Brown rice and sesame sourdough bread recipe | The Perfect Loaf (2024)

Open my refrigerator door, and chances are you’ll find a big bowl of leftover brown rice. It’s not that we don’t love rice; it’s just that my (amazing) rice cooker works best when we make at least 2 cups, which means we often have leftovers.

So I thought: maybe I can create a back pocket bread recipe that calls for a heavy addition of rice from the refrigerator (or quinoa, farro, or other grain—see below), virtually eliminating the chance of wasting any rice.

The health benefits of rice are well known, and adding it to bread dough brings additional beneficial vitamins and minerals such as thiamine, magnesium, selenium, and more. But rice also brings a wonderful earthy flavor to the bread and improves the texture and keeping quality days after baking. I think that the added moisture from cooking the rice may be locked up in the grain itself, which then brings additional moisture to the baked bread.

The funny thing is, after baking several rounds of this bread using leftover rice, the tables turned: I started making brown rice to make this bread.

Be sure to use my printable baking notes to track this bake in your home kitchen →

Flour and ingredient selection

Type-85 flour

This brown rice and sesame sourdough bread is made with 100% type-85 (T85) flour. Also called “high extraction,” this flour lands between whole wheat and white. I love this flour because it performs like strong white flour, which leads to a more open crumb, and also has ample flavor due to its increased bran and germ content.

Lately, I’ve been baking with Cairnspring Mills Trailblazer T85. Trailblazer is quite strong and able to support the high percentage of rice and seeds that go into this dough. The result is a loaf with ample volume, an open crumb, beautiful color, and a delightful flavor.

If you don’t have T85 flour: Mix 70% high-protein white bread flour with 30% whole wheat for the flour in this recipe to get a similar crumb color and volume.

Rice or other grain

This bread is very flexible. Of course, I’ve made it with leftover brown rice, but I’ve also tried using many other cooked grains and cereals, such as white rice, millet, quinoa, and farro. I often use these ingredients in my home cooking, so there always seems to be plenty of leftover goodies to mix right into my dough.

Sesame seeds

Use either black sesame seeds or white sesame seeds (these are my favorite) in this recipe. Using white seeds results in a bread with a milder sesame flavor, whereas using black sesame brings the flavor more forward, in addition to tinting the loaf black in places. Both are equally delicious, but perhaps in a small way, I prefer white sesame seeds since they allow more of the brown rice flavor to shine through.

Baking schedule

This brown rice sourdough is made over two days. On day one, mix the levain, prepare the rice and seed soaker early in the morning, mix in the afternoon, and finally retard (cold-proof) the dough overnight in the refrigerator. Then, bake the loaves first thing the next morning.

If you’d prefer to bake this bread all in a single day, instead of retarding the dough overnight, let it sit out on the counter to proof at warm room temperature for 2 to 4 hours until a gentle poke very slowly springs back.

Vitals and total formula

The following tables represent the total formula for this recipe. In other words, it includes every ingredient you will need to make this bread. In the method section below, the total formula table will be broken down into smaller tables showing you exactly what you need for that step of the recipe.

See my guide to baker's percentages for an in-depth formula explanation →

Vitals

Total formula

Desired dough temperature: 78°F (25°C) (see my post on the importance of dough temperature).

Method

1. Prepare the levain – 9:00 a.m.

Mix the following ingredients in a jar and leave them covered at a warm temperature, 74-76°F (23-24°C), to ripen for 5 hours.

2. Prepare the sesame soaker – 9:10 a.m.

In a small jar, mix 68g of sesame seeds and 74g of boiling water. Cover the jar and let sit until called for in bulk fermentation.

3. Autolyse – 1:00 p.m.

I use the autolyse technique for this bread to help increase the extensibility of the dough, which I find helps when adding in a high percentage of inclusions (mix-ins). Additionally, this long autolyse time helps to reduce the total mixing time required.

Warm or cool the autolyse water so that the temperature of the mixed dough meets the FDT of 78°F (25°C) for this recipe. Place the flour and water 1 in a large bowl. Use wet hands to mix until no dry bits remain; the dough will be shaggy and loose. Use a bowl scraper to scrape down the sides of the bowl to keep all the dough in one area at the bottom. Cover the bowl and place it near your levain for 1 hour.

