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Well, wouldn't ya just know it.  Another day, another Pane di Altamura posting.  With my recent trip down to Lorenzo's in N. Miami Beach (no beach!) and finding a source for semola rimacinata at US$1/pound, I was stocked up and stoked up with all of this durum discussion underway here.  Following David Snyder's posted formula (for the most part) and seeing what Brad (breadforfun) and Abe (A BakEr) were up to, it was my turn to also jump on the bandwagon.

I decided to do concurrent first builds of the biga, just for the experimentation of it all.  One biga with my ever-ready levain fed down to 60% hydration, and the other with my stiff starter, already ~60% hydration.  The levain based biga took 7 hours for the 1st build to double, while the starter based version barely showed signs of life at that point, until it started moving and took a full 12 hours for each of the 1st and 2nd builds.  So I stuck with my levain based version.  2nd build was another 7 hours, however the 3rd build was under 6 to grow beyond doubling.

As an aside, I felt it was time to refresh my starter, which was last refreshed on 02 Nov 15.  But 5 months old and it was still going strong, for anyone who still wonders how long a stiff starter can live a healthy refrigerated life.

I did bump the overall hydration of the dough up to 65%, and also made the mix 25% larger than the formula posted by David, so it clocked in at a total of ~1145g total dough weight.  

One set of 200 French Folds, a 10 minute rest followed by another 200 FFs.  And then left to rise on its own for 5 hours, no stretch and folds, before dividing.  

Being alfanso, once it was shaped and couched, it went into the refrigerator for an overnight nap and was baked this morning, as usual, directly out of the retard.  Also, being alfanso, and liking to change around a thing or two, I decided that these would be shaped and scored as batards.

Abiding by the oven temperatures and timings in David's post, these baked for 15 minutes with steam, and then another 21 minutes, with 2 additional minutes of venting before being removed.  As noted, the dough was quite soft and puffy, and I wonder if my shaping was a tad too aggressive considering the crumb.  But the oven spring was all I could have asked for.  Since I really didn't know what to look for in this bread, nor how it should taste, it was all, and I mean all, new to me.

Due to the retard time, there is a mild SD tang to the bread. 

The first build completes in 7 hours.  The third build in just under 6 hours, but I was late to snap this 2nd picture.  I made a few dozen more grams of biga than needed.  Some biga or dough is always lost to my hands or the workbench or mixing/fermenting vessel, so my habit is to always make a little more than the formula calls for.

The dough after the 2nd set of 200 French Folds, and after the 5 hours of bulk rise at 80dF completed.

Shaped as batards and the double score applied just a minute before entering the oven.

Steam released after 15 minutes, and batards have been rotated front to back & left to right.

The end game.  In this case, the colors are accurate.

alan

Semolina Capriccioso

DMSnyder

March 25, 2016

This bread combines many streams of inspiration – my own Pugliese Capriccioso and San Joaquin Sourdough, Hamelman's Semolina Bread and Tom Cat's Semolina Filone, as described by Maggie Glezer in “Artisan Baking.”

 This is a high hydration dough that is a challenge to mix and shape. Because it was so gloppy, even after machine mixing and multiple stretch and folds in the bowl, I decided to retard the dough in bulk and use the techniques and timing of the San Joaquin Sourdough for shaping and proofing. I had intended to coat the loaves with sesame seeds before proofing, but – again because of how loose the dough was – opted to load onto parchment after proofing and apply the seeds by brushing with water and sprinkling the seeds onto the loaves.

20% of the flour is pre-fermented.

1. The day before baking, mix the biga.

2. Ferment until doubled in volume at 76ºF.

3. Refrigerate overnight

Method

1. Take the biga out of the refrigerator and let it warm up for about an hour.

2. Mix the water and flours to a shaggy mass, cover and autolyse for 20-60 minutes.

3. Sprinkle the salt on the dough and add the biga in chunks.

4. Mix at Speed 1 for 1-2 minutes until the ingredients are well-mixed.

5. Mix at Speed 2 for about 10 minutes. The dough will be quite slack. It will not clean the sides of the bowl but will form a ball on the dough hook,. A large portion of the dough will still be on the bottom of the bowl.

