Let me clarify, this is not gluten-free bread made with rice or rice flour but regular style bread made with cooked rice! We belong to a predominantly rice eating community like most of South India and even with adaptations of non-traditional dishes into our everyday meals, I cook rice for at least one meal a day. Most of the time, I manage to cook just enough rice so there’s not anything leftover.
I’ve had any number of days when I’ve had leftover rice and I can think of any number of ways to use it up the next day, disguised or converted into something else or the other. However, making bread with leftover rice is something new to me. So I was surprised to come across a recipe for baking bread with leftover rice some time back.
Apparently it is an old-fashioned bread recipe, though I couldn’t find much information on it, I’m sure its once of those recipes that happened in the good old days when some enterprising home baker decided to try baking bread with leftover rice.
I found this an unusual recipe and a great way to use up leftover cooked rice, and made some changed to the original recipe.
I used 2tbsp oil instead of 3 tbsp margarine, as I don’t use margarine. I also substituted half of the flour with whole wheat flour, used bread flour instead of all-purpose flour (for a comparitively less dense bread) and reduced the yeast a bit. I also chose to add a little roasted and crushed cumin to my dough. Don’t use cumin powder as it won’t give you the flavour, and its better to leave it out altogether if you don’t have cumin on hand.
You can use any variety of leftover rice to make this bread, though using scented rice like basmati or brown rice or wild rice will give your bread a little more flavour. You wouldn’t even know there was rice in it unless you looked very carefully. This recipe is a keeper.
I’ve seen a couple of instances where bakers have added stuff like corn kernels and cumin, and also used added other flours like rye and barley to enhance the flavour of this bread.
Rice Bread - Making Bread With Leftover Rice
Ingredients
- 3 tbsps yeast dry active
- 1 cup milk warm
- 3 tbsps sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cumin , roasted and crushed coarsely
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 cups bread flour (or all-purpose flour)
- 3 cups rice cooked
Instructions
- Add the sugar and yeast to the warm milk, stir well and allow to prove. Lindau2019s recipe call for kneading by hand (if I can find an easier way without compromising on the recipe, then I will) but I used my food processor.
- Put the rice, about half the quantities of both flours, the salt, the crushed cumin and the yeast mixture in the food processor. Process just till it comes together. Keep adding flour a little at a time till the dough is smooth, firm but a little sticky. Add the oil and knead again for a minute or two.
- Place the dough in a well oiled bowl, cover and allow to double in size. Deflate the dough abit and shape into one big loaf or two smaller loaves or even rolls. Place in greased loaf tins (rolls on baking sheets) and allow to rise again for about an hour.
- Brush the loaves with a little milk (or water) and bake at 200C (400F) for 30 -40 minutes, until brown on the top and it sounds hollow when tapped. This bread was so soft and tasted so good that both the loaves were finished before the day was out!
I'm Aparna and My Diverse Kitchen is my ovo-lacto vegetarian food blog where you'll find recipes, food stories & photography. I've been blogging since 2007 and believe the kitchen, and the dining table (by extension) is really the heart of a home. 
Congrats on your award. Bread with left over rice is interesting. Your bread looks perfect.
Hi Aparna, you made my day too — you really perfected the rice bread! I like how you added some whole wheat flour (I am always so afraid to do this) and kneading in the food processor — brilliant! The bread looks delicious in that golden crust. So pleased you enjoyed it! 🙂
WOW! Rice bread is new to me too, looks great Aparna, I will try too!:))I posted a Sally Lunn at Foodie’s Hope, check it out. Baking bread is so soothing!
wow!! congratulations aparna….this is such a well deserved award….and the bread looks yummy!!
Aparna, the bread looks gorgeous. Never tried a rice bread before, but yours is inspirational. Good job!
Wow, what a great way of using the leftover rice, so innovative! congrats on the award.
i love this. Gr8 idea to use rice in bread. Its the first time i hva ehrd abt a rice bread.
