Vort Bread Recipe from Swedan

The Swedish household seems to specialize in fancy breads for Christmas-saffron bread, Vortlimpor, fennel bread, cara­way bread. One loaf is to be shaped like a boar’s head, deco­rated, and allowed to remain on the dining room table throughout the holiday. This is regarded as a prayer for next year’s harvest. The vort bread seems the most important of these many varieties.

VORTLIMPOR
1 cup rich milk	1 cup molasses
2 cups white flour	1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar	4 oz. orange peel
1 cake of yeast	(fresh or candied)
2 tablespoons malt in	rye flour
1 cup ofhot water

Set a sponge in the evening, using the scalded milk, the white flour, sugar, and one-half cake of yeast. Let this rise in a warm place over night. In the morning, add the other half cake of yeast dissolved in the lukewarm malt mixture. Then add the salt and enough rye flour to make a stiff dough. Let this rise until light. Mix the molasses and the chopped orange peel and heat to lukewarm. Add this to the dough, kneading well, and adding rye flour to give a very firm consistency. Let it rise again, and then turn it out on a board and knead it until it is firm and elastic. Divide into three or four loaves. Place these on a floured cloth to rise again, keeping the loaves separated from one another. When they are light, you turn them upside down in bread pans and score each of them two or three times down the center. Place in a moderate oven (350°) for ten min­utes, and then raise the temperature (375°) for another thirty­five minutes. Toward the end of the baking, brush the tops of the loaves two or three times with hot water.