**********************************************************************
For those who wish to limit or disengage from the flood of email notifications associated with long threads such as these CBs produce, Dan had written up how to do so
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/66354/tip-how-stop-email-notification-any-topic
**********************************************************************
TFL Community Bakes are the result of CB founder Dan. His own creation and nurturing, to interest and help others, and in turn be helped, as we all strive to improve our baking skills and widen our baking horizons. Kudos to him for this lasting gift for us all.
For this CB I’d like to continue to focus on a grain rather than a specific bread style, as was the original focus in the previous Deli-Rye CB. I love semolina based breads, having grown up a stone’s throw from a few Italian bakeries, and consider the sesame semolina bread to be a foundational food on my personal food pyramid!
Clarification. I refer to semolina in a generic sense. I really am referring to durum, the finely machined version known in Italian as semola rimacinata which carries a protein of ~12%. Semolina is too coarse and hard a grain for typical bread baking. But there are no holds barred here in our CBs, and if you wish to bake with it as I have, feel free to experiment with the least coarse of the grinds. I reference two short descriptions here:
This durum wheat flour is a double ground (rimacinata) flour with very soft and fine texture. Its signature yellowish tint and resistant elastic gluten make it ideal for all extruded pastas and breads, or wherever the characteristics of semolina are desired.
Semolina is coarsely ground durum wheat (grano duro, triticum durum - a varitey of wheat) and its often used to make pasta. When it's called semola rimacinata in Italian, it refers to semolina which has been re-milled to make it finer and more suitable for bread baking.
When I refer to “bread flour” in the below descriptions, I am employing Mr. Hamelman’s usage. He refers to bread flour as what we generally call an AP flour. His point of reference is the King Arthur AP Flour which has a protein level of 11.7%.
Whether you have access to semolina or not, perhaps you can join with bakes of what I consider to be somewhat related grains. I have never baked with the last four on the list below, and therefore cannot offer recommendations as to how they may work out. Experienced ancient grain bakers on TFL should have a better understanding to offer during this CB. You will be able to bake these breads with the first three grains listed, and may be able to do so with the final four grains. Included in the list, but not exclusive, are:
- Semola rimacinata: Extra finely milled Durum wheat
- Durum Atta: Indian durum similar to semola rimacinata. Atta may refer to more than one type of wheat, look for the ingredient that says Durum. May also contain some whole grain.
- Tritordeum: Hybrid grain of barley and durum developed these past few decades in Spain and available in some European markets.
- Einkorn: Ancient “less thirsty” grain with a “nutty flavor”. https://www.einkorn.com/tips-for-baking-with-einkorn-flour/?v=7516fd43adaa
- Emmer: Ancient “thirsty” grain with high protein but low gluten and a “nutty flavor”. https://bluebirdgrainfarms.com/frequently-asked-questions/baking-with-our-flours/
- Khorasan (Kamut): Ancient grain from Afghanistan& Iran sharing similar characteristics to Durum with a “nutty flavor”.
- Spelt: A higher protein than ordinary wheat flours, similar to Durum, another with a “nutty flavor”. https://www.spiceography.com/semolina-flour-substitute/
I am offering five differing semolina based breads, all with some unique characteristic that makes each one different from its brethren. However only three will appear in this CB posting. These three will also appear in the Companion Blog along with two additional suggestions. Taken as a whole, the five carry some combination of these characteristics:
- Semolina percentages from 40% to 100%
- Preferment hydration percentages from 50% to 125%
- Overall hydration percentages from 65% to 78%
For each style of bread, I provide "in house” versions, highlighting the baking prowess of our own folk. The reference links will take you to the original author’s TFL write up, and to my Companion Blog Post with each formula. Each formula presented is my interpretation of the bread.
One more thing: Don’t let the shapes and sizes dictate how you wish to proceed. Feel free to experiment with boules, batards (long and normal), baguettes, filones, ficelles, dinner rolls...
Semolina "Pain au Levain". This Jeffrey Hamelman version has a 60/40 mix of semolina/bread flour, employs a 125% hydration bread flour levain, and carries an overall hydration of 67%.
1) One of TFL’s resident Kiwis, leslieruf offers her version.
2) My own take for one of my go-to breads, on this marvelous winning delight.
Tom Cat Semolina Filone. Maggie Glezer’s version of this on again/off again occasional TFL favorite will challenge you due to its very high hydration. I found this bread difficult to wrangle, but it makes some of the finest toast I’ve ever had. 55.5/45.5 semolina/bread flour, 130% hydration Poolish, 89% overall hydration.
NOTE: Due to a misunderstanding of American English/Transcription error, the original Tom Cat formula that previously was posted below carried an absurdly high overall 89% hydration. Thanks to an email conversation with Abe, it was determined that the Poolish was incorrectly stated. The corrected version is now in its place, with an Poolish hydration of 90% and an overall hydration of 75%. The 45/55 % or AP/Semolina still remains.
1) semolina_man baked a delightful version of this bread.
2) As does dmsnyder, David's interpretation.
Pane di Altamura/Matera. These two neighboring towns, in the heel region of the Italian peninsula, produce rather uniquely shaped (or mis-shapen) breads.
Altamura is 100% semolina including a 66% hydration biga, with a relatively low overall hydration of 65%.
Matera is also 100% semolina including a 50% hydration levain / lievito madre with a 66% overall hydration.
EDIT. Build 3 above should read 150g Sem., 75g Water.
1) Our own breadforfun’s Brad did a field trip to Altamura several years ago, and reports on his experience and bake.
The fine print...And as our Community Bake founder Dan said:
As always, the CB occupies a corner of TFL. Created as a collaborative effort, both to enhance one’s skills as well as to help others with their skills. By no means are the formulae provided meant to be the be-all-and-end-all of the CB. Rather, they are a framework of distinct ways to achieve a bread that meets the general criteria. I encourage you to experiment and explore, to modify and to introduce to our CB participants your own experiences and versions. And most of all, to learn and help all of us to better ourselves as bakers. I also encourage you to find something you like, change one or many things about it and to make it your own!
All bakers of every skill level are invited to participate. Novice bakers are especially welcomed and plenty of assistance will be available for the asking. The Community Bakes are non-competitive events that are designed around the idea of sharing kitchens with like minded bakers around the world, "cyber style". To participate, simply photograph and document your bakes. You are free to use any formula and process you wish. Commercial Yeast, sourdough, or a combination of both are completely acceptable. Once the participants get active, many bakers will post their formulas and methods. There will be many variations to choose from.
Here is a list of our past CBs.
They remain active and are monitored by numerous users that are ready, willing, and able to help if assistance is needed. A quick browse of past CBs will provide an accurate picture of what these events are all about.******************************************************************************************
Since many of the CBs grow quite large, it can become difficult to follow the progress of each individual baker. Things get very spread out. In an attempt to alleviate congestion and consolidate individual baker’s bread post, the following is suggested.
Links to baker’s BLOGs that have posted a compiled list of bakes for this CB *For the original postings please click the links above. My posting of the formula write-ups, click here.
Nice Abe, great looking loaf! But I agree - yours is not underproofed, but it looks like it could still benefit from more fermentation, just 30 min warm bulk might really do the trick. I bet in Naples it's much warmer than in our flats, and within the short time during folds they get a lot of fermentation going. We might have to compensate with a longer time. Next time I'll put it in my "proofer" for at least 30 min and until I see some signs of fermentation, before starting the folds.
Btw, I really liked this folding technique as a preshape. Adds structure to the loaf without going into lamination territory.
While this bake is good I still think a bulk ferment would be even better. Using soft flour, probably much warmer and maintaining a LM probably makes for better success. I think after this durum bake I'll be doing some others for the time being but when I come back to this I definitely would approach it differently. Still, fun to do it closer to the recipe but a recipe shouldn't be constraining. This bread has great potential and definitely could do with a few changes here and there.
I already got 2 kg of fine semolina, and also ordered a bag of semola rimacinata from bakerybits today, so I'm going to work more on this recipe! Even my semi-successful bread is very tasty, so fully fermented I'm sure it'll be even better.
Go for AP and not bread flour. That might help too. I will next time. The flour I used was strong and might have slowed the fermentation down.
I'm going to use my bread flour from the 16 kg bag I have :) 12.3% protein, so not super strong.
I guess you could say. Maybe the peasants couldn't afford the luxury of bulk fermentation or as you surmised the multi stage build and the long proof are sort of the same thing. Nice loaf going from yeast water in one of your previous bakes to a biga here. I can't imagine what's next.
A nice loaf with very good flavour. All the same I think we have room for some artistic license. Toasts up a treat. As for the next loaf.... i'm working on it. After these semolina/durum bakes i'm missing sourdough with a nice lactic acid tang. There's a place for everything.
Semolina rimacinata with white all purpose unbleached wheat flour
Total flour weight 900g: 600g rimacinata and 300g AP
Total water weight 650g
Total salt weight 18g
Total yeast 1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp
Method used is slightly modified from the original post on this site from Maggie Glezer's Tom Cat's Semolina Filone. Have been using this formula for close to 10 years and I am comfortable with it. I use the same basic formula with white AP, whole wheat, rye, semolina and spelt. Water is varied depending on grain type. 70% hydration with semolina is a bit on the high side. I generally aim for 67% hydration. A bit lower if semolina, rye or spelt are in the mixture. A bit higher if whole wheat is in the mixture. I generally do not bake with 100% of one grain, but rather two or three grains.
