Vörtbröd: Wort Bread
Vörtbröd: Wort Bread is a heavily spiced bread traditionally served on the julbord, or christmas table. This bread is lightly sweet, a little bitter and delicious with a bit of Christmas ham! This recipe contains quite a few Sweden-specific ingredients.
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What is vört?
According to wikipedia “Wort (/ˈwɜːrt/) is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whisky. Wort contains the sugars, the most important being maltose and maltotriose,[1] that will be fermented by the brewing yeast to produce alcohol. Wort also contains crucial amino acids to provide nitrogen to the yeast as well as more complex proteins contributing to beer head retention and flavour.”
Unless you make beer yourself it can be really difficult to get your hands on wort. Even here in Sweden where every bakery is selling vörtbröd it is next to impossible to find. Most bakeries don’t even use it; they use a product called bagerivört, or bakery wort, a syrup specially produced for this bread. I wanted to get as close to the real thing as I could so the liquid in the bread comes exclusively from beer.
Beer for the Bread
It is very important to use a stout or porter for this bread. I used Carnegie Porter because Swedish bread needs Swedish beer, but if in doubt use Guinness! Do not use any sort of lager or IPA!
Brödsirap
To get the sweetness but also the maltiness we are looking for I am using bread syrup (brödsirap). I am pretty sure this would be called malt syrup in the States but I have only heard my bakery friends talk about it and haven’t seen it with my own eyes at the grocery store. If you can’t find malt syrup, I think the best substitutes would be mörksirap, molasses, or even honey.
Pomeransskal
The last special ingredient is pomeranskal. This spice is dried and powdered bitter orange peel. I have never seen this in the States and the best substitute would be the zest of half an orange.
Flavor Profile
Please note that so much of the flavor and appearance of Vörtbröd: Wort Bread comes from the combination of beer and syrup you use. This recipe has a lot of Sweden-specific ingredients but this is a Swedish bread; sometimes regional dishes need regional ingredients. The more substitutions you make the bigger the difference in flavor will be.
Vörtbröd: Wort Bread
Ingredients
- 450 g stout or porter beer
- 10 g fresh yeast OR 4g dry yeast
- 85 g all-purpose flour 1
- 60 g fine rye flour 1
- 25 g butter
- 60 g bread syrup brödsirap
- 190 g all-purpose flour 2
- 45 g fine rye flour 2
- 3 g ground cardamom
- 3 g ground cloves
- 3 g ground pommeransskal
- 3 g cinnamon
- 5 g salt
- 50 g raisins optional
Instructions
- Pour the beer into a large pot and bring to a boil. Use a large pot as the beer foams up tremendously as it comes to a boil. Reduce by half. We want a final amount of 225g of liquid. Cool down to room temperature.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer hand whisk the yeast into the reduced, cooled beer until dissolved.
- Add in all-purpose flour (1) and fine rye flour (1). Mix by hand until it is a homogenous, loose batter.
- Cover with a towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Add all the other ingredients except the raisins to the bowl. Using the hook attachment mix on slow for 5 minutes.
- Scrape down the sides, add the raisins and mix on slow for another 5 minutes.
- Take off the machine and let the dough rest in the bowl, covered with a towel, for 40 minutes.
- Turn out the dough and round into a ball. Let rest on the counter for 20 minutes to relax.
- Form into a football shape. This dough is quite stiff so it shouldn’t need flour while shaping. Place on a parchment-lined tray, cover with a towel and proof for about 45 minutes.
- Bake at 200C(400F) for about 30 minutes.
- Brush with butter as soon as it comes out of the oven.