Bread Baking Babes go wild

Another month, another bread! Karen ("Bake my Day" is kitchen of this month and she found us a wonderful bread to bake. I must admit I felt a bit apprehensive reading we had to put raw onions in the bread, it didn't appeal to me to be honest. Reading the recipe I was glad to see that another possibility was using dried caramelized onions. That sounded good. Wait... did the recipe say that really or was it just my wishfull thinking.  I only realised later that it just said dried onions. Good that I didn't realise that before, 'cause normally I tend to change as little as possible when we bake a recipe, to see how it is supposed to be.  Making a recipe all your own is sometimes to staying to much in your comfort zone.

Karen this was such a lovely recipe, I love it, we all did. The (secretly caramelized) dried onions were so fragrant and delicious and I love wild rice. Don't use it much because it's expensive, but I really like the taste. I also found that you can soften the wild rice enough by soaking them overnight, this way you don't have to boil the rice. I used half the recipe and changed the amounts accordingly in the recipe below. Thanks Karen for a wonderful recipe.

Really a great recipe to bake for all bread lovers. So become our Bread Baking Buddy and bake this lovely recipe. Bake, tell us all about your findings and mail them to Karen. She'll send you a Bread Baking Buddy Badge and put all entries together in a round up. Deadline 29th!
Don't forget to take a look at the breads the other Bread Baking Babes baked; links in the side bar.

Wild Rice and Onion Bread
(makes one loaf)

(PRINT recipe)

283 g bread flour

100 g whole wheat flour

8 g salt

1,5 tsp instant yeast

85 g cooked wild rice

20 g brown sugar

170 - 200 g lukewarm water (about 35°C)

56 g lukewarm buttermilk or any other milk (about 35°C)

14 g caramelized dried onions

Do Ahead

Combine all of the ingredients (keep some of the water back) in a mixing bowl. If using a mixer knead with the dough hook, starting on slow speed, for a few minutes. The dough should be sticky, coarse, and shaggy. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

Now mix on medium-low speed, for 4 minutes, adjusting with flour or water as needed to keep the dough ball together. The dough should be soft, supple, and slightly sticky. Keeping kneading until you can pull a dough window from the dough. (take a ball and stretch it into a thin piece of dough that leaves light through (hence the “window”) without breaking. This way you know if the gluten has developed enough)

Place the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap, and immediately refrigerate overnight or for up to 4 days. (If you plan to bake the dough in batches over different days, you can portion the dough and place it into two or more oiled bowls at this stage.)

On Baking Day

Remove the dough from the refrigerator about 2 hours before you plan to bake. Shape the dough into one sandwich loaves (bread tin 23 cm long). You can also shape into freestanding loaves of any size, which you can shape as bâtards, baguettes, or boules; or into rolls, using 2 ounces (56.5 g) of dough per roll, adapting the baking time!. When shaping, use only as much flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking. For sandwich loaves, proof the dough in greased loaf pans. For freestanding loaves and rolls, line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat and proof the dough on the pan.

Mist the top of the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until increased to about 1 1/2 times its original size. In loaf pans, the dough should dome at least 3 cm above the rim.

About 15 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 180°C for a convection oven.

Bake the loaves for 10 to 15 minutes, then rotate the pan. The total baking time is 25-40  minutes for loaves (and only 20 to 25 minutes for rolls). The bread is done when it has a rich golden color, the loaf sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom, and the internal temperature is above 85°C in the center.

Cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes for rolls or 1 hour for loaves before slicing.

(Source: “Artisan Breads Every Day” -Peter Reinhart