Poolish
300g flour, 50/50 mix of rimacinata and AP
150g water with 1/8tsp active dry yeast dissolved
150g water
Mix, cover with plastic and let sit overnight
Dough
Poolish
600g flour: 450g rimacinata and balance AP
350g water
18g salt
1/2tsp active dry yeast
Whisk dry ingredients together, add water and poolish, mix well by hand, slap fold for about 10 minutes until consistency is very elastic, form into a ball and place in bowl, and cover with plastic. Place in warm area for about 1.5-2 hours. I use the oven which has been preheated for 2-3 minutes at 200deg F. The oven temp is around 120deg F and is turned off.
After 1.5-2 hours, remove dough, place on lightly floured work surface and deflate. Stretch out dough, make one letter fold and form into a boule. My standard loaf shape is an elongated boule or stubby batard. Place shaped loaf on parchment or baking mat on baking sheet, and place in a warm moist place. I use the microwave with a ramekin of water brought nearly to a boil, which preheats and steams the microwave.
Preheat oven to 500deg F.
After 1 hour, remove loaf, score and place in oven. I like strong color on the crust and a medium well done crumb. Bake until crust starts to brown well, then turn heat to 450 and finish baking. Total baking time is approximately 45-50 minutes. Rest on cooling grid. Slice after 3 or more hours of cooling time.
I bake for nutrition, flavor and texture, which I believe I have achieved in this loaf. I avoid "large holes" and don't have the patience for sourdough. I eat this bread every day for breakfast with butter and honey from the comb.
A very nice loaf. Your experience is showing through. I loved reading your process and write-up and think your comment on the hydration of rimacinata is spot on. I had a batter-like slurry at 80% hydration.
Cheers,
Gavin.
That is a perfect crumb to me! Looks like a really good crust too.
That is a handsome, flavorful looking bread. Reading your post, one can practically feel your familiarity and contentment with your process and product and see the warm tones of bread and honey. It was a nice thing to read on a gray wintry day. Thank you for sharing it.
The sidebar on my YouTube screen had a video for this. A Middle East Bagel, whereby every culture has their own version, is my understanding. An easy to make direct dough with an IDY bomb for a 1 hr BF and 1 hr proof.
Although listed as an all AP dough, I converted it to 55 semolina/45 AP flours. With a sesame seed coating, it seemed like a "good idea" to sub half the flour with semolina, especially since this is a semolina CB! If you are a fan of sesame seed coatings and the subsequent need for a vacuum, then this is certainly an easy bread you may wish to try.
My first foray had the dough rolled out to 24 inch strands, but produced a "too fat" bagel. Baked according to the recipe in the video, at 440dF and 25 min, these were burned, but still tantalizing and hard to keep away from.
So I had to make it again this morning. The strands are now 32-34 inches long and the baking was 20 min at 400dF. The four juniors are the full strand cut in half and then rolled out even thinner. The molasses water makes for a sweet taste on the tongue. The wife asked for one to be baked "nude" with just the molasses water dip.
The seal is difficult due to the oil included in the dough. My shaping could use some practice for this, but I'll consider these to be my Simit training wheels.
Correction on formula - Mix all ingredients EXCEPT the Molasses water and sesame seeds!
The easy converted recipe as written for the video is
3 cups flour
Sesame Seeds
2 tsp salt
1 TBS dry yeast
3 TBS vegetable oil
4 TBS molasses + 4 TBS water
1 cup water
Pre-bake
Post-bake with 3 from yesterday's over baked batch
The crumb from yesterday's batch.
They looks really yummy Alan, nice work. Are happy with the flavour, they should be great with the sesame seeds and added sweetness of the molasses.
the mouth feel is just a tad dry, but that is quickly replaced by an addictive and pleasing flavor. Mostly from the slightly sweetened crust and sesame seeds added to the great crunch of the crust. A really good and simple bread that I made on a lark, especially the splitting of the flours to a traditionally all AP flour dough.
The entire process doesn't take more than 3 hours total, if that. I think that these are known as a breakfast bread to have with morning tea or coffee. But anytime is a good time!
I sent my baked picture to my friend who grew up in Athens and asked if he had a similar bread. And he wrote...
"In my part of the world it is called koulouri (bread ring). Years back when I was a kid there were salesmen of this walking the streets in Greece selling them, they typically stack hundreds of them on a wooden platform which they will carry on their shoulder. Amazingly skilled I had never seen or heard of one of them dropping the platform and spilling them. Back then each cost one drachma which was the equivalent of maybe 5 - 10 cents. You handed the drachma to the guy and picked one from the stack and went your way. Those times are gone now only exist in memory, they are sold now in bakeries and pastry shops each of them now a few euros.".
He lives on the other side of the country from us, but if I ever get the chance, I'll bake him a batch.
Now that you mention it, I think I remember seeing people selling these types of breads in Athens in the Plaka area about 15 years ago when we went to Athens for the first time. We never tried them, but I now recall seeing such bread being sold by venders many of whom were walking around selling them.
From a guy that converted every recipe into baguette form I am somewhat surprised to see your shapeshifting. Are the planets and stars in a new alignment or are you just branching out? I am hoping this CB does not conclude without a baguette submission because the ground beneath us is shifting enough for now without our lodestar.
making the Tom Cats into baggies, and just this afternoon resisted. Instead I'm Jonesing a bit for something closer to home, so there is a Vermont SD under BF right now with a few Baguettes inside of the dough waiting to be born tomorrow. But I'll get back Honky Cat to Tom Cat as baguettes in a few days. ¿Como no?
And we're off....
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67295/36th-bake-02032021-100-durum-fiber-wala
553 g whole grain (or nearly whole grain) Canadian durum, Sher brand "Fiber Wala." (3 cups, scoop and sweep)
85% hydration.
2% salt.
1.0 g, .18% instant dry yeast, 1/4 tsp.
It came out a great golden color. No wonder they call it "the golden bread of Altamura."
--
Follow the link to my blog to see additional photos. Outside crust looked nice. Inside was too dense and moist.
Here's one with Semola Rimacinata. I think it came out quite nicely for a newer baker. My best one yet!
It really had a great rise. The ear could have been better, I suppose, but it blossomed beautifully nevertheless.
I forgot to slash the thing before getting it into the Dutch oven but I gave it a quick cut while in the pot, spritzed with abandon, and slammed the cover on.
One observation is that I had a sort of dry skin on the outside of the dough after bulk ferment. I kept that skin on the outside during pre-shape and shape. It wasn't like elephant skin but noticeably drier than I have seen before. I should have covered more tightly, I think.
Hey, look at that roll pattern. I don't think I like that. I wonder if it can be proofed out?
I can tell you that the letter fold was on the tight side. I pinched all the internal seams together.
I counter proofed for two hours and it seemed just about right but that bottom seam just blew apart as it sat in my loaf pan with the seam side up.
I omitted the second retard on my Hamelman recipe. At this point, I don't even think I can call it a Hamelman. The only things I carried over from his recipe are the flours and 65% hydration.
Ah, well. What are you gonna do?
All my breads so far don't taste like anything "special" on the first sampling. They seem to get better after a day or so. This one was no different.
The crumb was nice and creamy - just the way I like it! I am not a fan of large holes. Pea-sized is good but not too many.
Tender, moist... nicely moist... but not dense. Nice and airy. I certainly didn't have to tug a chunk of bread off the slice with my teeth. I hate having to work while I'm eating.
The crust was to die for! Thin, and crispy like a Saltine cracker! Just a nice snap, crackle, and pop. I got some blistering on the crust. I am ambivalent about it. Some think it's a flaw, others work hard to get them. Me? The crust was beautiful!
Oh! One last thing for any newer bakers who are following along... "Refreshing" your starter or, in my case, the 125% hydration levain is amazing! WOW! That REALLY kicks your starter or levain into high gear!
This is the first time I have ever done that. I had a perfectly ripe levain but the timing worked out such that I could fit two, four-hour 1:1 refreshes into my schedule. The result was incredibly more levaining power.
I fermented flour with a vengeance straight out of the Bible!
I am confident enough that I am able to tell friends and co-workers that I'm baking sourdough. They all want some now! I better start getting consistent. Fast!
Thank you everybody for your help, critiques, and encouragement.
I have purchased bread at the supermarket as I ran out during my learning curve. I have never realized how it just tastes like a bag of sawdust... until you spoiled me forever!
Because of you, I am eating better bread and I can't thank you enough.
Murph
Murph, nice rustic loaf, I actually like blisters on my sourdough loaves. Yes covering more tightly to avoid skin formation during bulk is important but an easy fix for you. I wonder if you used too much flour on the counter or the dough when shaping? If you use too much flour (I’ve done this plenty of times even recently so I know from experience) in can interfere with the folded dough connecting to each other and thus cause gaps in the crumb where they don’t come together as one. Not sure I explained that well to understand. Anyhow this might be partly why you see the pattern in the crumb and then the fold in the bottom crust. With more practice you’ll improve your shaping and you’ll be much happier with the results.
That being said, you baked a delicious semolina sourdough loaf and should be proud of it.
Benny
Hi, Benny!
Yeah, I know what you mean about the dusting flour. I didn't use any. It was definitely a covering issue.
Loaf pan was in a plastic grocery bag. Knot should have been tighter.
The blisters are nice, though. Sometimes I get them, sometimes I don't..
It's a nice bread. A good eat.
Beats me why but I'm more fascinated by the fermenting flour than by anything else. This dough really proofed out!
Thank you for the kind words.
Murph
The crust and crumb looks good and it baked up nicely. I have found that after shaping if you let it rest on the seam for a few minutes it will seal up on it's own. If it hasn't you can pinch it or stitch it after it is placed in the basket. Did you use a bread pan to proof it as you mentioned or was that a typo?
