Another Award and A Rice Bread

It seems to be raining awards this month on my blog. And I'm not complaining. It just feels pretty good. Manuela of Baking History listed my blog as one of those that make her day and gave me a You Make My Day Award. Thank you, Manuela, you've certainly made my day.

The Rice Bread:
Sometime back I was searching the internet for some ideas to bake a different type of bread. I remember a recipe for rice bread catching my eye, but never managed to find it again as I had not bookmarked it. Around this time, Linda from Out Of The Garden posted a rice bread, Mom’s Old Fashioned Rice Bread, that her mother used to make.

I found this an interesting recipe and a great way to use up leftover cooked rice. I used Linda’s recipe but made a couple of changes.
I used 1 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp oil instead of 3 tbsp margarine, as I don’t use margarine. I also substituted half of the flour with whole wheat flour and reduced the yeast a bit. Other than that I kept to Linda’s recipe. It would be good idea to read up her recipe as well if you are planning to make this bread.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp dry active yeast
1 cup warm milk
3 tbsp sugar
3 cups cooked rice
1 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
(Linda’s recipe says 3 -5 cups flour in all. This depends on the flour. I needed a total of 4 cups and a bit for dusting while kneading the dough.)

Method:

Add the sugar and yeast to the warm milk, stir well and allow to prove. Linda’s recipe call for kneading by hand (if I can find an easier way without compromising on the recipe, then I will) but I used my food processor.
Put the rice, about half the quantities of both flours and the yeast mixture in the food processor. Process just till it comes together. Keep adding flour a little at a time till the dough is smooth, firm but a little sticky. Place in a greased bowl, cover and allow to double in size. Punch down the dough and shape into loaves (I made two small loaves). Place in greased loaf tins and allow to rise again for about an hour.
Brush the loaves with water and bake at 200C for 30 -40 minutes (mine took 45 minutes).This bread was so soft and tasted so good that both the loaves were finished before the day was out! You wouldn't even know there was rice in it unless you looked very carefully. This recipe is a keeper.