Bread Log 9: Semolina (Durum) Bread

Back in my days at the bakery one of my favorite breads was a semolina bread coated in sesame seeds. The formula I baked from for this entry is fairly different than what we used back then, but the resulting bread still made me nostalgic.

Semolina is a flour milled from Durum wheat.  It is a pale gold color, and is used throughout the Mediteranian and surrounding regions for everything from bread and couscous to pasta.
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I put some semolina flour side by side with an all purpose flour so you can see the difference.  What you can't tell from the picture is that Semolina also has an unusual texture, more coarse but not jagged.  The less milled varieties feel a LOT like ball bearings when you roll it between your fingers.  This is probably why the flour is often used to dust the bottoms of proofed loaves to facilitate sliding them into the oven. The finished dough retains that lovely pale gold color, and has a light almost buttery flavor.  Sesame seeds are often paired with the bread and add a nice nutty flavor as well as a striking visual appeal.

The first Semolina formula in Hamelman's book uses an unusual preferment called a flying sponge.  I will let you conjure your own mental image for that.  It differs from other preferments featured thus far in that it contains the yeast for the entire mix (usually some is added during the mixing stage as well), includes a small measure of sugar, and only gets made an hour and a half before the mix as opposed to 12-16 hours prior.

Because the preferment represented 40% of the doughs flour I chose not to add my customary autolyse.  Despite a final temperature of 4 degrees warmer than I had aimed for, the mix went quite well.  When it came time for the bake I opted to try something new.  Half of the dough was shaped into a standard boule, and the other half I divided into 5 strips.

Here you can see I have already shaped 2 out of the 5 strips into longer baguette-like shapes.  While making the strips into boules before turning them into baguettes wold have yielded a more even mass, it would have also required three shapings to achieve the final shape. I didn't want to over handle the dough.

Here you can see the fist shaping in the middle, with the elongated second shaping below it.  The one at the top has been seeded.

Speaking of seeding, here was my seeding set up.  The shaped loaf is rolled on the wet paper towel in the left pan, then transferred to the sesame seeds on the right.  I did this with 2 out of the 5 strands.

This was the result!  I looked up how to do a 5 strand braid and voila!  Ideally I wanted the two sesame strands to be separated, but in my braiding naivete I alternated them at the onset.  A mistake my wife assures me I would have known not to make if I had gone through grade school as a girl.







Regardless, I was quite happy with the end results.  After the great volume I got in the beer bread, I tried to achieve a similar level of mix this week and I was rewarded for the effort!  Here are some shots of the finished boule slashed with the straight lame:
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The volume is really good, and if you look close you can see a speckling of little bubbles on the side of the loaf.  That is a sign that I was getting good steam!  In addition to my fancy steamer I also chose to mist the bread lightly upon loading to see how that would effect the results.
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Yeah, that's my high-tech misting apparatus.  I used it on the braided loaf as well.  The braided loaf didn't grow tremendously, but it was still nice and light relative to it's size so I was satisfied.
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It was a fun bake and a delicious bread.  The next time I encounter Semolina it will use a sourdough starter, and I look forward to seeing the differences.  I was going to be baking my first sourdough bread on Monday, but it looks like it will have to wait a day, because I have a job interview!! Wish me luck, and thanks as always for reading.

-Vino

Here are the details from the bake:
Room Temp:  77.7
Water Temp: 51.3
Flour Temp:  75.9 (averaged between the two)
Preferment Temp: 81.2
Final Temp: 79.9 (target 76)
Autolyse: None
Mix: Standard incorporation + 3 minutes at speed 2, cut on bench, 3 minutes at speed 3
Bulk Fermentation: 1.5 hours with 1 fold at 30, and 1 at 60
Bench Proof: shape, 15 minute rest, shape, 1.25 hours for the boule, and around 1.75 hours for the braided loaf  no time in the chiller
Bake: 35min for the boule, 28 for the braid @ 460 degrees
Steam: Spritzed bread, steamed on load and for 30 seconds after.