Fermented flour with a vengeance is mine saith The Murph
Hi, MTLoaf!
Hah! A light bulb just lit up! :)
I DID proof in a pan.... while the seam unzipped. <sigh>
Gee, THERE'S an easy fix, huh?
Thanks!
Murph
Feb 5, 2021. Starting a 2nd loaf for the CB.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67323/37th-bake-02052021-78-ww-durum
The goals here are to use mostly whole grain durum with a portion of bread flour to get a better crumb, and to use enough sourdough starter and instant dry yeast to bake it tonight.
10:05 am - short soak of the WW durum to get it hydrated.
10:45 am -
11:00 am - finish mixing and a little kneading. Put in oven with light on.
Total flour = 560 WW durum + 20 in starter + 140 KABF = 720 g.
Total water = 539 + 20 in starter + 28 = 587 g.
Hydration = 587 / 720 = 81.5 %.
% WW = 560 / 720 = 77.8 %.
%PFF = 20 / 720 = 2.78%.
--
See above blog link for more photos.
Semola Rimacinata doesn't seem to exist in my local shops, especially during lockdown and I was about to order some online when my wife spotted a few bags of Doves Farm pasta flour at a local supermarket. On the packet the ingredients are given as "wheat, durum wheat" which could mean either that the wheat is durum wheat but more likely that there is a mixture of common wheat and durum wheat, but no percentages are given. I am keeping my fingers crossed that there is a minimum of 40% durum in the mix so that I will not be gatecrashing this community bake.
I have used an overnight sourdough sponge of 119% hydration for this bake, a method I started my sourdough journey with some years ago and used often until new fangled ideas came along such as Robertson's Tartine and Forkish's Flour Water Salt and Yeast etc. It is a nice way of preparing a dough and a reliable means of producing that elusive sourdough tang.
Overall formula
1105g Doves Farm pasta flour.
800g Water
60g starter 100% hyd. fed twice with pasta flour.
22g salt
73% hydration
Day 10.15 pm Sponge preparation.
60g active starter dissolved in 600g water. 500g pasta flour added and mixed in = 119% hydration.Covered and left at room temperature overnight.
This is the sponge at 10.30 am on day 2.
11 am. Rest of ingredients added.
605g pasta flour. 200g water. 22g salt mixed in followed by 30 minute rest.
S & F for 5 minutes followed by 30 minutes rest then another 5 minutes S & F. and 30 min.rest.
Dough moved to covered square box for remainder of bulk fermentation of about three and a half hours which included three coil folds at half hourly intervals.
Dough divided and pre-shaped, then after 20 minutes final shape and placed into 2 bannetons and into fridge for overnight proof.
Day 3 11am
2 loaves baked in dutch ovens at 260°c with lid on for 25 minutes, reducing to 245°c after 10 minutes. Lids off for further 15 minutes
Quite pleased with this first attempt using this unknown durum mix. There's a nice soft texture to the crumb and the taste was delicious, especially when toasted. I will try again when I have located some real semola rimacinata.
If further research proves that this pasta flour contains less than the required 40% durum flour, I have at hand a supply of sackcloth and ashes to do penance in.
That a lovely crust and crumb. I like the bold bake peeping through the lightly floured crust and the golden coloured crumb bursting through the scoring. That's going to toast up well and go down a great dipped into olive oil. What's more I can tell you that this flour is near enough 50:50 durum and bread flour. I use this sometimes and emailed Doves Farm to find out what the mix is.
Thanks for the kind words Abe and the tip about an olive oil dip. We will try that. Also for the info on the flour mix percentage being 50/50 bread flour and durum................won't need that sackcloth and ashes then!
Alan
Two very handsome loaves Alan, good baking! I wonder how much durum there is in that blend?
Benny
Thank you Benny. As for the percentage of durum in the pasta flour, Abe who had also used that flour had found out from Doves Farm that the mix is close to 50/50 durum and bread flour..........which I was pleased about.
Alan
You know, I really like the white flour-dusted crust. I think that is so cool.
It looks like you had great fermentation throughout the whole dough.
If you don't mind me asking... how come the large holes at the ends. I get them, too. I think I'm shaping too much, too long, or too aggressively. Maybe squeezing all the gas from the center to the surface? Thoughts?
I was wondering the same thing about my Golden Temple Atta that you wondered about your flour.... what really IS in that bag?
Idaveindy had a nice explanation for the Atta. Durum flour, durum bran, wheat flour, and some enrichments. I have to mix with white flour. You went straight in and it looks like it worked! :)
Murph
Thank you Murph.
I'm afraid I can't be much help about the uneven crumb but here is a picture of the crumb of the second loaf which was cut later in the day. I didn't include it in the original post because the background didn't match the other pics but as you can see, although there are some larger holes round the outside, the crumb is generally much more regular which I do prefer.
The two loaves had identical treatment after the dough was divided and shaped, placed in identical bannetons and then side by side in the fridge for a long cold overnight proof. Next day they were placed in identical dutch ovens and baked alongside each other for the dame length of time. So I don't why the crumb isn't identical too.
It's what makes baking so exciting. you can never be sure what you are going to get.
As for the flour mix in my pasta flour. you might have seen above that Abe, who had also used the same flour had found out from the producers that the mix is close to 50/50 bread flour and durum flour, so I was quite pleased to hear that.
Alan
I modified Hamelman’s recipe slightly with altered levain amount and added a poolish. Worked nicely for my first of two 1 kg mega batards. See my blog entry for the details.
of a batard! I so love the Hamelman semolina breads, as well as a host of his others. This bake has my heart palpitating. Well, not exactly, but you get the idea. You'll be receiving accolades from Benny any minute now!
I placed link to your blog at the top of the entire CB as well.
Alan
Yes Alan knows me too well and I totally concur, that is an amazing big loaf. I love the pointy ends and the good sesame crust, who doesn’t like a sesame crust? That will make amazing sandwiches all week for you. Well done FFT.
Benny
I used to bake strictly based on recipes with just little adjustments up until a friend of mine challenged me to do my own recipes. He was right. As long as you understand what to expect from a specific flour and you apply some basic principles you cannot go wrong. Well maybe, sometimes is not perfect but for sure good enough to eat it.
I baked durum bread before and I remembered the sweet taste it was giving to the bread. I loved it. But I also remember that last time I baked with durum I failed with great success. I was upset, so the box of durum flour stayed somewhere in the back of a cupboard.
This CB made me take the box back and try again a new recipe.
Here is my very first attempt of a customised recipe I wanted to try.
Ingredients:
- 350g starter
- 545g durum flour
- 545g pizza flour (Mulino Caputo, 12.5%protein)
- 22g salt
Method:
- autolyse for 1h30, (with the dough in the proofer at 28ºC, like all the following rests)
- add starter, rest 1h
- add salt, rest 1h
- divide in 2, rest 30 mins
- lamination, rest 45 mins
- 3 CFs: 1st, rest 30 min, 2nd, rest 30 mins, 3rd, rest 45 mins. (with such a stiff dough, the CFs were done straight in my hands)
- shape, 1h rest and then to the fridge for 16 hours
- bake 20 mins at 260ºC+25 mins @220ºC
Well, this was the first try of this recipe, the dough was to stiff for my taste (65%) but I went on the cautious side as my previous bake from a few months ago was weird. (I do not remember why)
Although in the end, I was not disappointed with the result, I think there is a place for improvements and I will give another try with higher hydration.
But for now, this is my first attempt:
Very beautiful loaf HS, the stenciling is very pretty as is your photography. I love the dark bake of the crust and your crumb looks great.
Benny
since these are too beautiful to eat!
I'll repeat it - my lifelong friend Janet learned her excellent crafts skills from her mother. While trying to reproduce it exactly as written in the instructions, her mom told her to change something, anything about it. And in this way she could make it her own.
And that's what I often do and stress as a worthy venture for those on TFL to consider. Once you change it, it is yours with a nod back to the original creator.
And here you have it. Brava!
I baked the Tom Cat Semolina Filone last night.
I should have added a bit of extra flour so it'd tighten up and hold its shape better, but the flavour was excellent. I will definitely bake it again some time.
The combination of semolina and sesame is fabulous isn’t it Floyd. Nice bake with a good crumb, nicely baked Sir.
Benny
Yeah, it's great.
One of the grocery store chains we used to shop at in the States made a semolina bread covered in sesame seeds like this. I'm sure it was shipped to the store frozen and par-baked but it was still a pretty decent bread, so we'd often pick up a loaf. It has nearly been 10 years since we moved to Vancouver. I don't think I've had a loaf of anything like this since the move, so it really hit the spot.
the Tom Cat is one of the best, tastiest semolina breads I've yet baked. And I've baked a lot of semolinas these past half dozen years. Once the hydration issue was resolved (wink, wink) the bread became a delight to mix and bake.
I don't know if Greg Mistell's Pearl or Delfina was open when you were in PDX, and I can't think of any exclusively Italian bakeries. You mentioned that you were in the SE quadrant, so was it Grand Central if they were initially shipping pre-baked from ~Seattle before they started baking on site or elsewhere in the city? (Never considered them to be leaning Italian despite their "signature" Como loaf).
It was only a matter of time. Same formula as referenced at the top of the entire CB, but retarded after 2 hr BF and agains after shaping. Total retard time was probably ~4-5 hrs. Again baked at 460dF instead of the "puny" 400dF in the "original" posted formula on TFL.
This a very active dough and even after retard to divide and shape, the pre-shapes were showing large gas bubbles under the surface by the 10 minute pre-shape resting mark. The oven spring was dandy, but they could have developed a little more grigne to their ears and another 3 minutes baking time for a darker coloration. A pair of quibbles.
