embth's blog

My first 2015 bread bake…. Wild Rice Bread.  In Minnesota and Michigan you can buy very good quality wild rice that cooks quickly and is light and fluffy.  I buy "broken" rice (not perfectly whole grains) for bread baking since it is a bit less expensive.  The rice gives a nutty flavor to this part whole wheat bread….great for sandwiches and toasting.   

a second photo for my first blog entry.

I found the basic recipe for this bread in Dan Lepard's "The Art of Handmade Bread".....and took a few liberties.

My white flour starter was 16 oz and I added a 1/4 cup of buttermilk, 2 tablespoons of honey and 2/3 cup of shelled pumpkin seeds.   The result was two large loaves of tasty, chewy rustic bread.    Lots of flavors with the rye and barley flour plus the pumpkin seeds inside and outside seem to be a nice addition.

The following worked up to be ~4.5 lbs of dough:

16 oz active white flour starter

1.75 cups water with 1/4 cup buttermilk

1 cup of barley flour

1 cup dark rye flour

2 tablespoons honey

bread flour to make a pliable dough

1 tablespoon course Kosher salt

2/3 cup shelled pumpkin seeds with more to sprinkle

Bulk rise took just over 3 hours with one fold at 1.5 hours.   I shaped the loaves on parchment paper, let rise 45 minutes, slashed and misted loaves and sprinkled with seeds.  Loaves were baked on a tile at 425 degrees F.