Foolproof BreadItaliano

Brown rice bread: the recipe

Brown rice bread

This brown rice bread has a distinctive hazelnut aroma and an excellent ability to retain moisture, keeping it fresh for days.

How well the bread turns out depends entirely on properly preparing the rice, which must be cooked to a slightly al dente texture, following the instructions in the notes.

This recipe is freely inspired by, or adapted from, a formula by Master Jeffrey Hamelman.

At a glance

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Ingredients

Quantities for 2 pieces of 680 g, kitchen at 21 °C

Preferment

  • Wheat flour (0, W320)206 g
  • Water134 g
  • Salt4.1 g (half a teaspoon)
  • Yeast0.4 g

Dough

  • Wheat flour (0, W320)343 g
  • Wheat flour (Whole wheat, W290)137 g
  • Water346 g
  • Brown rice171 g
  • Salt12 g
  • Yeast4.1 g

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Method

  1. Prepare the rice (see notes)
  2. Pasta di riporto: make it and let it ferment (at room temperature) (14 hours)
    • Weigh the ingredients
    • Make a mix with 1 ice cube and 114 g of water at room temperature (to get it to 18 °C)
    • Dissolve the yeast in the water
    • Mix until you get a smooth dough
    • Seal it airtight (a lid, or plastic wrap pressed onto the surface)
  3. Weigh the ingredients and knead (30 min)
    • Use water at 22 °C
    Add the pâte fermentée, then the cooked, cooled rice last of all.
  4. End of mixing, start of bulk rise (at room temperature) (2 hours)
    Fold the dough once, after the first hour of bulk fermentation.
  5. Reinforcement fold 1 of 3
  6. Reinforcement fold 2 of 3
  7. Reinforcement fold 3 of 3
  8. Divide/shape: weigh and form the pieces (5 min)
    • Divide into 680 g (1.5 lb) pieces, preshape lightly into rounds and place on a lightly floured work surface, covered with plastic.
    • When the dough has relaxed sufficiently (10 to 15 minutes), shape into round or oval loaves and place them into floured bannetons or between the folds of a floured linen couche, covered with plastic.
    • It can also be put in loaf pans or shaped into rolls.
  9. Start of proofing (at room temperature) (1 h 8 min)
    About 1 to 1h15 at 24 °C.
  10. Ready to cook
    Slash the loaves as desired before loading the oven.

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Baking

    • conventional oven, with steam
    • Overall temperature: 230 °C
    • Time: 38 minutes
    • Double steam (before loading and again right after). Once the loaves have taken on colour, open the vent to finish the bake drier. If the rice was on the moist side, it may need a couple of extra minutes.

The calculator adapts baking times to the weight of your pieces. Open the calculator

Preparation notes

Brown rice
  1. Toast the rice dry in a pot over medium heat until it darkens slightly and smells nutty.
  2. Add the water and cook it until just done, covered, for about 15 minutes: Not too soft, not too al dente. Turn off the heat and leave it covered for another 5 minutes.
  3. Drain, put it in a closed container and let it rest in the fridge overnight.
Bassinage
If mixing with a stand mixer or spiral mixer, pour in the last 20% of the water gradually, in a thin stream, only after the gluten network has formed.

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