Bake

Wild Rice and Carrot Tea Bread

January  3, 2017
4
6 Ratings
Photo by Posie Harwood
  • Makes one 9x 5-inch loaf
Author Notes

I found this odd-sounding quick bread in the Lundeberg Rice archives. I haven't cooked wild rice in years, but was intrigued by the texture it could add to an otherwise simple carrot loaf. I played with the spices slightly, and if you prefer a loaf with less texture, you could certainly pulse the cooked rice slightly in a food processor before adding it to the dry ingredients. The results are weird and wonderful: toothsome and sweet and striking-looking. —Posie (Harwood) Brien

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Ingredients
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 1/4 cups milk
  • 2/3 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 2 cups shredded carrots
  • 3/4 cup wild rice
Directions
  1. Add the wild rice along with 1 1/4 cups water to a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a low simmer, cover, and cook for 45 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork, and drain off any excess water. Measure out 1 cup of cooked rice; save any extra for another use.
  2. Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, oil (or butter), and carrots.
  3. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, brown sugar, and salt. Add the drained wild rice and toss to coat.
  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
  5. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and pour the batter into the pan. Bake for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
  6. Allow the loaf to cool for 10-15 minutes in the pan before turning it out onto a rack to finish cooling.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

10 Reviews

Lauren L. February 14, 2017
Such an amazing texture and flavor. It even inspired me to make my own bread recipe with different grains... grits! I used half whole wheat flour, I chose the veg oil, and my rice was a mixture of wild and white. Turned out amazing.
Angela H. January 30, 2017
I was so excited to make this recipe, and the flavor was nice, but the bread didn't hold together, and fell apart into crumbs. Very disappointing! I used vegetable oil, not butter, and wonder if butter would have made a difference. Any suggestions?
Alex January 16, 2017
I made this using a gluten-free flour blend (arrowroot, teff, oat, almond) and it turned out brilliantly. I'll be making it again.
Moto G. January 11, 2017
No, I did not add uncooked rice to the batter. I actually cooked the rice longer (for 1 hour instead of 45 minutes) than instructed to make sure it was soft. After cooking, the 3/4 cup of uncooked rice I started with became 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups of cooked rice. I questioned whether to add it all or just 3/4 cup, so I reread your instructions (which I see you've changed now) and it simply said to 'add the rice after cooking.' So I did. It's obvious now that all the problems were due to the rice to batter ratio. The extra rice is why it took longer to cook and the extra rice on the edges of the loaf dried out in the oven and became crunchy/inedible due to the longer cooking time required because of the extra rice. Anyway, some (not all) of the crunchy rice has softened a bit in storage. The birds and rabbits in the yard absolutely love it. The loaf looks delicious, all dark brown and textured. The flavor was very good and with your changes I'm sure it will be a hit.
Moto G. January 10, 2017
Sounded so good I had to try it. I followed the recipe to the letter. What a disaster. It was a waste of wild rice, carrots, olive oil and time. First, it should clarify to use 3/4 cup of already cooked wild rice not to cook 3/4 cup of wild rice. It was way too much rice. Second, the rice that was against the sides, bottom and top of the loaf became so hard and crunchy (in a bad way) I thought I'd break a tooth. It's like eating uncooked wild rice. Third, the hour to 1 hour and 15 minute cooking time at 350 degrees was way too short. Tired of waiting, I finally took it out at 1 hour 45 minutes and it was still wet/gooey in the center. Add to that the hour of cooking time for the wild rice and this is more realistically a three hour endeavor for a disappointing/inedible result. My friend spit out the first bite and refused to even try the center of the slice. On the plus side, the whole house smelled wonderful for a couple hours. Oh well.
Posie (. January 10, 2017
So sorry to hear you didn't have great results! I loved this bread so much; I've updated the recipe slightly to clarify that you shouldn't use more than 1 cup of the cooked wild rice. It should certainly be cooked fully through before adding it to the batter so I'm not sure why yours was so crunchy--do you mean you added it uncooked to the batter? If so, I will maybe rewrite the ingredients to make it even more clear so others don't run into the same issue -- I'd love for people t fall in love with this as I did!
Sarag January 8, 2017
I wonder if the gluten free grain called montina is wild rice? I have a few packages of it from different manufacturers. One calls it "Indian seed grass" and says it is not wild rice, but a google search shows a few articles saying that montina is milled wild rice. I'd be interested to hear what gluten free flour others use to substitute for wheat. I think I will try
Pamela's pancake mix because I love that stuff and find it works pretty well in most of my baking experiments. Thanks! This looks like a forgiving recipe---and that is something those of us who must bake gluten free always search for.
Mary January 8, 2017
Your directions don't say when to add the brown sugar. I threw it in at the end because I missed it. I'm guessing it should be mixed in with the milk, eggs and butter?
Posie (. January 8, 2017
Oh sorry I've added that! You should add it with the dry ingredients.
emma L. January 8, 2017
Can I use some other type of rice? Maybe brown rice?