Burnt Limpa bread

So, I kind of wish this is what my bread looked like. Mine was a little, um, darker on top. I forgot to take a picture. After a month of not wanting to do anything (see previous post), I decided that I needed to be more productive. My nephew Brecken really wanted Potato and Pea soup for dinner co-op tonight, so I thought homemade bread would go well with it. David's mom is Swedish and she introduced me to a delicious bread called Limpa bread. She gets it at a little bakery near Sugarhouse in SLC. She usually goes once a year and buys about 20 loaves and freezes them. They maybe last the summer. David loves it as a pb&j. I just like it with a thin layer of butter. It is a beautiful dark bread with rye, caraway, and anise.
I've tried to make Limpa bread before with disastrous results. No one would eat it, not even me. So I looked on the web for a recipe with some good reviews. I found a tip that suggested boiling the caraway and anise in liquid for a milder flavor. That sounded good, since the last time the bread tasted like black licorice. I found a recipe for a no-knead artisan loaf that sounded pretty easy and went to the store for yeast, spices, and rye flour. (This is when Lauren called to come home from school sick.)
Well, I started the dough a little bit later than I had planned. It tasted good though, so I was encouraged. Down a kitchen helper, and left with the little one (she's 12) who's afraid of knives and potato peelers, I was still a little slow in the kitchen. I really love potato soup when the onions, celery, and potatoes are sauteed in olive oil first and cooking for 15 takes a few potatoes. So, the bread went in the oven about 5:10, probably not to be ready by the usual 5:30. At 5:45, the top of the bread was still not brown. The oven has been heating a little low lately and the button won't go above 350*. (probably time to fix it, but then we'd have fewer adventures) I decided that a minute or 2 on broil would do the trick. I decide this a lot. I also burn bread a lot. Anyway, the top was just a wee bit darker than it should have been, but it was still yummy with the soup. It wasn't really anything like the bread from that SLC bakery, but still tasty. btw, how do they get dark brown bread? I don't get it.