6. Add the toasted sesame seeds to the dough, and mix on low speed for a couple minutes to distribute them.

7. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl with a tight-fitting cover.

8. Ferment at 76ºF for 2 1/2 to 3 hours with a stretch and fold in the bowl every 30 minutes.

9. The dough will not expand much, but, if fermented in a clear container, tiny bubbles should be seen throughout it.

10. Cold retard the dough at about 40ºF until the next morning (8-18 hours).

11. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Pre-shape into balls, cover, and let the dough rest for 50-60 minutes.

12. Shape the pieces as boules or bâtards.

13. If bâtards: Place the loaves on a linen couche seam-side up and cover. If boules: Place the loaves in a well-floured banneton, seam-side up, and cover.

14. Proof at room temperature until the dough springs back slowly when you poke a finger into it. (About 40 minutes)

15. 45-60 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 500ºF with a baking stone and steaming apparatus in place.

16. Transfer the loves seam-side down to a piece of parchment paper the size of your baking stone and slide a peel under it.

17. Brush the loaves with water and sprinkle them with sesame seeds. Score the loaves as desired.

18. Steam the oven and turn the temperature down to 460ºF.

19. Transfer the loaves to the baking stone.

20. After 12 minutes, remove the steaming apparatus. (If you have an electric convection oven, switch to Convection Bake and turn the temperature down to 440ºF.) Bake for another 14 minutes or until the loaves are done. The crust should be nicely colored. The internal temperature should be at least 205ºF.

21. (Optionally) Leave the loaves on the baking stone with the oven turned off and the door ajar for another 10 minutes to dry the crust.

22. Transfer the loaves to a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing.

After the loaves had cooled, the crust was soft. On slicing, the crumb was moderately open. The crust and crumb were quite chewy. The flavor was sweet and nutty.

I cut a bite-sized piece for my wife who was up to her elbows in washed lettuce for our dinner salad. “Mmmmm ….,” says she. “Why are we making all this other food?”

 This is a delicious bread. It has earned top ranking among my Italian-style sourdough breads. I may try making it with a somewhat lower hydration. Might try “shaping” this dough as Ciabattas. It should be tried as rolls as well. Gonna be a fun set of experiments!

 Happy baking!

David

This recipe is for those of you who are experimenting with adding porridges to your dough. You can substitute most any grain into the porridge with good results. The recipe follows the now standard Robertson/Forkish formula for closed vessel baking. The result is a nice, moist and chewy crumb with a solid crust.

Semolina Porridge Bread

Makes 2 loaves of about 1 Kg each

Refresh natural starter at 100% hydration to yield at least 200 gm ( I use 100 gm flour, 100 gm slightly warm water and 30 gm starter)

While the starter is refreshing add 200 gm coarse semolina to 700 gm boiling water. Keep the water boiling. Add the semolina slowly in a fine stream so it does not clump. Once the semolina is fully added, turn off the heat and put a lid on the pot. Let the semolina mixture cool. 

When starter is fully refreshed place your mixing bowl on a scale and set the tare to zero. Add all of the semolina mixture to the mixing bowl and check the weight. Add sufficient cool water to bring the total weight back to the original 900 grams (200 gm semolina plus 700 grams water). Then add:

 200 gm starter. Wisk to incorporate.  Add 800 gm KA or equivalent AP flour.

Using your hands, mix into a dough .  Let dough autolyse for 30 minutes. 

While dough is autolsying, mix 22 gm salt with 50 gm boiling water and let cool.

When cool add the salt water to the autolysed dough and fully incorporate it into the dough. When incorporated do several stretch and folds in the bowl. Let rest for 30 minutes and do another set of stretch and folds. Repeat rest and stretch and folds two more times over the next hour. Then let dough rest lightly oiled and covered in warm room temps until doubled … maybe 3-4 hrs. 

Divide dough in half, roughly shape into rounds and let rest about 15 minutes. Shape into final form  and place into banneton's .  Proof about 1 hr 30 minutes or until risen about 50-75 % .  Turn out onto semolina or cornmeal dusted surface, score and place in two preheated (to 500F) dutch ovens, Romertopfs or such. Put lids on.    Place into  500F oven, immediately reduce temp to 475F,  bake 25 minutes covered at 475F and 25 minutes uncovered at 450F.