100% brown rice bread

This is a follow up to clazar123's post on gluten free rice shokupan.

The idea was to use very simple pantry ingredients to make a gluten free loaf with rice. This means: rice, water, salt, oil, sugar and yeast. A few days ago, I managed to make a simple loaf with soaked short-grain rice. Today, I made two loaves with brown rice, one short-grain, and the other long-grain.

Both loaves turned out well. They were denser than the loaf made with white rice, but that's to be expected. I did not detect any differences between short and long grain.

To make a 660g loaf - good for a 15X10X10 cm loaf pan*

*I only had a 20X10X10, so the loaf was quite short. I don't know if the recipe would work if it were double its height, therefore the recommendation above.

1. Soak 300g of brown rice in 320g of water for at least 18 hours.
2. The next day, blend the rice with all the remaining soaking water, 20g of oil, 4g of salt and 15g of sugar. Resist adding more water unless your blender is really breaking down. Even then, add water in very small increments.
3. The mixture will be quite warm after all the blending. It should resemble a rather thick paste that holds the figure 8 for a few seconds in the batter when the whisk is lifted. If the mixture is too runny, add a tablespoon or two of rice flour or cornstarch. Let the mixture cool down slightly before adding 2g of yeast.
4. Let the mixture ferment till bubbly. At batter temperature 21 degrees, this took me about 1.5 hours.
5. Give this batter a mix, then add another 2g of yeast. Pour this into a buttered loaf pan and leave to rise at batter temperature of about 25 degrees if possible. You want a moderately quick rise here.

6. Let the batter rise by 2/3 of its height (this took me another hour) and bake it at 175 degrees for 40 minutes. Let the loaf cool down completely before you cut into it.

   

To get a brown crust, you need to be brave enough not to use parchment paper. Just butter your loaf pan.

If you end up with a runny batter after blending, don't worry. Just add a tablespoon or two of rice flour or cornstarch and you will be OK. Here's the loaf that had a tablespoon of rice flour added to the batter. It used 100% white short-grain rice instead of brown rice. Take note: if you are using the recipe above for purely white rice, you will need to reduce your hydration slightly. Hold back some soaking liquid when blending. Whatever rice you use, err on the side of caution and aim for a thicker batter first, unless your blender starts smoking!!!