330g x 3 baguettes/long batards
Classic Alfanso baguettes with the beautiful ears and grigne. How is the flavour of the Tom Cat done as a baguette?
and every time I passed the bread on the cutting board it was calling my name for another slice!
It is a bit of an odd duck type of dough. A 90% hydration poolish is approaching "no man's land" between high hydration biga and poolish and acts as a fairly sticky component to incorporate by hand. But 50 FFs before and again after a 5 minute rest and the dough behaves beautifully. By the first letter fold at 20 minutes into BF the dough is quite extensible again putting to rest the notion that high percentage semolina mixes are not extensible. Described as "puffy" at termination of BF is not a stretch.
At 75% hydration, this places the dough toward the upper limits of hydrations in my comfort zone, excepting things like ciabatta, etc. Definitely a keeper.
I think it's a bake to be proud. Very nice and I bet full of flavour.
I suggest that you do. There is something that takes a slight left turn from the "normal" semolina based bread flavor which gives it a somewhat unique and enhanced taste.
Another bake with a non-levain preferment (few and far between for me) to place toward the front of the "recipe box".
I think that the word enjoyed would fit the bill better that proud, Burt certainly appreciate the sentiment.
Alan
They look great and are a return to normal order. I mostly prefer a full bake but with the semola I like the golden brown color best for looks and taste. The fire department would be happy to rescue those tom cats from the tree.
(from The Music Man). Surprised to just learn that Tom Cat Bakery is a wholesale to the trade business only, and was bought out by a large Japanese baking conglomerate a few years ago. It made the news in April 2017 under the headline " Immigration inquiry draws protest at Tom Cat Bakery".
All of which has nothing do with the formula and bread itself on TFL. I was merely searching for a list of breads produced by the bakery to see whether the Filone would surface.
I think that my "needs" almost always lean toward the darker bake as I get a little more flavor from the crust when it is baked so.
If I ever bake these with a healthy dose of Sambal Oleck, I'll be calling the F.D. because I'll have a 4 alarm fire inside my mouth!
"If I ever bake these with a healthy dose of Sambal Oleck"
That doesn't sound so bad especially since the temperature is supposed to be minus 18 F here(MT) tonight. Or were you just daring Benny to try that next time.
My favorite cold joke goes "It was so cold, I saw a lawyer with his hands in his own pockets."
OK now that is a great lawyer joke Don.
I don’t think I’ll be baking with Sambal Oleck anytime soon, a bit too spicy for me.
with unsalted butter and maybe sautéed onions. (Carmelized in the butter.) That's my favourite dip and coat for oven baked chopped into interesting pieces chicken. We call 'em "water buffalo wings." Can't get enough of the sauce and you'd be surprised how mild sambal gets when heated in butter. Always afraid of using too much only to add more the next time. Fresh steamed rice or baguette or the loaves on this CB, the pan always gets cleaned up, fingers get the drinking glasses all smeary. Absolutely Wonderful!
Mini
After the previous underproofed bake of pane cafone, I was determined to figure it out and make it work. Well, I'm definitely much closer this time!
Basically, with Abe's guidance, I strengthened the stiff starter over a few feeds, so that it properly follows the timing in the recipe (doubling within 3-4 hours for first and second dough). On top of that, after kneading I left the dough to proof at 27C in my "proofer" for 1 hr, since it certainly felt cold - despite using warm water - must be heat loss from kneading on a colder surface.
And then it also spent much longer in the cold proof in the fridge this time, around 15 hrs. From outside it looks like a twin of the first loaf (just a little smaller, since I made a slightly smaller batch of dough). However it's not underproofed!
[url=https://ibb.co/tBj1QHL]
[/url]
[/url]
[url=https://ibb.co/TTHxx07]
There are some slightly larger holes in the crumb, but these I would believe that I trapped during shaping. Hope I don't discover some caverns further inside the loaf!
The flavour is the same lovely non-sour, with a hint of durum sweetness and some nice underlying aroma - as Abe says, as if it was a biga bread.
PS
See all my semolina CB bakes here.
Very nice pane cafone Ilya. Beautiful even yellow hued crumb, perfect for any spreads or sandwiches. Great crust with lots of caramelization. It sounds like the flavour profile you were aiming for as well, well done.
Benny
Thanks Benny! So far I just tried it on its own or with olive oil to appreciate the bread itself, but I'm sure it'll support many a sandwich in its life. If you decide to detour from open-crumb batards and baguettes, this might be an interesting bake to do.
And nothing wrong with a tight crumbed loaf, if that is the intent of the formula. Still on my to-do list I'll be donning my peasant clothing for the bake!
Thank you! All crumbs are welcome indeed, and it's fun to try something different from time to time.
Very nice loaf, Ilya. The shape, scoring and crumb look remarkably similar to a proper Bloomer loaf.
Lance
Thank you Lance! The way I shaped it, it's a bit thinner/longer than how I imagine a bloomer (maybe it's not very obvious from the pictures), but otherwise very similar indeed. I like how it looks!
Yes, you're right, Ilya. Here's a bloomer I made a few moths ago:
Lance
That looks perfect! I feel as if I have seen this exact bread in a shop, spot on bloomer.
I think the original shape in the video is more similar to this than my version, actually, just fewer scores. And I made it into a sort of thick baguette.
And we have lift-off!
More details to come at the blog: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67390/38th-bake-02092021-3rd-durum-cb-70-ww-semolina-kabf
But for now:
Did you feel as though you had to have a longer autolyse due to the semolina #1 being used? Personally I find that topping out ~60% semolina/durum to be my sweet spot, as I like to have the flavor from a healthy mix of white flour in dough.
Do you bake these freestanding on a stone or in a D.O.?
I can't answer the "does semolina need a longer soak?" because I keep changing too many things bake to bake.
The only other times I used a significant amount of semolina (bakes 24 & 25)
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/66452/24th-bake11232020-semolina-chia
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/66473/25th-bake-11252020-semolina-millet-chia
#24 had a good crumb, and #25 was dense.
I haven't used non-WW durum flour (the finely ground stuff) since my bread machine days. So I can't compare non-bran-fine-flour-durum to non-bran-gritty-semolina.
And I can't tell if my problems with the previous two Fiber Wala bakes for this CB were due to soaking time, hydration %, or fermentation, as I haven't established a base line yet for this flour in a hearth loaf.
This Fiber Wala whole grain durum is super sticky. But I suspect it's because it needs a long soak or a long bulk ferment. Is it because of the bran, or because it's durum? Maybe both.
But the semolina (gritty and branless) did fine in bake #24 without a soak, just going straight into the bulk terment. Unfortunately, I just winged that one and did not keep a good log of what I did.
As I keep saying to newbie home-millers, home-milled grain goes through stages before it becomes dough: first it's too wet, then later the water gets absorbed, then it relaxes so you can then knead or stretch/fold or slap/fold.
This WW durum is similar, it just takes time to a) absorb the water, even though it is already finely ground, and b) relax into a dough.
I did a lot of intermediate handling of the dough on this one, making adjustments along the way -- first adding more flour because it seemed too wet, but then it didn't stretch-and-fold right, so I ended up adding more water.
When I stretch-and-fold, and it tears, (and I haven't yet established a hydration "baseline" for a new flour) I have to ask myself: Is it tearing because it needs more water, or is it tearing, or separating, because it hasn't fully absorbed the water it already has (and relaxed a bit)?
Triticum Durum (whether semolina or finely ground, near-branless or WW) is not Triticum Aestivum (common wheat, white or red). It really is a different animal.
---
Plus, we have the unknown levels of bran. Semolina is near branless, as it is the midlings. Golden Temple brand has _some_ bran, but the fact that they add vitamins (aka enrichments) means it is not 100% whole grain. The non-durum "wheat flour" they also add in is not specified as to whether it is white flour or WW.
---
Net: I think semolina does benefit from a good soak in order that it does not tear from stretch and folds, and if you want to do stretch and folds soon (less than 2 or 3 hours) after adding levain, then you need that soak to happen before adding the levain.
--
I changed the pic so you can see the shape better.
--
Baked in a dutch oven -- Lodge 3.2 qt combo cooker, on the lid, 9" inner diameter at the bottom, plus a little more room on the curved slope side.
1435 g dough weight going into the banneton.
1327 g loaf weight coming out of the oven.
Now that’s a great looking boule Dave, nice work. Your adjustments really helped achieve the oven spring you were hoping for. Looking forward to the crumb which I’m sure will be great as well.
Benny
and here I thought that flour was for making flat bread. If I ever get out of my bubble I intend to look for some of that Canadian/Indian flour. I use chop sticks to stir my starter with and to scramble eggs. It never occurred to me use them for a cooling rack. You the man!
Don
And thank-you Alf, Benny, Don.
22 hours after baking, I cut it open. It tastes good. But the crumb is mostly closed, spongey and rubbery.
Not as dense as previous WW durum loaves, probably because of lower hydration.
Still goes well with olive oil. Still makes good toast.
---
Plan for next bake: do a longer, up to 10 hours, soak (and add salt before soaking); and after adding levain, knead more, to develop better gluten.
I decided to take another stab at this bread, for some reason I am really drawn to it. My last bake was very dense on the inside and overly elastic, so I increased my hydration considerably on my second attempt. While I'm happy-er with it, I am definitely coming back to this as there is much room for improvement. Sadly I have to wait while flour comes in the mail. Anyway here it is.
