What a Rice Celebration Week!

I love sticky rice! No matter it is cooked whole in a savory dish or made into rice cake or mochi. Fried, steamed, baked or boiled, it is so versatile. After coming across bread recipes that suggested using up leftover rice cake from Chinese New Year by stuffing it into bread, I decided to create my own version of rice cake bread.  

Purple Rice Cake Sourdough with 20% Millet and 20% Sprouted Durum

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

180g      60%       Whole white wheat flour

60g        20%       Sprouted durum flour

60g        20%       Whole millet flour

For leaven:

9g           3%       Starter

18g         6%       Bran sifted out from dough flour

18g         6%       Whey

For dough:

282g        94%       Dough flour excluding bran for leaven

160g     53.3%       Water

100g     33.3%       Whey

45g          15%       Leaven

9g              3%       Vital wheat gluten

5g        1.67%       Salt

For purple rice cake:

25g         8.3%       Purple rice flour (glutinous black rice)

25g         8.3%       White glutinous flour

50g       16.7%       Water

5g         1.67%       Coconut cream powder

5g         1.67%       Sugar

___________

304.5g      100%       Whole grain

282.5g     92.8%       Total hydration

Make the rice cake. Combine all ingredients then steam for 15 minutes (I cut the time to 5 minutes since pressure cooker was used). Let cool completely and refrigerate until it firms up. Cut it into cubes. Sprinkle it heavily with flour to prevent sticking. Keep refrigerated until needed.

Sift out the coarse bran from the dough flour, reserve 18g for leaven. Soak the rest, if any, in equal amount of whey taken from dough ingredients.

Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until doubled, around 2.5 hours.

Roughly combine all dough ingredients except for the salt, leaven, and soaked bran, autolyse for 15 minutes. Knead in the reserved ingredients and ferment for 15 minutes. Fold in the purple rice cake then ferment for 3.5 hours longer.

Preshape the dough then let it rest for 15 minutes. Shape the dough and put in into a banneton. Retard for 11 hours.

Preheat the oven at 250°C/482°F. Remove the dough from fridge 30 minutes before baking.

Score and spritz the dough. Bake at 250°C/482°F with steam for 15 minutes then without steam for 25 minutes more or until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 208°F. Let cool for at least 2 hours before slicing.

The bread has a rather close crumb, which I think both durum and millet played a role in. Moreover, it is a bit cakely and not chewy enough for my taste…On the bright side, I like that the rice cake added some nice stickiness and chewiness. Also, the yellow-purple contrast is just stunning!

The millet and sprouted durum gave this bread plenty of sweetness and there is very little sourness. I think the subtly sweet and aromatic rice cake makes the bread perfect for when you want dessert for breakfast :)

_____________

Time to try a red fife version of half sprouted red wheat bread.

100% Red Fife Sourdough with 50% Sprouted

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

150g      50%       Whole red fife flour

150g      50%       Sprouted red fife flour

For leaven:

10g        3.3%       Starter

40g      13.3%       Bran sifted out from dough flour

40g      13.3%       Whey

For dough:

260g     86.7%       Dough flour excluding bran for leaven

160g     53.3%       Water

100g     33.3%       Whey

90g          30%       Leaven

9g              3%       Vital wheat gluten

5g         1.67%       Salt

___________

305g      100%       Whole grain

305g      100%       Total hydration

Sift out the coarse bran from the dough flour, reserve 40g for leaven. Soak the rest, if any, in equal amount of whey taken from dough ingredients.

Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until doubled, around 3.5 hours.

Roughly combine all dough ingredients except for the salt, leaven, and soaked bran, autolyse for 15 minutes. Knead in the reserved ingredients and ferment for 15 minutes. Stretch and fold the dough for a few times then ferment for 2 hours longer.

Preshape the dough then let it rest for 15 minutes. Shape the dough and put in into a banneton. Retard for 8 hours.

Preheat the oven at 250°C/482°F.

Score and spritz the dough then bake directly from the fridge at 250°C/482°F with steam for 15 minutes then without steam for 25 minutes more or until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 208°F. Let cool for at least 2 hours before slicing.

As you can probably tell, I under-proofed the dough slightly. Fortunately, the bread still has great texture and a moderately open crumb.

Containing 50% sprouted flour, the bread tastes amazing. Nevertheless, its taste doesn’t differ from that of regular red wheat as much as I have hoped for. I guess sprouting the grains reduced the faint flavour contrast.

_________

Wow! I can't believe I made so many rice dishes within a week when rice is not even my preferred grain!

Thai pineapple minced pork fried rice

Omelette fried rice

Clear-the-fridge stir fry with minced lamb

Today’s dinner where Shanghai cuisine was the theme