The Prodigal Loaf

After a couple of rough days in Chile due to eating bread, I gave it up completely (along with all other forms of wheat) for several months.  Then a few weeks ago, with some spare rice flour in the pantry and a heavy craving on my mind, I started looking for rice bread recipes. Most of them are complicated and often require corn (which I also can’t eat) or a long list of expensive ingredients (like xanthan gum which, locally, runs $11 – $12 per pound).  But then I came across this website which mentioned using instant mashed potato flakes.  I had never thought of that before.

A common problem with rice bread is it can be dry and grainy, kind of like corn bread (here’s a full scientific analysis for the *really* curious – there’s x-ray diffraction and calorimetry involved! Yay!), but the addition of instant mashed potatoes sounded like an interesting, feasible, affordable answer to that problem.

I made some substitutions the first time around – namely using almond milk on hand instead of the dry milk recommended and tapioca starch instead of potato starch flour (reckless substitutions, I know, but it was too late to go to the store, which wouldn’t have had potato starch flour anyway).

I also had some store-bought tzatziki in the fridge and threw in a couple tablespoons of that and one or two of mayo in hopes of balancing the thinness of the almond milk.  The loaf came out crumbly (like cornbread) but still very tasty.  Dad and I agreed it was like a lighter, softer, butterier corn bread with a bit of an herbal twist from the tzatziki.

It would have perfectly complimented a bowl of hot chili, so you can guess what went into the crock pot the next morning.

That afternoon I picked up some dry powdered milk and tried the recipe again, using the dry milk and adding a little more of the mashed potato flakes. The loaf was scheduled to finish in time with the slow-cooking chili and what a great combo they turned out to be!  The changes to the recipe made a huge difference.  The bread tasted nearly the same – full and savory – but the texture was so much smoother! The loaf came out with insides warm, buttery, soft and springy and with a slightly stiffer, almost pastry-like top crust.

I’ve baked this recipe several times in the past two weeks and rarely does the finished loaf last more than an hour or two, despite our best efforts to save some for the next meal.  How neat it feels to welcome bread back into my life. It’s been awhile since I’ve had normal wheat flour bread so maybe the memories have faded, but this loaf, for me, tops any bread I can recall.  If nothing else, it’s a wonderfully refreshing moment savoring those first slices of a warm, just-baked homemade loaf of bread.  Yum.

Here’s the modified recipe:

Rice Bread

Makes one large loaf

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c rice flour

5 tbsp tapioca starch

1 pkg yeast

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c dry powdered milk

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 c instant mashed potato flakes

1 1/4 c hot water

2 tbsp softened butter

1 tbsp tzatziki (optional)

2 eggs beaten

Directions:

- Combine flour and starch. Put 1 cup of flour/starch mixture into separate mixing bowl.

- Add yeast, sugar, salt, dry powdered milk & baking powder to mixing bowl. Mix.

- In separate container, combine instant mashed potato flakes and hot water. Whip with fork.

-Add potato mixture, softened butter and tzatziki to dry ingredients. Beat for three minutes.

- Add remaining flour and eggs. Beat another three minutes.

- Cover bowl with towel and let dough rise for one hour.

- Beat risen dough just enough to remove large gas bubbles.

- Pour into greased loaf pan, cover and let rise another 30 minutes.

- Bake in preheated 325 degree oven for about 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned.

Substitutions I plan to try include using potato starch (or potato starch flour if I can ever find either) in place of the tapioca starch (you could probably substitute corn starch, too) and using plain Greek-style yogurt or mayo in place of the tzatziki.  I’ll update this post when I try those out.

And to those of you who have never baked a loaf of bread before, try this recipe!  It’s relatively easy and very rewarding.  If you need convincing, visit me and I’ll bake you a sample.

Footnote: For the sake of the post’s title, I wish I had baked a bun first instead.  Ah, life’s little missed opportunities.

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Update, 3/11/10: Tried a couple variations recently and wanted to add some notes.

1) If you substitute Greek yogurt for the tzatziki, add about a 1/4 tsp of onion powder and a 1/8 – 1/4 tsp of garlic powder (depending on how much you like garlic).  The onion powder is the key though; the loaf is a little bland without it.

2) I had been using various combinations of white and brown rice flour of the Bob’s Red Mill brand, but went to an Asian food market and bought a $0.99 bag of (not glutenous) white rice flour (the brand name of which I can’t even identify on the package much less spell if I could). I substituted this rice flour for the Bob’s Red Mill flour and kept everything else the same, and the loaf came out totally differently.  The risen dough was much more watery and bubbled from the yeast. At first I was disappointed because I figured the loaf wouldn’t come out right, but I baked it anyway and it tasted great!  It came out much more moist and dense.  Almost didn’t feel like bread. My best guess is that the Asian market flour is more finely ground and doesn’t trap the carbon dioxide from the yeast as well, but I have no idea.