I give the flour a short autolyse, 30 minutes. Then I mix in the levain, knead by hand on the tabletop for a few minutes, and then let the dough rest 30 minutes. I repeat this process with the salt. After a 45 minute rest I laminate for structure. After that, I let the dough rest for 45 minutes. I then perform 1 strong fold, and that's all the work the dough gets. I bulk at ~65 degrees for about 7 1/2 hours. Then I shape into a batard and ferment in the fridge at ~35-38 F for 14 hours. I preheat a cast iron combo cooker, and bake at 515 F for 20 minutes during the spring, before lowering to 450 for another 20 minutes to set the crust.
The result was pretty nice, the crumb still on the tighter side but more open than the last by a long shot- the photos don't really tell, but the texture is much more airy and far less bricklike. Flavor is good, but I think it could benefit from a longer ferment- this dough, even at 90% hydration, could take a lot more abuse than it got, and still not slouch or pool out. I would say just to ferment at a higher temperature, but this is not an option this time of year- not without a very touch and go game of turning the oven on for a few seconds every twenty minutes or so to maintain a stable, warm internal temp, but this is an awful lot of work and invariably causes an "oh shoot, did I leave the oven on with dough inside, please tell me I turned it off" moment. I will try again with a more moderate hydration and a longer autolyse, but this dough used most of my durum, so I anxiously await my next bag in the mail.
Hello windycityloafster,
I recognise these difficulties when working with durum wheat.
Without getting into a lot of detail, try adding a little salt to your levain. And maybe push the feed slightly to 1:5:5. Then if you wish going forward try seeding the levain with a piece of old dough that has fully fermented.
Acidity tends to make durum's tenacity problems worse. The Durum breads of southern Italy are entrenched in old-dough processes.
That's interesting. I thought that acid would condition the dough and help with extensibility, but this is not the case. Would it make sense then to ferment with a younger, less sour starter and at a higher temperature to prevent acid buildup? It's my experience that when I push bread through the process quickly, going through bulk around that "ideal" dough temperature of 74 F I end up with a product that's less sour than if I draw it out and delay fermentation. Maybe that lower ash content with this flour I'm waiting on will help too, I have a type 110 wheat flour that I use in small amounts to spike my starter feed with along with rye, the microbes go nuts for the mineral content; this usually leaves a more sour taste in my end product.
I’ve posted the details of this bake in a separate blog post that is also linked through my semolina CB posts. I wanted to try a higher percentage of whole Kamut than my previous bakes of Kamut and adjusted my old formula for more Kamut and water. I also wanted to have some black sesame flavour since I believe it should go well with the whole Kamut.
Total dough weight 900 g
Levain 86 g needed 9% PFF
Overnight build 1:6:6 Bread flour 74ºF
7 g starter + 42 g water + 42 g Bread Flour
Wasn’t ready after 9 hours
Dough Mix overnight saltolyse
Water for 85% hydration 364 g hold back 20 g so 344 g at mix
Bread Flour 244 g
Kamut 192 g
Salt 9.58 g
Levain 86 g
Total Formula
Total flour 479 g
40% Whole Kamut = 192 g
60% Bread Flour = 287 g
Total water 407 g 85%
Edited to add crumb photos
I sliced this loaf today, and it is quite tasty. I’ll have to say that I’m getting so much closer to my ideal crumb, lacy. There are some larger alveoli I think are related to insufficient degassing, but the rest of the crumb is what I’m aiming for, relatively even, fine gluten strands. Given the 40% whole Kamut I can’t say I’m disappointed at all with this bake.
Very nice looking loaf Benny. Kamut really is a lovely grain with some characteristics of durum but definitely has more than just that hint of sweetness with other flavour notes going on.
Isn’t that funny Abe, great minds think alike huh? I’m looking forward to slicing this one for lunch tomorrow. We had the sour cherry chocolate one for lunch today so didn’t need to slice this one yet. Hoping for a good crumb.
Very nice loaf. I must try some Kamut in the future. The addition of black sesame would be a good affiliate.
Cheers,
Gavin
When I baked with Whole Kamut before at lower percentages we really enjoyed the bread’s flavour. I’m hoping that the sesame will go well, which I expect since Kamut and Durum are related. The colour of the flour is a bit browner in tone from the bran but otherwise it is still a nice yellow overall. You should give it a try Gavin, I suspect you’d like it.
Benny
about embarrassing the rest of us in TFL. Another work of art.
As far as you and Abe with your great minds...there's an app for that too! That and a couple of Ibuprofen will be the cure-all!
Too funny Alan but thanks especially since I made two errors with this bake. First one using final bread flour weight instead of the mix weight and then overcompensating with additional water leaving this dough a mess trying to slap and fold. Fortunately sprinkling more whole Kamut on during slap and folds until the dough just came back together saved it. Let’s see if the crumb shows it is good.
Benny
when still living in two cities ago I tried to learn how to bake bread from an old book my wife had (and which I had previously ignored), Beard on Bread, authored by the great James Beard. But there were scant illustrations or instructions that couldn't/wouldn't sink in. For example, I took punching the dough down literally. Now this was in the age before websites like TFL existed so I was pretty much stranded on my own desert island.
And I'd hand mix flour and water to the published recipe specs, and when it seemed too dry, I'd add water. And then it seemed too wet so I'd flour, in what became somewhat vicious cycle. The more typical result was to leave the mound of goop on the counter for my wife to see (not to clean-up) and for her to see how "far" I'd progressed when she got home.
Wrong book, wrong timing for internet access, wrong decade. But I know what you mean. These past years I place my bench knife over the appropriate line in the formula, and do the old "measure twice, cut once" routine.
Can't say that I haven't been there, but it is quite few and far between these days.
This is probably the second or third time I’ve done this in the almost two years I’ve been baking sourdough bread, so I don’t feel too bad about it. At least now I know what the dough should feel like so I can compensate, thank goodness all this baking has taught me what it should feel and look like. I’m sure it won’t be the last time I do this, it is the typical careless mistake I will make when I’m not paying enough attention to what I’m doing.
Looks like a great loaf, I bet it tasted even better.
Thank you Gerhard, yes it was a tasty loaf of bread. The black sesame seeds really compliment the Kamut as they do semolina.
Benny
TOM CAT'S KAMUT/SEMOLINA FILONE
SOURDOUGH 'POOLISH':
Bread Flour 140g
Water 123g
Starter 22g (10g flour + 12g water)
DOUGH:
Wholegrain Kamut Flour 200g
Pasta Flour 100g (50:50 durum:bread)
Water 205g + 55g
Poolish: All of the above
Salt 9g
Sesame seeds
Total flour = 450g
Total Water = 395g
PROCEDURE:
The night before baking, mix the poolish and ferment 12-14 hours.
Mix the flour and water; autolyse in the fridge overnight.
Add the poolish to the dough and combine. Then add the salt and knead till medium gluten formation. Bulk ferment till ready, about 3-4 hours, giving the dough a stretch and fold periodically.
Shape the dough and apply the sesame seeds. Final proof till ready; about 1 hour 20 minutes.
Transfer the dough to the preheated oven and bake with steam for 15 minutes, then continue to bake another 30 minutes or so until the bread is well-cooked. (Golden-brown color, hollow thump on the bottom and internal temperature of 205F.
Cool completely before slicing.
This is one very tasty loaf. My first time making Tom Cat's Semolina Filone and i'm very impressed. Next time I shall have to try it with semolina, as it is written, but as for kamut it is a winner in my book. A nice note to end on. Will quit while i'm ahead and wait for the next community bake.
Nice looking loaf. Did it rise as you expected? How is the crumb? I've never used kamut flour.
Cheers,
Gavin.
Thank you Gavin. Very tasty indeed. And I'm surprised at the crumb as kamut tends to have a cake like crumb and even though it's in high percentage it has the crumb if bread flour with all the deliciousness of kamut. Bursting with flavour and it's a sure keeper.
Good looking Kamut loaf Abe, looking forward to the crumb. Nice seeded crust and shape.
Benny
Thank you Benny. Very happy with this bake. Appearances of a bread flour sourdough but with all the flavour of a kamut bread. It's complex and very tasty.
Gorgeous crumb Abe, so nicely fermented just perfect!!
Benny
Wasn't sure how much the kamut would affect the crumb at that percentage and it was sure anise surprise.
Thank you Benny.
Lovely looking loaf Abe! Just the crumb I expected to see when I saw it uncut, and sounds like you are enjoying the flavour, so a winner all around.
When converting the recipe for kamut I thought perhaps the kamut will make the crumb more cake like but when handling the dough it seemed like it should be closer to a bread flour crumb. The high hydration certainly helped. Taste was a very nice surprise. But then again when the bulk ferment was completed and the dough had a really lovely aroma I just knew it was going to turn out flavourful. I will repeat the Filone recipe but with durum flour to compare.
Congrats on the grand finale! Looks like a well executed bake.
I think this community bake is the one i've contributed the most. Most of the previous ones I only did one. Think this one is my third. Glad I tried this recipe. Have Alan to thank for that.
I should add kamu to my (rapidly growing) list of things to try. Meanwhile, the virtual taste tests will have to suffice. And they are kinder to my waist line, lol...
It really is a lovely grain and definitely recommend trying it. I also did that long autolyse in the fridge for the wholegrain part of the recipe. How much it added to the final loaf i'm not sure but it turned out very nicely. I prefer to have my cake and eat it so I did some extra exercise today ☺️
Well actually, I didn't. But it seemed like a nice way to start! It really is a great formula once you figured out the magical addition by subtraction for the hydration! At times, this bread seems to have its own mind about how it wants to respond to a score line. But mostly it is just a delicious bread, and we being on the same bandwagon, know that it makes great toast. I'm still working my way through the loaf I made after the little video I posted the other day. Can't get enough of it!
