The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [120]
Don’t try to substitute butter or shortening for the oil in this recipe because they will affect the methocel function.
Store the bread in a plastic bag in the refrigerator, and freeze the extra two loaves until you need them, as the bread tends to stale quickly.
Garbanzo Rice Bread
5 ½ cups brown rice flour (830 g)
½ cup garbanzo flour (70 g)
1 tablespoon salt (16.5 g)
2 ⅔ cups 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)
½ cup oil (60 ml)
½ cup methocel (28 g)
This bread has a mellower flavor and keeps better than the plain Brown Rice Bread.
Follow the mixing and rising instructions for Brown Rice Bread. Use only two loaf pans and bake slightly longer, about 50 minutes to an hour.
Soy-Raisin Rice Bread
6 cups brown rice flour (600 g)
2 tablespoons soy flour (7 g)
1 tablespoon salt (16.5 g)
2 ⅔ cups tepid water (635 ml)
4 teaspoons active dry yeast (½ oz or 14 g)
½ cup warm water (120 ml)
⅓ cup honey (80 ml)
¼ cup oil (60 ml)
½ cup raisins (70 g)
¼ cup methocel (28 g)
Denser, cakier, more filling, this bread adds variety and interest. The slice is golden in color and soft, almost like pound cake.
Mix and let rise like Brown Rice Bread, incorporating the soy flour into the first mixing and the raisins along with the honey. Divide the dough into two loaves only, and bake cooler and longer, at 325°F for 50 to 60 minutes, or until done.
Iddlis
In South India, breakfast often means iddlis with chutney or the spicy stew called Sambar. Iddlis are made from simple ingredients, but their preparation calls for considerable artistry, and their flavor is a subtle, sophisticated one that speaks of the ancient heritage from which they come. We include them here because to us they are the very most wonderful of rice foods; and with their breadlike texture (never gummy, please), they provide at least as much satisfaction when buttered and eaten for breakfast as our own toast. They are feathery-light when properly prepared, slightly chewy, with a full, tangy flavor.
Indian cooks make iddlis from a special kind of rice and a legume called urid dal, or black gram. The rice and dal are soaked and wet-ground separately, then mixed together with salt and fermented for about 24 hours. When the batter is just right, it is cooked in a special utensil.
Our friend Madhuri Thathachari, a most charming and accomplished South Indian lady, has helped us to develop the recipe that follows. To achieve best results, we call for parboiling short-grain rice, which prevents the iddlis from getting gummy. Don’t try to use long-grain rice because it makes iddlis that are heavy and wet.
If you can get it, use urid dal from an Indian specialty shop—the split hulled kind are easiest to use. Ordinary garbanzo beans also work very well. Their flavors are different, but both are delicious: iddlis made with urid dal are tangy and sophisticated, the garbanzo iddlis are mellower and more familiar to the Western palate.
If you want to use unhulled dal as they do in South India, wash it well after the first soaking period, flooding the dal and letting the hulls float off the top as you swish the beans with your hand. Be thorough: the black hulls change the color of the iddlis from snowy white to gray, with black specks. Iddlis made with garbanzo beans are creamy white perforce.
EQUIPMENT You will need a blender for grinding and either a real iddli pan or a covered skillet with an egg poacher. The real iddli pan will hold 12 or more at once, a much more practical number for serious iddli fans. Since the iddlis will be steamed, the egg poacher or iddli pan must have a tight-fitting lid. Note that the rice and beans need to set for 6 to