whole wheat rice loaf

My favorite way of eating bread is of course when it's fresh and warm straight from the oven! Otherwise I love toasting it the next day and topping it with any fresh vegetables or fruits. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup white flour

• 1 cup cooked rice (I used wild rice, but you can also use white rice, brown rice,...)

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour

• 1/4 cup flax ground seeds

• 1 cup warm water

• 2 tsp active dry yeast

• 1 tsp maple syrup

• a pinch of salt

Method
1. To make the dough, first combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Add all the wet ingredients and mix with a spatula or spoon at first, until everything is combined and starts to form into a dough.

2. Now knead the dough with your hands until it's silky and doesn't stick to your hands anymore (5- 10 minutes). If the dough is very sticky, keep adding a little bit of flour. 

3. When you're done kneading the dough, shape it into a ball and leave it in the mixing bowl. Cover it with a clean dish cloth or cling film and  let it proof for about an hour or until it doubles in size. The ideal place for this would be warm and moist.

4. Once the dough has doubled in size, knead it again gently to punch out the air. To bake the loaf, you can shape it into any shape you like; a round loaf or square if you want to bake it in a bread tin.

5. Once you've put the bread in the oven, heat the oven to 350 F and bake for about 30 minutes. I usually fill an oven dish with water and put it in the oven with the bread while I bake it, to provide steam and humidity. It makes the crust more crispy. After 30 minutes or so, turn the oven back to 300 F and bake for another 30 minutes.

6. To check if it's cooked, tap the bottom of the bread, if it sounds hollow it's done. If not, put it back in the oven and bake for another 15 minutes and check again. 
Once it's cooked, let it cool on a wire rack.