Bread, Wild Rice and Cranberries

 

“How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?”
—Julia Child

After a long hiatus, I’ve decided to start blogging again. We unexpectedly sold our farm, lived for a year on the Makah Reservation on the tip of the Olympic Peninsula where my wife had a job as a Nurse Practitioner, and then moved back to northern Wisconsin.

A lot has happened. And I may try to catch up on some of it in future blogs.

But for now, I’ll just start with a no-knead bread recipe. Valentines day is coming up. Q: What did the baking husband give his wife for Valentines Day? A: Flours.

Our Rhinelander Kwik Trip gas station sells a commercial cranberry wild rice bread that we enjoy quite a bit. Since northern Wisconsin is home to both wild rice and cranberries, I thought I’d try our own version.

Wild rice grows everywhere in the Little Rice Lake Flowage and can be harvested with a permit from the DNR. The Chippewa (Ojibwa) word for wild rice is Manoomin and its harvest in the fall is a tradition, so locally harvested rice is readily available (https://theways.org/story/manoomin). Since 1995, Wisconsin has produced the largest crop of cranberries -- currently, about 57% of the United States' total production. Massachusetts fell from first to second largest producer in 1995, and currently produces another 23-30%. And wild cranberries grow in a bog within easy walking distance of our front door, and fresh, frozen, or dried cranberries are available year round.

This recipe is based on a French Peasant Bread recipe that my wife first got from a colleague while working on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico. It is easy, and can be made start to finish in an afternoon.

First boil the wild rice for 30 min in three parts water to one part rice. Then in a separate mixing bowl, add a tablespoon of dry yeast, a teaspoon of salt, and a tablespoon of sugar to two cups of warm water. Mix and let it proof, if you want to make certain that the yeast is awake and happy. Then add four cups of bread flour, about 2/3 cup each of cooked wild rice and dried cranberries.

Mix it with a spoon  until it is all wet and sticky pasty.  (No need to knead and spread flour dust everywhere). Spray a rising bowl with cooking spray (olive or canola), add the dough. Then spray the top of the dough, cover with a dishtowel, and let rise for 1.5 hrs. (In the winter, we keep our house on the cool side: 64 degrees F. I place a cereal bowl of water in our microwave and blast it for 3 min on high, then keeping the bowl in place and put in the covered dough bowl to rise.)  Next spray a couple of bread bowls or a loaf pan, spatula in the dough, and spray the tops again. Put it back in the microwave for about 30-40 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Bake the bread for 15 min, then reduce the temp to 375 degrees F, and bake 20 more min. We love the bread toasted for breakfast or a snack.

Another favorite is to add fresh or dried rosemary with or without garlic in place of the wild rice and cranberries. Rosemary is the one herb that we have been consistently been able to overwinter inside the house.

Experiment and enjoy.

Let me know how you and yours like it.