Nice work, mate.
BTW already have my idea down for the next CB. But I'm not going to show my cards. I'm surprised this CB, which looked close to being on life support week ago, has made a comeback. And perhaps it should stay pinned to the top of the Recent Posts a little while longer.
It was your posts, here and on your personal blog, that inspired me. And quite rightly so! It truly is a tasty loaf and definitely a keeper. It was quite a wet dough so I was in favour of proofing it till it looked like it didn't need scoring. It opened up a tad but neatly and didn't burst out of the sides. I'm going to repeat it again when I next get hold of durum flour and keep it at the correct hydration. Using wholegrain I upped it to the 'original' hydration and even then it was quite high. I can fully imagine it being far too much for durum and bread flour.
And you did! tell me so, by praising this recipe, for which I thank you for that. Another lovely recipe makes it onto my baking repertoire.
Looking forward to the next community bake.
As my second community bake, I decided to try the Tom Cat Semolina which I hoped would allow the durum flavor to really shine (as compared to the Hamelman sesame semolina—which I love but in which I think the flavor of the starter and sesame overshadow the durum flavor a bit). Boy did the durum flavor come through! Loved this loaf, especially toasted. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Charlotte what a lovely bake, you must be really happy with it, well done.
Benny
Thank you! I was pleased with the result! I definitely benefited from reading everyone’s descriptions of their bakes of this recipe.
in & out cycles of postings on TFL over the years. And I'm glad that its getting its due and some more exposure with this CB. Because the results, like yours are almost always noteworthy.
Perhaps now it will be placed more in the forefront of folks' considerations when they want to bake something semolina. A really nice bake, and thanks for posting!
Feb. 14, 2021.
Woo hoo! Progress!
I finally made a mostly-WW durum loaf (75% Fiber Wala, 25% KABF) that is worthy of sharing with others, bake 38.3.
This particular loaf was too small to share, about 220 grams dough weight, so it will be eaten up in an hour or two.
I did three things at once, so I'm not sure which were crucial/critical.
First off, this Fiber Wala durum flour needs about 89% hydration. But, it you autolyse/soak it with that much, or even 85%, you get a super-sticky paste that is near impossible to work with.
So in mini-bake 38.1 (100 grams flour), I hydrated it at 77%, and it was not sticky. This was with 2% salt in the soak. I soaked it over night, and it was still not sticky the next day. Then I slowly added water, 3 grams at a time, 5 times, resulting in +15% or 92% total. Got a good crumb. Sorry, didn't take pics.
--
Bake 38.2, 100 grams Fiber Wala, no salt, 85% hydration up front. It was too sticky up front, so I put a little oil in the baggie that I stored it in. Next day, even stickier. Added 2% salt and still sticky, it did not firm up. Still a "paste" more than a dough.
Added 4% more water, for a total of 89%. Baked it after only a little fermentation. Sort of a decent crumb, showing that hydration was good, but poor fermentation, because I was in a hurry.
--
So here is my deduction/assumption: The bran in this WW durum absorbs water faster than the endosperm of durum. And at a certain percentage, somewhere between 77 and 85%, the bran turns excessively sticky (low/no-bran durum never get this sticky) and then... it's as if the bran never releases the excess water. As if the endosperm can never "take back" the excess water that the bran gobbled up.
--
Bake 38.3, pics below. This time used one of my "combo" recipes that I sometimes use for pizza dough, usually with regular WW, but now testing with durum.
75% Fiber Wala, 25% King Arthur bread flour, 2.5% whole dry chia, 2.5% ground flax, .33% instant dry yeast, 7.5% of 100% hydration starter, 1% nutritional yeast.
The procedure this time was to hydrate the Fiber Wala at 77% and after the soak, bring it up to 89%.
The soak here had everything up front, flour, water, salt, chia, flax, IDY, starter, nutritional yeast.
I think I gave it about 30 minutes rest at room temp. Then overnight in the fridge.
I assumed the KABF portion wanted 70% hydration. So keeping that fixed, the 77% to 89% hydration was calculated just on the Fiber Wala portion. Example:
So for the 160 grams of flour, I used 92.4 + 28 = 120 grams water for the soak.
Then the next day, added 14.4 grams water after the soak.
The14.4 grams of water at once did make it sticky, but not as bad as when 85% or 89% had been added at once on prior bakes.
Admittedly, this assumes the KABF "stands pat" at 70%, not giving up, nor taking away water from the durum.
So, the next bake, #39, or "mini bake" 38.4, will have an overnight soak at 77%, but the added 12% will be done in two stages: +6%, an hour or so rest, then another 6%.
Whether it is absolutely needed or not, the 25% KABF and the 1% nutritional yeast will have to be played with, to determine how much they factor in.
But for 75% whole grain, this was a superb crumb. Very worthy of showing off to friends and neighbors.
My next goal, is to push/tweak this to 90% Fiber Wala.
--
Note: there is another user who recently posted a bake with whole grain durum in Greece, or at least with Greek flour. They complained about the excess stickyness and paste like nature of the dough. This two-stage (or three stage, doing two separate additions of water after the overnight soak) hydration process should be good news.
--
Big leap in the crumb with this bake, good job Dave.
Benny
Thank you Benny.
My next experiment will need to see if the same thing can be accomplished without the nutritional yeast. And then to see what percent non-durum white bread flour is needed.
But man, this two-stage hydration insight, for whole grain durum, is what has turned the corner for me. Without it, WW durum has to either be a minority player in the dough, or else limited to flat-breads.
If I can concoct a repeatable formula with commercial yeast, no white flour, and maybe a mix of Desi Style and Fiber Wala, for a loaf bread, I may submit it to the Brar Mills folks, for inclusion on their web site.
---
My "standard" in the past has been 90% whole grain, for my consumption; but 75% is about the max that impresses others.
I still want to tempt you to "the dark side" of 75%+ whole grain. As a doc, you know that you should be eating bread of mostly whole grain, not mostly refined flour, for reasons of both glycemic index, and digestive system health.
And based on the consistent high quality of your bakes, I think you are ready for a new challenge, or "next step." Admit it... you are now among the TFL "elite" bakers. Like in golf, you need a handicap to make things fair to the rest of us duffers. ;-)
Thank you Dave for your kind words. I think that my baking has come a long way in the past year but I do not feel that I am an elite baker. Far from it, I still have lots to learn and improve upon.
Feb. 15, 2021.
Also blogged here: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67438/mini-bake-384-ww-durum-tortilla-chapati-02152021
Mix and knead until smooth.
Let rest at least 60 minutes. Durum takes a while to absorb water.
Knead for a few seconds.
Separate/weigh-out a 62 gram piece of dough.
I use a center-bulge wooden rolling pin. Straight cylinder rolling pins tend to make square dough pieces when I used them.
I put a few drops of grapeseed oil on the rolling pin and spread it around on the pin, so it won't stick to the dough. And it imparts just the right amount of oil to the dough.
I roll the dough and rotate it 90 degrees, doing that 4 times, then flip and repeat, until it makes a rough circle 8" in diameter.
I cook on a Lodge cast iron 9.25" diameter griddle. If you don't oil the rolling pin, spread 2 or 3 drops of oil on the griddle and spread it with a paper towel.
The griddle is pre-heated at setting 3 or 3.5 out of 10 on my electric stove-top burner.
I cook the first side only 30 seconds, to set it, then flip. Then I cook the second side until it is has the right amount of brown spots, pressing down with a spatula all around so it cooks evenly, because it will inflate. Then I flip it back to the first side, and finish cooking it, again pressing all around with a metal spatula.
If you don't eat it immediately, put it in a "tortillera" container, or wrap in aluminum foil, or let cool a few seconds and put it in a sealable plastic bag. This is so the inner moisture migrates out and softens the surface.
You should not cook it until the skin is crispy, but it will dry and stiffen if you don't enclose it in something. In a few minutes, the tortilla/chapati will be soft and flexible.
The paper plate in the photos is 9" in diameter.
After some gentle encouragement, here is my submission to the CB - a simple Semolina Sandwich loaf. Recipe is found here, and details of the bake are here. The crumb at the bottom is a little flat/less open. The final proof got away from me a bit (our kitchen has been warmer than usual the last few days). Do you think that's why it did that? It's not bad, and I have definitely done worse, lol.
It's Interesting, I don't taste the semolina until the bread is toasted. Then there is a gentle, almost buttery flavor that kicks in. The crumb is soft but firm enough to make a nice sandwich and held together well with our lunch today. I'll have to try this again sometime, and use rimacinata instead.
...and agreed, toasted is best. Toasted and dipped in olive oil even better! A lovely loaf.
Thanks!
And I LOVE olive oil on bread or toast. We have the very good fortune of living only 25 min from an olive grove, where they cold press olive oil regularly. It has been a fascinating discovery to see how it is all done.
I recently started keeping a small container of olive oil in the frig. It barely solidifies, just enough to make it easy to put on freshly sliced bread. It melts right into the crumb while still being spread. So good....
Lovely even sandwich bread crumb with such a great yellow colour. That’s got to make a great sandwich or toast, well done.
Benny
I milled durum wheat berries tonight and used 100g of the sifted bran/middlings from a #60 sieve for my final durum levain build at 50:60:100 to prepare for tomorrow. After working everything together it feels extremely elastic, almost like a hybrid between play-dough and bubble gum. I recall scanning some earlier threads about "the wrong kind" of durum for bread baking. I can see how the dough comes together tomorrow but am looking for any pointers that might help avoid disaster. I can't imagine kneading or shaping this!
