You will never, ever guess the secret ingredient in this bread. Never in a million years.
Ready?
It’s rice pudding.
Rice pudding!
So, let me back up. Often, I’ll throw uneaten oatmeal into a regular loaf of bread. It has the double benefit of adding nutrient-rich grains, and milk which softens the dough.
This week, I had a craving for rice pudding. I’d never made rice putting before, and followed a recipe that made a TON. No one else in the Bread Maiden family likes rice pudding, which means I needed to figure out something to do with it or force myself to eat all of it.
So I did what I do with all my leftovers: figure out a way to throw it in my bread.
I had leftover wheat berries, leftover oatmeal, and the rice pudding. I figured, it’s basically the same elements as oatmeal – a grain and milk. With some sugar. What did I have to lose?
I doubled my usual 2-3 white bread but added about 100g of whole wheat flour. Then I let it autolyse for 20 minutes.
my grains. On the left, cooked wheat berries and rice pudding. On the right, cooked oatmeal.
After the autolyse, add the salt, yeast and grains. Knead until everything is incorporated.
I forgot to mention the rice pudding had prunes. I managed to pick most of them out but some were hidden.
Cover your bowl and let the dough rise about four hours or so.
Divide the dough in half and place smooth side down into bannetons. Cover and refrigerate for an hour while you preheat a dutch oven inside your oven to 500 degrees F.
Bake for 15 minutes at 500 with the lid on, 15 minutes at 375 with the lid on, and 15 minutes at 375 with the lid off. Remove from the oven and let cool before slicing.
What’s really amazing is that you can’t even taste the rice pudding. The rice adds to the multigrain flavor, and the milk, sugar and egg yolks make the crumb nice and soft.
I don’t make rice pudding often, but it’s nice to know if I have it, I can use it as another grain in multigrain bread!
The Bread Maiden 