The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [119]
We recommend using short- or medium-grain brown rice. Flour made from long-grain rice makes bread with a sandy texture. You may run across something called “glutinous rice.” Don’t worry, there’s no gluten in it: it just gets sticky when cooked, a quality required in certain recipes—not, however, those in this book. Plain ordinary short- or medium-grain brown rice is fine.
Rice flour, like cornmeal, performs much better in every way when it is freshly ground; this is true even if your grinder, like ours, can’t make it into a fine powder.
About Yeasted Rice Breads
It is probably impossible to imagine how convenient bread is unless you are one of those rare people who are allergic to gluten and can tolerate no grain at all except rice.* If you are allergic to gluten you are probably not a vegetarian—or you are very thin. Maybe we can help change that.
Our yeasted rice breads are based on the dedicated work of two women who were determined to find a way to provide real yeast-raised bread for people whose diets are limited in this way. Maura Bean and Kazuko Nishita of the USDA Western Regional Research Laboratory in Berkeley tested every available natural and synthetic gum, trying to find one that could do what gluten does. They came up with methylcellulose, not what you might call a natural food for sure, but it works. The gum is extracted from cellulose fiber, and is impressively non-toxic.†
Our own version of their work uses brown rice flour instead of white, and includes a long fermentation period to improve both the flavor and keeping quality of the bread. There are three variations: Brown Rice Bread, which tastes like—rice; Garbanzo Rice Bread, with a mellow flavor and the advantage of added legume nutrients; and Soy-Raisin Rice bread, cakier, and sweet. Whichever version you make, be sure that your brown rice flour is really fresh and that it was ground from short-or medium-grain rice, not long-grain.
Your local health food store may be able to get methocel for you. Otherwise it can be ordered by mail, but it is expensive, $7 for half a pound as we go to press. Half a pound will be enough for 24 loaves. To order by mail write to:
Ener-G Foods, Inc.
P.O. 24723, Seattle, Washington 98124–0723
Ask for Methocel K4M (90 HG 4000). Ask for a copy of their product list too. This company sells a variety of products for people with severe food allergy.
Brown Rice Bread
6 cups brown rice flour (900 g)
1 tablespoon salt (16.5 g)
2 ⅔ cup tepid water (635 ml)
4 teaspoons active dry yeast (½ oz or 14 g)
½ cup warm water (120 ml)
2 tablespoons honey (30 ml)
¼ cup oil (60 g)
¼ cup methocel (28 g)
The flour in this bread must be from short- or medium-grain rice, not long-grain rice. Start this bread 12 to 18 hours before you want to bake.
Mix the rice flour and the salt, and make a well in the middle. Pour in the water, mixing gradually from the center outward. Beat vigorously for ten minutes either by hand, with a wooden spoon, or with an electric beater at medium speed, to smooth and aerate the batter.
Let the mixture stand at room temperature for 12 to 18 hours.
Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Stir the yeast solution, then the honey and oil into the grain mixture and mix thoroughly by hand or machine until completely smooth and uniform. Add the methocel and mix thoroughly again; the dough will become very stiff. (See the tips below.)
Spoon into three well-greased 8″ 4″ loaf pans. Wet your fingers with water or oil and smooth the tops. Keep the loaves in a warm (80°F) and humid place to rise, until the batter reaches the top of the pans. Watch the surface of the dough and be ready to put the bread into a preheated oven as soon as the first tiny pinholes appear on the top. Bake at 350°F for about 45 minutes, or until done. Allow to cool thoroughly before slicing.
SOME TIPS If