Wild Blend Rice Sourdough with Onions

Another savoury loaf, this time with a wild rice/exotic rice blend and dehydrated onions and a touch of honey. 

When I was mixing up the dough I noticed it was extremely soft. This was probably because I didn’t cook the rice the night before as per the recipe and that was probably a mistake as the rice ended up more hydrated than it should have. I added an extra 50 grams of flour to soak up some of the hydration. So word to the wise, make the rice the night before. 

Recipe 

Makes 3 loaves

700 g strong bakers unbleached flour + 50g

200 g fresh milled Spelt 

100 g fresh milled Selkirk wheat

85 g dry Lundberg Wild Blend Rice (~270 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)

Wholegrain flour and unbleached flour to feed the levain

The afternoon before:

1. Take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 18 g of filtered water and 18 g of wholegrain flour. Let sit at cool room temperature for the day. 

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. Drain, add the dehydrated onions, mix well, and refrigerate overnight.

5.  Feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature for the night. 

Dough making day:

1. When you get up, feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 50 g each of strong baker’s flour and wholegrain four.  Let rise until doubled (about 5 hours). 

2. Take the rice  out of the fridge to warm up before being used in the dough.

3. About two hours before the levain is ready, 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. 

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

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%. It should have irregular bubbles visible through the sides of the container and  bubbles on top as well. 

7. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~800 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.