4. Mix – 2:00 p.m.

The method gives instructions for mixing this dough by hand. A mechanical mixer, like a Famag spiral dough mixer, is also a great option to quickly develop the dough. If using a mechanical mixer, I might add the rice and seeds at the very end of mixing at a very slow speed, mixing only until the inclusions are just incorporated.

Add the salt and levain to the top of the dough that was just in autolyse, and use a splash of water 2 to moisten. With wet hands, mix thoroughly. Add the remaining water if the dough feels like it can handle it. Next, knead the dough for a few minutes using either the slap and fold technique or folds in the bowl. For this dough, I kneaded for about 5 minutes until the dough smoothed and became elastic.

Transfer the dough to a bulk fermentation container and cover.

For more on this important step, see my ultimate guide to bulk fermentation.

5. Bulk fermentation – 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (3 hours)

At a warm room temperature, 74-76°F (23-24°C), bulk fermentation should take about 3 hours.

In a small bowl, mix the cool brown rice and soaked sesame seeds (be sure to include any excess water in the seed soaker).

This dough will require 3 sets of stretches and folds during bulk fermentation. After the first 30 minutes, spread about one-quarter of the inclusions over the top of the dough. Grab the side of the dough farthest from you, and stretch it over to the other side. Next, spread another one-quarter of the inclusions to the new top. Rotate the bowl 180 degrees and perform another stretch and fold. Next, spread on another one-quarter of the inclusions, rotate the bowl 90 degrees, and do another stretch and fold. Finally, spread on the last inclusions, turn the bowl 180 degrees, and do one last stretch and fold. The dough should be neatly folded up in the bowl.

Perform 2 more sets of stretches and folds at 30-minute intervals. Then let the dough rest, covered, for the remainder of bulk fermentation.

6. Divide and preshape – 5:30 p.m.

After 3 hours, the dough should be well-risen in the bulk fermentation container and puffy to the touch. The edge where the dough meets the container should be domed downward, showing strength and rise.

Fill a small bowl with water and place it next to your work surface. Scrape the dough onto a clean counter. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and preshape into a loose round.

Let the dough rest, uncovered, for 35 minutes.

7. Shape – 6:05 p.m.

Flour the top of each preshaped round and your work surface. Using your bench knife, flip one round over onto the floured area. As shown above, use floured hands to shape each piece into a bâtard (oval) or, if you prefer, a boule (round). Transfer the shaped dough into a proofing basket, seam side up.

If you want to top this bread with additional seeds (like more sesame) or a grain/cereal (like oats), see my guide to topping bread dough.

Repeat with the other preshaped round.

8. Proof – 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. (about 14 1/2 hours)

Cover the baskets with a large, reusable plastic bag and seal shut. Then, place the baskets in the refrigerator to proof overnight.

9. Bake – 9:00 a.m. (the next day)

Place an oven rack in the bottom-third of the oven. Put a Dutch oven, combo cooker, Challenger bread pan, or baking stone/steel on the rack. Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C) for 30 minutes.

I baked these loaves in my Challenger bread pan, but you could follow my guide to steaming an oven when baking bread.

Take one of the proofing baskets out of the fridge, uncover it, and put a piece of parchment paper over the basket. Place a pizza peel or inverted baking sheet on top of the parchment and, using both hands, flip everything over. Gently remove the basket and score the dough.

Check out my scoring video below, which goes over how I like to score an oval loaf of bread such as this one:

Slide the dough into the oven. Steam the oven: either cover the Dutch oven or pour ice into the preheated pan at the bottom of the oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Vent the oven of steam: either uncover the Dutch oven and remove the lid or remove the steaming pans. Continue to bake for 30 minutes more. When done, the loaf should have an internal temperature of around 204°F (95°C), and the crust should be deeply colored.

Let the loaves cool on a wire rack for at least one hour before cutting with a bread knife.

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Brown rice and sesame frequently asked questions

What’s next?

If you like mixing other grains into bread dough, check out my millet porridge sourdough bread or, one of my all-time favorites, oat porridge sourdough.

Buon appetito!