Day 6 - Hamelman's Semolina
Sometimes the hardest part of baking bread is being there. Yesterday I meant to get to making a semolina bread (p. 135 of Hamelman's Bread) but I didn't quite get to it until later in the afternoon. Then when it was finishing up the first rise, my son wanted me to take him out, so I delayed him until I could get the bread shaped, and then we went out to eat. By the time we got back (only an hour later) the bread was ready to go into the oven, but the oven wasn't preheated. I didn't want to let the bread get overproofed, nor did I want to put it into a cold oven, so I did a little of both. I preheated the oven for 10 minutes, and in it went. The result - a little bit of oven spring, and an underdone bottom crust. What would you have done under the circumstances? And this is not a rhetorical question.
Comments
I'd have put the shaped loaves into the fridge when I went out to eat. Or I'd toast the loaf you have - nothing tastes better than toast!
Hope you had a nice meal. Patsy
That makes sense. That's what I'll do next time. Thanks!
I've made it too, even though mine did not come out as handsome looking as yours did, it still tasted great.
I really enjoy what semolina flour does to the many of the formulas. To have it as center stage MOLTO BENE.
That's the great thing about baking. Instead of running around looking for a decent semolina bread, you can make it yoruself.
I often do not pre-heat my baking stone, so I simply transfer my bread to directly on the oven rack about 7 minutes to the end of baking time to make sure the bottom crust is done.
That would have worked. Thanks.
I would have removed the stone and done what you did, wait 10 minutes and baked the bread on a sheet of parchment on a sheet pan. This kind of timing crisis happens too me all the time.
Eric
Well I'm glad I asked. It didn't occur to me to do any of these things suggested. And I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only one who has these crises. Thanks.