Light Wild Rice Bread

This is another one of the bread recipes from Simply in Season. In fact, there aren’t that many left. I will quite miss the challenge, although I’m sure I will find some other bread recipes to make. Now that I’m sort of in the habit, I’ll continue. That said, as you can see from the photo, I still have a long way to go in bread baking mastery.

FOR PRINTABLE VERSION CLICK HERE: Light Wild Rice Bread

1 cup cold water
1/2 cup wild rice
1/2 tsp oil
1/4 cup warm water
2 Tbs molasses
1 Tbs active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat bread flour
1 cup warm water
2 Tbs oil
1 Tbs salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger

1. Cook together cold water, wild rice, and oil until tender, 30 minutes. Cool to lukewarm.

2. Combine warm water, molasses, and yeast in a mixing bowl, stirring until dissolved. Add cooled rice.

3. Add remaining ingredients, stirring in enough flour to make a stiff, smooth dough (may need up to 3 cups of bread flour). Knead about 10 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turn to grease both sides, cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1-1 1/2 hours. Punch down, divide in half, shape into loaves and place into greased loaf pans. Let rise again, about 1 hour. Bake in preheated oven at 375F for 30 minutes.

Servings: 24

The Verdict: The flavor was good, but a number of operator errors prevented this from being the best bread it could be. For starters, I was multitasking and since I didn’t have enough burners on the stove I decided to try to make the wild rice in the rice cooker. It was underdone. I figured well, it might soften up more in the bread making process. (Nope). When I mixed the dough, I thought it was too dry. And the rice wasn’t incorporating into the dough. I should have followed my instinct and added more water, but I thought well, I should listen to the recipe. So I continued on. I dumped the wild rice on top of the bread, hoping it would magically rise and incorporate itself. (It didn’t). In fact, it didn’t rise so well. Now I have lumpy bread that’s flat but tastes good. So know what? I’m going to make some croutons and bread crumbs! And in the future, I’m going to listen to my gut.

Nutrition Facts
Serving size: 1/24 of a recipe (1.9 ounces).
Percent daily values based on the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for a 2000 calorie diet.
Nutrition information calculated by Living Cookbook Recipe Management Software
Amount Per Serving
Calories 111.43
Calories From Fat (13%) 14.46
% Daily Value
Total Fat 1.66g 3%
Saturated Fat 0.23g 1%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 292.94mg 12%
Potassium 71.85mg 2%
Total Carbohydrates 20.5g 7%
Fiber 0.86g 3%
Sugar 1.08g
Protein 3.42g 7%

This post linked to Frugal Fridays