Bread with rice, I never knew. Looks very good.
That is simply brilliant! I would have tried it myself if only I had enough confidence to bake a loaf.
Ah Aparna…So french bread hasn’t stopped you from making breads :D..I am still yet to make one after the french one…The loaf here looks very nicely done….the inside looks so airy….Congrats on all the three awards!
Congratulations on the award, Aparna.That is a great recipe for using up leftover rice.
Hi Aparna,This is my first time on your blog …I somehow stumbled here during blogpatrolling and am I glad that I did ….your blog is a treasure trove of recipes for someone like me … I will be a regular visitor from now onwards. Rice bread is absolutely new to me ..will try it someday and let u know how it turned out .
…this is really interesting Aparna..!! Never thought of it.. 🙂
Aparna, you got me all curious about this rice bread. Sounds great and very interesting.Congrats on the award!I usually go to an Indian restaurant here in Lisbon (around Rossio) called ‘caxemira’, was that the one you were referring to?
Aparna, I’m really going to try this…sounds and looks wonderful…congrats on the award and thanks for sharing the recipe…I would added the wholewheat flour too 😀
Congrats on ur award girl…bread looks perfect
First time on your blog Aparna…. you have a great collection of mouthwatering recipes. will drop by to check them all out.
That’s a lovely looking bread — I don’t think I’ve ever had a rice bread, but it’s nice to know that I can use up some leftover rice with it.
I hope you all are encouraged to try making this bread. Its worth it. I am going to try it with basmati rice next time.Linda,Thanks, again for this bread. Its found a fan following.I almost always use my processor for the initial kneading of any bread. Saves my arms some work!Tbc,Do give it a go. I have learnt, especially after starting this blog, that you never know what you can do till you try. That includes mistakes and messes, of course!!Sneha,I’m not that perfect a baker, though I hope to become a good one. I haven’t been posting all my mistakes!What I have is roughly 1 kg bag of yeast. I periodically remove a smaller quantity (about 50 -75g)from this and store both airtight, in the fridge. Yeast stored this way has remained active in my fridge for over 6 months.If you don’t use yeast too often, smaller sachets would be a better idea.Btw, 1 tsp of yeast is about 5 g.Rachel,I needed to make this to reinforce my belief in my bread making skills!!SoL and Priyanka,Glad to have you here and to know you enjoyed my posts. Will look forward to knowing how your bread turned out.Suzana,I think it was Caxemira. They had naan there then. Do check it out the next time you are there.
hmnn.. very interesting. I will add this on to my must-try recipes..
Aparna – that looks so good. Duly bookmarked. Thanks.
Hi Aparna,I borrowed your Rice Bread recipe link for today’s National Rice Month post. I hope you don’t mind. It is such a tantalizing recipe I just had to share!!!
i just made this and loved it! thanks! adapted it to a foccacia though.
I hope you make it, Arundathi.That’s ok, Louise. :)Tia, good to know it worked so well.
Just wondering if it’s really 3 tablespoons of yeast?
It is actually. Otherwise the wholewheat flour and the cooked rice will make a very dense loaf. You can reduce the yeast a bit but will have to have longer resting periods. Perhaps overnight.
Thank you so much!
Had some left-over rice and made your bread today. It came out very well. I put oregano as l don’t have cumin. Thank you very much for the recipe.
My pleasure to share the recipe. I’m happy to hear you liked the bread. Oregano sounds good too.
I am back again — to say this recipe is a huge success in my house! J made several arbitrary decisions about how to execute it, and made one correction: The arbitrary decision included using the specified whole wheat flour and “bread flour” each at 120 grams/cup. Four cups went into the original doughmaking and I’ll guesstimate another cup went in during kneading. The correction was to add in 3 tablespoons of butter — my usual if I am baking milk=based. I did NOT measure or weigh the cooked rice but it was between 3 and 4 cups. I ended up with two 770 gram (before baking) loaves. It has taken us less than a week to eat both loaves!