Finally got around to posting results of 96 hour retard for my second 1 kg mega-batard with poppy, sesame, fennel seed. Pre-shape, shape durations, room temperature and baking temperatures pretty much the same as for previous batard. See my blog for history.
Conclusion: 96 hours maybe a tad too long for this dough, but overall a nice bread which I will bake again as more normal 800 g batards and maybe baguettes.
Love the seeds, you did a great job with getting a dense seeded crust which I love. Yes your cold retard went kinda long and the dough is a bit over proofed, but only a bit. I bet it tastes great though.
Benny
Blog entry at: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67450/39th-bake-02162021-80-ww-durum-3-stage-hydration
Feb. 16, 2021.
--
As a result of experimenting with 3 "mini-bakes" (38.1, 38.2, 38.3), I think my "baseline" for hydrating this whole grain durum is to soak it several hours at 77% hydration, and after the soak slowly bring it up to 89% hydration for the bulk ferment, adding the additional 12% water in two steps to avoid excess stickiness.
Going directly to 89% hydration turns the dough into a sticky paste that makes it more or less unworkable. But hydrating it slowly, allows it to stay in the form of a workable dough.
--
Goals/plan: Use 640 grams of total flour to get a 9" diameter boule, 80% whole wheat durum (Sher Fiber Wala), 20% KA bread flour, do a three stage hydration of the durum (add 77% H2O, soak, add 6%, wait, add 6%), 5% chia, 1% nutritional yeast (add after the first soak, with the first 6% water), use sourdough starter -- no commercial yeast.
I forgot to include the starter's flour and water in the calculations and ended up with 77% durum instead of 80%.
At the last minute decided to leave out the nutritional yeast.
I hadn't planned on adding oil, but during the preparation of the soaker, the dough stuck to the bowl, so I added about 1 tbsp of regular olive oil. I added one more tbsp of regular olive oil during stretch and folds.
[ 1:20 pm - 9:10 pm. 7 hours 50 minutes - non-fermenting soak/hydration, with salt, of just the WW durum.]
-----
Formula stats / percentages:
Total flour: 512 ww durum + 128 KABF + 25 KABF (starter) = 665.
Total Water, not counting soaker: 394 initially to soak the ww durum + 61 added to durum in stages + 84 with the KABF + 25 (starter) = 564.
Grand Total water: 394 + 61 + 84 + 86 (soaker)+ 25 (starter) = 650.
% hydration not counting soaker: 564 / 665 = 84.8%.
Add-in seed soaker: 32 g whole chia, 20 g ground flax, 86 boiling water.
Grand total hydration, including soaker: 650 / ( 665 + 52 ) = 650 / 717 = 90.6%.
% pre-fermented flour: 25 / 665 = 3.7%. (51 grams of 100% hydration starter)
% whole grain: 512 / 665 = 77%.
--
Feb. 17, 2021.
[ 9:10 pm - 5:45 am. 8 hours, 35 minutes bulk ferment, cool room temp ~68 F. ]
5:45 am - fold, shape, put in lined and dusted banneton and back in cold oven.
7:50 am - put banneton in fridge. Start oven warm-up to *495 / 470 F.
[ 5:45 am - 8:50 am. 3 hours, 5 minutes final proof. ]
8:50 am- bake covered, 475 / 450 F. 15 minutes.
9:05 am - bake covered, 450 / 425 F. 15 minutes.
9:20 am - bake uncovered, 425 / 400 F. 25 minutes.
9:45 am - done, looks nice, internal temp 209.3 F.
11:35 am - Not satisfied with how it "thumps" at center of bottom of loaf, so I put it in pre-heated 375 / 350 F oven for 10 minutes. Tested again. Baked for another 3 minutes -- 13 minutes total. It now sounds good when thumped on bottom at center.
--
* First temp is the oven thermostat setting, second temp is a thermometer reading. Oven appears 25 degrees off, if my thermometer is correct.
Going to (try to) wait until tomorrow before cutting open. Loaf's heft is not as much as bakes 36-38, obviously less dense, so I'm hoping for a decent crumb.
The poor oven spring is likely due to overfementation. But hey, I'm still trying to find my groove with this WW durum.
More photos and details at the above blog link.
hello, friends.
Did you all miss my annoying sense of humor? Well, I miss you guys. I will get to this semolina bake soon. Meantime, if anyone is interested, this is my take on Maggie's formula. High hydration, yes. manageable, yes. I find that semolina given enough time to hydrate is a very high hydration-friendly flour. Enjoy!
I imagine to go down the sourdough route (will be good for flavour and be a substitute for vinegar, needed for the baking powder, and yeast) then simply pre-ferment the flour at 100% hydration, adding the remainder of the liquid when putting it in the food processor. Rest as in the video.
How is this possible I just watched the same video!
Our YouTube searches are similar :)
Looks wonderful. Sorry but can you give more details as to how to use sourdough starter instead of yeast. And if you can use discard starter? Thanks.
Most of the rise, or bubbles, will be coming from the baking powder. Not sure how much the yeast will be providing but with no standing time it'll be minimal. If you use starter or starter discard it'll mostly be for flavour. And because it'll be acidic it can act as the catalyst for the baking powder and possibly the vinegar might not be needed but no harm in including it. How about 200g AP flour starter/discard at 100% hydration. That should replace the 100g white flour and 100g/ml of the water.
I cut it open about 24 hours after t finished baking yesterday; the 2nd bake, 13 minutes outside the dutch oven.
The oven spring was not what I'm looking for, but this crumb is near perfect for me.
Unfortunately, the taste is not what I'm looking for either. But it is good toasted.
48 hours after bake, the flavor is improved.
My first attempt at a home-milled whole grain durum/semolina with remilled bran powder levain.
It has a tight crumb but flavor is enjoyable. I will try this one again at higher hydration.
details: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67153/companion-blog-semolina-community-bake
and I love when the grigne opens as this one does and has such a craggy oven spring. Gives the loaf a better look. Is the color in the crumb picture accurate?, as the crumb is so dark.
Thanks. I think a dense bread like this one does benefit from the appearance. Hopefully bumping the hydration up will help open it up a little and perhaps prevent the outer damage and "pockmarks" that occurred on the outer skin during shaping. I checked a few other photos and I think the color is fairly accurate, but it was taken at night with artificial light. This one is gone now, but I'll try to get the next one in daylight.
Handsome loaf you baked there. Nice job with the seeding. Do you think that doing the seeding tightened up the crumb? I found it challenging to seed the outside without some degree of degassing.
Benny
Thanks. I seeded this one after a cold retard. This whole grain dough felt extremely dense at that point, so I'm not so sure degassing played a role. I'll boost hydration of the soaker and maybe try some incremental hydration based on @idaveindy's experiments to see if I can open up the next one.
Finally, I did my second test of 43% Durum Sourdough Bread. I have increased the hydration to 70% and honestly, I think it could have accepted even more water. As I was satisfied with the result I stopped the tests, but I am sure that one day I'll come back to this recipe and test the hydration to its maximum.
You guys, made me take the forgotten durum flour bag and bake something with it. I almost forgot about this amazing golden flour. Now my flour is over and I am ready to order more. Thank you for this great motivation and challenge with the community bakes!
Ingredients:
And I also managed to make a video about it:
Very very attractive loaves, zig zag scoring with extra points for the additional decoration. This is a fancied up Alan ziggy score.
Benny
Scoring the bread is like the cherry on the cake. It just emphasizes the beauty behind it.
Thank you so much, Benny for your comment! Very much appreciated!
Denisa.
Very nice loaves and thank you much for the video. Very nice to see the visual queues people discuss. But by far, the best thing about your video was your helper. :-) So awesome that you can get him involved and maybe pique an interest that young!
The little one is very curious about everything I do and if I cannot keep him far from my dough I have to involve him. He is for sure very interested to help with the dough regardless this is becoming a hobby for him or not. For me, the most satisfying moment is when he asks to eat a slice of bread. With this, I am definitely influencing him to make a clear distinction about how a good bread should taste ;)
His interest in baking may wax and wane, but he will always remember these times, and the smell of fresh baked bread will always bring him back to these moments. Good stuff. ;-)
Exactly! Even if he is not yet 4yo some memories remain for life. But for us, as adults, it is also valid. Neither I or my husband cannot choose another type of bread other than sourdough. Every time we go on holidays, we are missing homemade sourdough bread.
as usual. Too nice looking to eat, but c'est la vie, that's what food is for!
I found that creating the 'Ziggy' scores with a serrated bread knife gives a clean easy cut. I'd seen Abel Sierra (abelbreadgallery) do it first on TFL.
Thank you! This is interesting. I have not tried to score the loaves with a knife, always with a blade. I will check his profile. Thanks for the tip!
But here's an example from each of us...
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/54981/ziggy-stoneground-loaf
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/55676/abels-ziggy-sesame-semolina
Been trying to wrap my head around where Hamelman was going with his 125% hydration levain. The levain was certainly “liquide” so pretty easy to handle but I’m not getting why not to just use 100% which, to my mind, makes calculations and adjustments a bit easier to manage. I think my next batch of Semola bread will need to test whether the less wet levain will produce as good a loaf. Hard to imagine why it wouldn’t work if I shoot for the same 67% dough hydration.
a 125% AP & 125% Rye along with my other two levains. All for the fun of it. About 2 years ago I stopped and now just primarily work off my 100% AP levain. I converted those Hamelman formulae to 100% on my spreadsheet. And I've never noticed a difference.
