Thermomix Bread with Rice

I'm on a quest to squeeze the budget and really use up all those leftovers, so today I tried using up leftover rice and yoghurt in bread. Success!

A crusty white loaf!

I blitzed 110gm leftover white rice at speed 7 for 20 seconds.

Added 110gm natural yoghurt, 90gm water, 1tsp sugar and 2tsp yeast and mixed at 37 degrees speed 1 for 3 minutes to get it up to temperature (the rice was straight from the fridge).

Added 400gm cheap white flour, 1tsp salt, 50gm light olive oil and mixed in for 10 seconds at speed 7 to combine.

I found kneading for 3 1/2 minutes gave me a nice looking manageable dough. It was a very compact ball of dough and not at all sticky. I was worried it may not have been moist enough.

I started later than usual (when I realised I needed sandwich bread for the next day) so couldn't rise the dough in the sun. Here it is tucked up in the Thermomat in the Varoma on top of the Thermoserver with an inch or so of boiling water.

A modest but not very spongy rise. I would normally leave it longer, but time was pressing...

Punched down into a well oiled bread tin. I've been having problems with my dough sticking to the tin and tried using grapeseed rather than olive oil to oil the tin.

The kitchen was pretty chilly, so I popped the tin on top of the Thermoserver, and added another inch of freshly boiled water.

The second rise was excellent! I popped it into the oven for 25 minutes at 200 degrees, let it sit in the tin for 5 minutes then removed from the tin and popped back in the oven for another 3 minutes to crust up.

There are three very thin slices left now...

Either the grapeseed oil or the less sticky dough worked wonders on ease of removal from the bread tin!

Thanks, again, to Peta from The Road to Loving My Thermomix for the excellent white bread recipe!

Leftover rice again!

Why is it so hard to make just the right amount of rice? It seems so miserly to run out of rice at the dinner table, but sometimes the leftover rice is just uninspiring.

I didn't feel like fried rice  ... but there were some serious rice leftovers to be used today, so I went hunting for new recipes and came up with these:

Rice chocolate cake

• 250gm cooked rice ( nice and moist ) (8.8 ozs)
• 250 gm caster sugar   (8.8 ozs)
• 1 Tablespoon golden syrup
• 6 eggs
• vanilla
• 200 gm almond meal (7 ozs)
• 50 gm cocoa (1.75 ozs)
• 1 tsp baking powder

This mix tasted delicious uncooked! I blitzed the caster sugar, added the rice, then mixed in the rest of the ingredients. Baked at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

The cupcakes were a bit dense and I think I might blitz the rice for longer next time ... but there will be a next time because the cocoa flavour was so dark and rich.

Leftover rice quiche probably would've been more successful if I'd been in less of a hungry hurry and cooked the base just a little longer...

• Enough cooked rice to thickly cover the base of the dish you want to use

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 3 eggs

• A handful or two of grated cheese – whatever is available, a mixture is fine

• A mixture of sliced onions, peppers and mushrooms (or other vegetables, see note)

• A generous handful of chopped fresh herbs

• Salt and pepper, to taste

I grated a good hunk of tasty cheese in the Thermomix, then left half of it in the bowl and mixed it up with about 2 cups of rice and one egg. I spread it over an oiled pie dish to make a base. A sprinkle of cheese then into the 180 degree oven to firm up. 

I did NOT firm it up for long enough.

While the base was in the oven I chopped a hefty handful of parsley with half a red onion then mixed them with the leftover cheese and two eggs. I poured them over then cooked it all for another 20 minutes (did I mention I was hungry?). 

It looked great, but the base was not particularly firm so I popped it back in the oven for another 15 minutes while I ate the first soggy slice. As with the cupcakes, I'll be making this again. 

PS The leftover quiche from lunch was a big hit for dinner! I'm thinking it will be a great picnic basket addition :) .