June 23, 2018

Bread machine recipe: Black Rice Bread

My doctor told me to cut back on starch, so I bought a bread machine and made purple bread.

Why? Because I'm looking for breads with extra fiber and extra protein. I'm not ready to drop bread from my diet yet, but I figure I can do better than what's available in the grocery store.

Okay, it's not quite purple, but it's purple-ISH. This is essentially a white bread recipe, with the addition of precooked black rice and pea protein powder.

I have a Zojirushi Virtuoso BB-PAC20 breadmaker. This recipe ought to work unchanged with the newer Virtuoso Plus BB-PDC20, the older Supreme BB-CEC-20, and (with luck) with any 2-pound bread machine.

[NOTE: Recipe revised Nov 6 2018 to use less water and more yeast.]

The Zojirushi machines have a convenient "Jam" cycle. Yes, we're going to cook the black rice in the bread machine!

¼ cup black rice (rinsed in strainer)
1½ cups water

Put the ingredients in the baking pan and run on "Jam" cycle (1h20m). (If you don't have a "Jam" cycle, just heat it at not-quite-boiling in a covered pot on the stove, with occasional stirring.) Don't expect all the water to be absorbed.

When done, remove the baking pan, leaving the cooked rice and remaining water in it, and set it aside to cool for at least 20 minutes.

Add:

¾ cups water
1½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar

Add the dry ingredients on top:

4 cups white bread flour
¼ cup pea protein powder
1 tablespoon active dry yeast (on the very top so it doesn't get wet prematurely)

Run on the "Basic/Regular" cycle, crust darkness "Medium" (3h25m). (If you have a different brand of breadmaker, try the standard "White Bread" cycle.) The dough might look a little dry at the start of kneading, but as the rice grains get broken up, they will release more moisture.

Enjoy!