torquill | Not quite the holy grail

but I'm getting damn close.

I have a loaf of French bread here. It is crusty, chewy, moist, tastes just right, and is made with only flour, water, yeast, and salt, as all French bread should be. The catch: the flour type I used is rice, and only rice.

When you say "rice bread" to celiacs and wheat-intolerant folk, what comes to mind is something which might be dry, squeaky-dense, gritty, fragile, spongy, or a combination of the above. "Chewy" doesn't make the list. Rice bread is bought at specialty stores or made at home as a batter-bread, poured into a loaf pan and baked like a cake, with all sorts of gums and strengtheners to hold it together. It isn't kneaded, shaped and risen like wheat bread.

This loaf was kneaded twice, risen twice, and shaped into a long flat loaf on a baking sheet. It handled like regular bread dough, rose beautifully, and had to be dusted with flour when it was punched down, just like the standard bread I used to make. Its crust may not shatter like the store-bought loaves, but my home-baked bread never had a crust like that anyway. It tastes like I remember French bread tasting all those years ago, and is crying out for some marinara sauce and parmesan cheese. Yum.

I knew it could be done, and (after a little minor tweaking on oven temps and times, and checking to make sure it's mixer-friendly) I'll have a recipe that will do it perfectly. It's all just little corrections, now.

I promise to use my powers only for good. Pass the garlic and butter...