December 30, 2023 - 9:53pm
Semolina Bread
Semolina bread. Two 750-gram loaves. 60% durum flour and 68% hydration. 15% of the total flour is pre-fermented in a liquid levain. Hamelman does not include an autolyzed stage and it appears that it is not required for the durum flour. I’m very happy with the result. The crumb was more open than I was expecting and the crust slightly chewy. Eating quality excellent and very different from my usual sourdough.
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Sooo nice looking! I especially like the height of the loaves.
Happy New Year!
TomP
Thanks Tom. I try for a lofty loaf as they make great slices for sandwiches and toast.
Cheere,
Gavin
Looks great! Love semolina breads.
2/3 hydration and 60% durum probably made this a nice handling dough.
Thank you. Yes, the dough handled very nicely throughout the process. I love hand mixing as I get a close feel for how the dough is progressing.
Cheers,
Gavin
Gavin, was the flour finely ground durum flour, or the less fine semolina that gets used for pasta?
Hi Tom,
I used finely ground durum flour (marketed here as semolina flour or durum flour). I have semolina that is gritty for sprinkling on the pizza peel when making pizzas.
Thanks ... I have a few sacks of fine durum flour and haven't settled on the way to use it I like best. Altamura bread is fun once in a while but I'm not sure it's what I want day in and day out.
Whereas yours are the Strip-Bodied Open Backs, mine are the Spotted Spirals, both belonging to a similar taxonomy. They just fell out of the nest in the last hour.
Although I don't think either of planned on these after Will posted his, it was on my calendar for close to a week, here we are nonetheless. Pretty close formula between us. I'm at 70% Hydr with a 100% LL and 15% preferment, also at 40 AP / 60 durum. And it is also a lovely dough to manipulate and handle.
Although for some that craggy bloom is an undesirable, I find it attractive. Nice bake.
Alan
Hi Alan,
I was expecting yours to be baguettes. I tried to give these loaves a different scoring so I could recognize them from the freezer, but I think of failed in my endeavor, however, they taste beautiful.
I think I baked this formula into baguettes a few years ago when we did a community bake.
Your baguettes look great. Up to your usually high standard.
Cheers,
Gavin
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67703/keeping-baguette-practice
Handsome loaves Gavin, they both had such great rise and bloom. I’m sure they taste wonderful too with all that semolina.
Happy New Year all the best in happiness and health
Benny
Thanks Benny,
Happy New Year to you also. Stay safe.
Cheers,
Gavin
I bought some semolina to make pasta, it looks like I have to try making some bread with it.
You won't be disappointed.
Durum is one of my favorite grains and your bake looks perfect. I’m actually about to start a durum bread myself for the first bake of the New Year. I’ve stated to suffer baking withdrawals waiting for my wife to finish her holiday cookie baking 🙄😆. Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year!
Thanks. Cheers, and happy New Year to you also.
May I ask you a few clarifications regarding your process?
For the 40%, did you use Bread flour or AP flour?
And with what type of flour did you build your levain?
How was the BF length (longer/shorter than usual)?
Thanks!
The 40% is an Australian baker's flour Laucke Wallaby and is 11.5% protein.
The levain was built using the baker's flour.
I'll message you a link to my spreadsheet for this formula and process. Just download it before making changes.
Cheers and good luck,
Gavin
Oh that would be great, thanks so much!