Wild Rice and Onion Bread

Last year I regularly made homemade bread from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I moved away, taking the book with me, my mom took over, buying her own book: Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day. Now my family only eats homemade bread, alternating between sourdough (to keep the starter going) and other hearth breads.

The new book was sitting out on the counter, open to a page for Wild Rice and Onion Bread. It sounded good, and the first few sentences in the description had me hooked.

The bread takes 2 days. On the first day you combine all ingredients and knead the dough. Day 2 you shape and bake the bread. I prefer this as It only takes 2.5 hours on day 2 to prep and bake the dough. I can bake it in the morning and enjoy fresh bread all day. (Some 1 day breads take so long to make that I don't get a chance to eat them until dinnertime, and the next morning they have already begun to go stale.)

Ingredients:

6 c bread flour (I used 4 c white and 2 c whole wheat)

2 1/4 t salt

2 T instant yeast

1 c cooked wild rice or another grain

1/4 c brown sugar

1 1/2 c lukewarm water

1/2 c lukewarm milk

1/4 c dried onions OR 2 c fresh, diced

*egg white

*1 T water
**fresh or dried herbs of your choosing: parsley, rosemary, thyme, dill, tarragon, sage, cracked pepper

*optional egg wash
**optional

Day 1:
Cook 1 c rice. I used brown rice because we already had some made.

Mixing can be done by hand or with a mixer; I used a mixer. 

Warm milk + water in a pan until ~95 F/35 C. Combine all ingredients in mixer bowl and mix with paddle attachment on slow/stir for 1 minute. Switch to dough hook. Increase speed to slow/medium for 4 minutes. Dump the dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead for 2-3 minutes. You want the dough to be tacky but not sticky--add more water or flour as needed to achieve this texture.

Transfer dough into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.

End of Day 1

Beginning of Day 2

Shaped and ready to rise

Day 2:

Prep pan(s) with parchment paper. Remove the dough from the fridge and immediately shape. Shape is up to you. I like to make boules, and today opted for 1 boule + several smaller rolls. To make rolls, cut equal-sized pieces of dough, form a cup with your hand, and roll the dough around on the counter until it is round. For the boule, keeping tension, fold the edges of the dough in, beginning with top and bottom, left and right. Flip over and place on baking sheet.

When all the dough is shaped, spray with oil and cover with plastic wrap. Let this rise 1 1/2-2 hours. I like to begin preheating the oven after 1 1/2 hours, so the dough can bake on time.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Brush with egg wash and score the dough if you like, then bake 20-25 mins for rolls or 45-55 minutes for loaves. Rotate halfway through baking to ensure the bread browns evenly. Remove when the crust is golden brown.

Let cool at least 20 minutes-1 hour before eating.

The only change I would make to this recipe is to use a baking stone instead of a pan. After 25 minutes (the time it took for the rolls to bake), the bottoms were very brown--almost burnt. I baked the boule for 10 minutes longer and the bottom was also too dark.