Quick Bread with Rice Flour


Quick Bread with Rice Flour from bibberche.com

When I was growing up in Serbia, guests often stopped by unannounced and Mother had dozens of recipes for easy, quick pastries and breads to serve with cold beer or wine. As the time went by, she experimented with various flours and ingredients, trying to make these welcome snacks as healthy as possible.

One of the quickest and most versatile dishes she could whip out without breaking sweat or ignoring the conversation was this  savory bread known in the Balkans as Spanish or Royal Pie. She always had all the necessary ingredients in the pantry, and she was quite creative in using whatever she could find in the fridge or the vegetable basket to add as flavoring: pickles, preserved peppers, roasted red pepper relish (“ajvar”), bacon, ham, smoked sausage, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, or caramelized onions.

Quick Bread with Rice Flour from bibberche.com

I don’t have to worry about unexpected guests here in my southern California home, but I always looked forward to this ever-changing snack and I wanted to give my girls a chance to experience a little bit of my childhood.

I ground white rice in my new Wondermill and rice flour consistency reminded me of corn meal, which gave me the idea to use it in this recipe. It is not as sweet, but it adds a little bit of bite and crunch, and would be a great substitute for people who cannot eat corn.

Spanska pita-3131

I scrounged around the refrigerator and found several add-ons that worked wonderfully. I only wished I had some cooked yellow corn to add another color to this already colorful dish. But, there is always the next time!

Quick Bread with Rice Flour

The bread is very forgiving and easy to mix. It took me about fifteen minutes from chopping up the ingredients to pouring the dough into the prepared Pyrex pan.

Spanska pita-3142

I did not know what to expect from rice flour once I put the bread into the oven, but it came out just like I remembered it, golden brown, fluffy, and filled with little tasty surprises.

Spanska pita-3150When I sliced the bread, I wished that guests would suddenly appear on my doorstep and savor my creation. But I am certain that my girls enjoyed it as much as I did when I was their age.

Quick Bread with Rice Flour
 
Author:
Recipe type: Light Dinner
Cuisine: International
Serves: 6-8
 
This quick cake-like bread is versatile and easily adaptable. You can use corn meal instead of rice flour, or you can omit it entirely and use only wheat flour. You can add any ingredients you want or need to get rid of from the fridge. And it goes really well with a glass of cold beer!
Ingredients
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup rice flour
  • 1½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp dry Italian seasoning (you can use dry oregano or thyme)
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup buttermilk (I used ½ cup milk + ½ plain Greek yogurt)
  • ½ cup sunflower oil
  • 1 cup cottage cheese (or any other white cheese, like crumbled feta)
  • ¾ cup diced smoked ham (or cooked, crumbled bacon)
  • ½ cup diced pickles
  • ⅓ cup diced banana peppers or pepperoncini
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
  2. Grease 18x9 Pyrex baking dish.
  3. In a large bowl combine both flours, baking powder, salt, Italian seasonings, and pepper.
  4. In a medium bowl whisk eggs, and add buttermilk and oil.
  5. Stir to combine.
  6. Whisk in cottage cheese, ham, pickles, and peppers.
  7. The dough will be runny, thicker than pancake batter, but looser than bread dough.
  8. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish.
  9. Bake 30-40 minutes until golden brown.
  10. Allow it to cool in the baking dish and serve warm or at room temperature with plain yogurt or cold beer.

About Lana Watkins

I was born and raised in Serbia and most of our food came from the local sources. I enjoyed fresh milk, produce picked the same day when it was sold, and grains processed in stone mills operated by the energy of small water streams. My three daughters are as enamored with good good as I am . One of these days I will have my own small chicken coop in the back yard, which would make me immensely happy. Until then, I'll keep planting vegetables and herbs wherever I live.

Check our my Blog: Bibberche

Grain Mill Wagon Experience: I reluctantly admit that I am a techno-peasant and I was pretty intimidated when I unpacked my brand new WonderMill. But I read the instructions once and never again looked at them. It is simple and easy to use and maintain, and whatever grain you grind will come out fast and with no fuss. I pride myself on being creative, but this mill has opened new horizons for me and I cannot wait to explore all the roads it will lead me to.

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