of protein in the flour.

Once the dough is mixed it immediately becomes very sticky. It's good practice to have the workspace set up for the next several steps in advance. After your 8 to 12 minute arm workout (hand kneading), your bread dough should look very satisfyingly smooth.

Then comes the first rise, where you cover the bowl with a kitchen towel. I had heard of one method to put a heating pad on low setting under the bowl to keep the yeast warm, but my dough rose just fine in my chilly kitchen during winter.

After the dough does its thing, you can split up the dough in two ways. According to the recipe this amount of dough can make 3 loaf pans worth. Set the dough aside for the second rise in the same way it will be put in the oven (free form on baking sheet or in loaf pans). Score the dough if you so desire, though the recipe does not mention it.

The bread is good though slightly sour compared to most store-bought bread.

As a side note, the book mentions gas stoves are not ideal for bread cooking as they don't circulate the air. Based on this, and because I had two loaves going in (one dark pan, one light pan), I put the dark pan on the top rack. The result was a more golden brown loaf on the top while less brown underneath in the dark pan. The loaf on the lighter pan on the lower shelf was lighter on the top but underneath was much darker brown.

This recipe gets five out of five Nordic spears from us. Recipe found on page 100 of The Nordic Baking Book by Magnus Nilsson. You can find someone else's attempt at this loaf here.