Wild Blend Rice Sourdough with Onions 

This smells like deep fried onion rings when you are making it! I decided to try my old method of levain builds to see if I got more activity that way, but I found that although it rose the same height, it seemed less active during the builds. Bulk was about the same. 

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

Dough:

700 g strong bakers unbleached flour

200 g fresh milled Kamut 

100 g fresh milled Einkorn

85 g dry Lundberg Wild Blend Rice (~240 g cooked)

20 g dehydrated onions flakes

700 g water

30 g yogurt 

50 g honey

24 g salt

250 g of 3 stage 100% hydration levain (procedure below)

Rye flour (or any other wholegrain flour) to feed the levain

Two mornings before:

1. Take 18 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 18 g of filtered water and 18 g of wholegrain rye flour. Let sit at cool room temperature for the day. 

The two nights before:

1. Feed the levain 36 g of water and 36 g of wholegrain rye flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature for the night. 

The morning before:

1. Feed the levain 72 g of filtered water and 72 g of strong baker’s flour and let rise until doubled (about 6 hours). 

2. Place into fridge until the next morning. 

The night before:

1. I use homemilled flour so if you are doing the same, measure out the stated amount for each type of flour in berries or grain, and mill it on the finest setting of your home mill. If buying flour, get the freshest that you can and try to ensure that it is wholegrain. 

2. Place the required amounts of the wholegrain flours in a tub and add the unbleached flour to it. 

3. Cover and set aside.

4. Cook the rice in plenty of boiling water until tender. This took a good 45-50 minutes. You can also follow the instructions on the package but I don’t have any luck steaming rice, so I boil it in plenty of water. Drain, add the dehydrated onions, and refrigerate overnight.

Dough making day:

1. In the morning, take the rice and the levain out of the fridge to warm up before being used in the dough.

2. Using a stand mixer, mix the water with the flour, and mix on speed 1 until all the flour has been hydrated. Let this autolyse for a couple of hours. 

3. Once the autolyse is done, add the salt, the yogurt, the honey, and the levain to the bowl. Mix on speed one for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on speed 2 for 9 minutes.  

4. Add the cooked rice and onions to the mixing bowl, and mix on speed 2 until they are evenly distributed. This should only take a minute or two.

5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot (oven with light on). 

6. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 30 minute intervals and then more 2 sets at 45 minute intervals, and then let the dough rise to about 30%. Total bulk was 4 hours and 15 minutes for me. 

7. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~770 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter. 

8. Do a final shape by flouring the top of the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule.

9. Sprinkle a  mix of rice and all purpose flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight. 

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside. 

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.