She bakes bread for a healthier life

A good bread that is good for Boden and the people of Boden. This is Ellinor Helleblad Nymo’s vision for her company Ellis Hantverksbageri. In the spring, she will take on a full-time role and bring the old farm shop in Vittjärv back to life.

The clock reads 0.00 and it beeps. Ellinor opens the oven door and the steam rises dancing towards the ceiling. She picks up the loaf with the golden brown crust, turns it over and taps the underside. A faint echoing sound is heard. The review will be perfect. She reverently places the bread on the black kitchen counter.

– I’ve got real baker’s hands,” she says, laughing at the handling of the nearly 100-degree hot product.

It is here in the kitchen that she has discovered her great passion. Sourdough bread. Like the fermentation process, it has taken its time. In fact, she took a break from sourdough bread for 10 years.

– It didn’t feel like my thing and I gave it up pretty quickly,” she says.

PULSE LAKE

But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ellinor worked as a nurse and was sent to Sunderby Hospital to take care of infected patients. The pace of work picked up and the combination of being a parent of young children meant that the body finally gave up.

Then one day she got caught up in a TV program where sourdough bread was being baked. An idea was raised to give it another try. When she put her hands into the sticky dough, something happened in her body.

– My heart rate dropped by ten beats and I immediately felt much calmer.

Ellinor started to use baking as part of her rehabilitation and deepened her knowledge of manufacturing.

– I really geeked out and the more I learned the more I realized how good it is and how screwed up the food industry is. “All the additives are completely unnecessary, I think it’s really making us sick,” she says.

After a while, she was able to return to work, but one thought had stuck with her. Was this what she really wanted to do?

– My job is to help people and that is why I am a nurse. But I felt that maybe there were other ways to do it and do something good for myself at the same time.

BIG STEP

She applied for the Foodmaker program in Boden to learn more about food crafts and was accepted. The training has also helped her to take the final step that she dreamed of. Starting your own business.

– Very scary indeed. My friends and acquaintances were hugely supportive and asked why I even hesitated, but I saw lots of obstacles. Would anyone else like to buy bread from me? In retrospect, it has been fantastic. I have more orders than I can handle right now and I’ve never had to advertise,” she says with a big smile.

This spring, she plans to take the next big step by opening her own bakery in the old farm shop next to the football field in Vittjärv.

There she will bake and sell food and snacks made from organic products and local ingredients. The premises of about 30 square meters will be refurbished on its own. The equipment purchased is second-hand, except for the oven as a new one is more energy efficient.

– In recent years, I have started to think more about sustainability and want to do what I can to contribute. I will provide the people of Boden with good bread. Fika bread that is made from scratch, is organic and…
… A beeping signal sounds, mid-sentence.

– It is time to turn the dough.

Ellinor removes the lid of a square box the size of an A3 paper. She puts her hands down and pulls the dough towards her. It protests a little before letting go of the bottom. Some of the contents are still clinging when she suddenly drops the dough and there is a splashing sound. The procedure is repeated a few times before closing the lid again.

– This is to stretch and strengthen the gluten threads,” she says, returning to the phrase where the clock interrupted her.

– Well, not only that, but also healthy and in my opinion the most delicious bread we can eat. If I can help people get better health by baking bread like this instead of, excuse my expression, the crappy bread that dominates sales in Boden, of course I will do it.

PROXIMITY TO CITY AND NATURE

She already has plans to bring the old farm shop back to life. Theme nights with sourdough pizza, summer café and preparing bread that can be reheated for breakfast in the oven at home.

– I look forward to doing it on a small scale. And there are still 700 people living in Vittjärv. If they all buy bread from me, I will be very busy,” she says, laughing.

– Then the country store is perfectly located. Right next to road 97, there are plenty of parking spaces and Vittjärv is only six kilometers outside Boden. It is not very far from the city.

The proximity to both city life and nature is something that is highlighted when she explains what makes the family feel so comfortable in the village.

– That’s why we moved here. “We have the snowmobile trail just around the corner and water where we can fish and paddle,” she says, nodding towards Vittjärvsträsket outside the window.

The alarm sounds again. Now it’s time to shape the bread one last time before putting it in the fridge to rise slowly overnight.

Ellis’s recipe for a good farmhouse bread:80 grams of whole wheat flour
720 grams of special wheat flour
560 grams of water
160 grams of sourdough base
16 grams of salt(Choose organic alternatives and unrefined salt)

Ellinor folds the dough, it looks like she is wrapping a package. She rolls it against the back table of the kitchen island, the surface is stretched and small air bubbles form.

– This part is for the bread to hold together as it expands in the oven.

Behind her is a book with a picture of a bearded man holding out a sourdough loaf to the camera.

The book has a special place on the shelf.
– Yes, it’s Kenny Jacobsson, my role model. He guided me when I started baking and didn’t understand why the loaves looked like saucers. She laughs at the memory and continues:

– Kenny lives in southern Sweden, but I have been following him on social media. He has made much the same journey as me, and comes from a completely different industry. So I think, if he can open a bakery in his garage and succeed, I can do it here in Boden too. When everything is ready, I will write to him and tell him that this is possible thanks to you.

Before she has finished the anecdote, two new loaves are ready in the fermentation basket made of pressed paper pulp. Ellinor keeps a high tempo and the movements look almost mechanical.

When she finishes, the fridge is full. This is just a small part of the bread that will be baked for the Green Market in Gunnarsbyn in two weeks’ time.
– Right now my oven is the limiting factor. I can only bake two large loaves at a time and it is quite time consuming. But for me it is quite meditative. I turn on a podcast and do it when the family is asleep. But I am looking forward to baking in a bigger oven.

TEXT: ANDRÉ SAMUELSSON