Here's dabrownman's take on it: LAB and yeast love high hydration so things happen much faster and pros love fast to shorten their baking schedules and it is so thin it won't rise much since the bubbles aren't trapped they just rise to the surface and break.
Abe told me that the 125% levain promotes more lactic acid production for more of those notes in the final bread. Honestly I wasn’t able to taste the difference when I’ve made this bread as directed or with a more standard for me 100% levain.
High hydration promotes a strong lactic acid ferment. Stands to reason one would provide the ideal environment should this be the wanted outcome. Doesn't mean to say a 100% levain can't behave in a similar way. After all it is a liquid pre-ferment. In everything from the starter to levain to final dough all we're doing is giving the yeasts and bacteria the best chance to do their thing for a finished product were after.
Been making a series of breads with Full Proof's (Kristen's) basic open crumb recipe and replacing the flour in the 20% slot with different flours.
Because of that, thought I'd made a bread that was 20% semolina to fit in with the challenge, but sticking to Full Proof's method, which uses 80% hydration!
The odd thing about this loaf is that my starter just didn't want to cooperate yesterday. It was a 25 deg. C day, but shaped it only after 9 hours and gave it another hour that day and 2 more hours before baking, overall 12 hours of fermentation! Also, the glossy crumb probably comes from the VWG that was included to increase the protein of the bread flour component to around 14.9%.
Very nice looking bread! The crumb looks great, but I particularly love the colour of the crust and the score - opened up in a very cute way!
Thanks Ilya, this was a room temperature score, didn't want to get too fancy
The crumb looks fantastic!
Thanks Denisa, and just want to tell you how much I appreciate your professional videos.
Lovely bake Jon. Beautiful crumb and lovely work with applying the sesame seeds to the crust.
Benny
Youtube suggested this video with a surprising Italian recipe: white sourdough with a little semolina, and boiled potatoes! It's not super detailed, but I think enough to information to reproduce it, and I thought others might find it interesting too. I might try it at some point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLriqPTHhUM
Indeed an interesting video. I also love the flour they use.
This is my second attempt at a home-milled whole grain naturally leavened durum bread. The crumb ended up being very similar to last time, but the flavor was much better. The BF was very slow this time and I aimed for a 50% rise instead of the previous 30% followed by a 12-hour cold final proof. I found a spot in the fridge slightly above 40F, and the dough was noticeably taller in the banneton before baking. The flavor was really nice, and despite being a dense bread, has received the strongest reaction to any bread I have made so far. There appears to be a "hydration cliff" at which point this whole-grain dough exhibits extreme extensibility and lacks any elasticity required for reasonable shaping. I first mentioned it in THIS DURUM BUBBLE GUM POST, although silly putty is probably a better description. I tried to correct this with additional lengthy kneading, but my sense it is unrelated to gluten development, and no amount of kneading will reverse it. I eventually lowered hydration by iteratively dusting in more durum flour until the dough could hold some tension again. This occurs at a surprisingly low point slightly above 70%, although the dough itself could tolerate higher hydration if it weren't for this property.
details: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/482224#comment-482224
Note: After questions about color last time, I tried to capture this in a few different lighting scenarios and with additional color points to avoid color balance issues. I think the lower left photo, taken under a combination of overhead lighting and indirect sunlight on an overcast day, is a good reference.
before asking Floyd to unpin the CB and release it from the top of the Recent Comments. As with all CB's they remain "active" in perpetuity, as we can readily see with all of the very recent Hamelman 5-Grain activity right now. Then a week or three off before the posting of the next CB.
Thanks to all who have been active participants, and to those who merely enjoy tuning in here and there to see what is going on with our TFL compatriot bakers in the CB. Don't let this dissuade anyone who cares to continue to participate.
And as always, my deep appreciation to Dan for making this a regular part of TFL.
Hey, isn't that Maurizio and what's-his-name?
Alan
Latest bake, a variation of my normal loaf based on Tom Cat's Semolina Filone.
Total flour: 900g of which, 300g white unbleached all purpose in poolish and 600g semolina rimacinata in main dough
Total water: 600g of which, 300g in poolish and 300g in main dough
Total yeast: 5/8tsp, of which 1/8tsp in poolish and 1/2tsp in main dough
Total salt: 18g in main dough
Mix poolish, let rest overnight. Mix main dough and combine with poolish. Slap-fold for 5-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Bulk ferment in slightly warmed oven for 2 hours. Form into a boule then into an oval shape. Place on baking mat on baking sheet in microwave preheated with hot water. Proof for one hour. Bake at 500deg F for 35 minutes, then bake at 430deg F for 25 minutes until golden brown. Cool on grate and slice when completely cooled to room temperature.
This is my daily bread, usually eaten with breakfast and as a mid-day snack.
Beautiful even yellow crumb semolinaman, very nice. I’m even more impressed by the fact that you have a healthy thriving poinsettia in late February.
Benny
Another one for the thread. My standard loaf, based on Tom Cat's Semolina Filone, the recipe I got started with on this site years ago.
This loaf:
1/3 white unbleached all purpose, 100% of which was used in the poolish
1/3 semolina rimacinata
1/3 semolina, or semolina meal
62% hydration
2% salt
Approx 3/8 tsp total yeast
p.s. apologies for the photo orientation, Apple knows how it should be rotated.
Hello! I've followed the forums here for a few years, but just made an account today to join the Community Bakes and hopefully improve my baking. I've baked sourdough for 15+ years, but only delved into artisan style in the last 3 or so. I still feel very "new."
This is my first try at a Community Bake and at a Semolina loaf. I did the Hamelman version, but misread the formula while I was mixing and added an extra 110g water, which gave me a hydration around 85.5%! Oops. But it came out OK, and my family loved it!
The shaping is wobbly (not tight and round) near the bottom. This is a common problem for me with higher hydration loaves. My guess is that I need to shape more aggressively? Thoughts on that would be helpful. Thanks!
your unique timing for this CB! Which I just asked our TFL host Floyd to unpin days ago. Nonetheless, these CBs live on in posterity, always ready for latecomers to add their wares, ask questions and provide answers.
As far as handling high-hydration doughs, here are three sources for you to review...
A new CB will be posted in a week or two, and we encourage you to join in then as well.
Alan
Thanks for the video links. I had seen the Tartine one, the others I had not seen. I think I'm not degassing enough. I don't want to undo the work the sourdough has done during bulk, but I think I need to be less timid about it.
I did realize I was posting late, I had done the bake when it was first posted, but was hesitant to share in the group. Maybe next time I'll be more timely with my post.
Turns out, it helps to read the FAQ...sorry for all the posts in a row, thanks for your patience!
Details in my blog post.
Made another semolina loaf to bring to a bbq with friends. Simple recipe, 60% fine semolina, rest bread flour (and some rye flour from the starter in the levain). Formula: https://fgbc.dk/1ju2
Fermented the starter for around 6 hrs, nowhere near doubled, but the consistency seemed very soupy from the beginning (a lot of rye, and a lot of acidity, maybe), probably not capturing gas well.
Mixed everything, left for ~40 min to hydrate (semolina certainly needed it!), did some slap&folds for medium development, left in an oiled straight sided container at 28C.
~70% growth after 5 hrs:
[url=https://ibb.co/6HQ5K9H]
[/url]
Preshaped by folding similar to the pane cafone video recipe earlier, then shaped into a batard (the dough was a little more sticky than I wanted, might have been on the verge of overfermentation) and applied black and regular sesame seeds - one colour for each side of the loaf. Proofed in the fridge overnight - only around 9 hrs, was late and needed to bake in the morning so the bread cools before transporting. Baked in a preheated upturned pyrex casserole dish for steam around 15 min (260C), then until nice colour without cover (230C).
[url=https://ibb.co/Bs0JL8j]
[/url]
[/url]
[/url]
[url=https://ibb.co/fk9pCZc]
[url=https://ibb.co/WVjWbrH]
Nice and even crumb - probably could do with a longer final proof for slightly more openness, but I was very constrained by my schedule. Everyone loved the bread, and I was quite pleased too. Good bread that stands up to toppings, but with a mild flavour.
See all my semolina bakes here.
Nicely done Ilya, it amazes me how strong semolina is and that it seems to stand up well to a lot of fermentation. Creative application of seeds and scoring.
Benny
Thank you Benny! Indeed, it performs surprisingly well. I might have taken it just a little too far here, maybe 30 min too much in bulk - and an extra 30 min warm final proof could have opened up the crumb a touch. But still very pleased with the result. It had Italian vibes, and went great with salami and coppa.
Nicely done. I'm hungry just looking at the spread. Tasty.
Cheers,
Gavin
Thanks Gavin! It was indeed a very enjoyable meal, and a very welcome meeting with friends now that it's finally allowed here.
March 31 - April 1, 2021.
Durum bake #9. Bake #43 overall.
49% durum: Fiber Wala & Golden Temple. (plus BRM WW & KABF)
A bit under-hydrated.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67868/43rd-bake-04012001-75-ww-523-g-flour
April 26, 2021.
Durum bake #10. Bake #44 overall.
100% Patel stone-ground WW durum, + IDY.
Too much soak and fermentation -- too much sugar was made, and crust carmelized too much. Also a tad wet.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/68069/44th-bake-04262021-100-stone-ground-ww-durum
May 1, 2021.
Durum bake #11. Bake #45 overall.
Fail. Burned the bottom in the toaster oven. Inside under-baked.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/68123/45th-bake-05012021-93-ww-sg-durum
The geese liked it.
May 6 - 7, 2021.
87% Patel brand stone-ground WW durum, plus Arrowhead Mills organic AP.
Crust was a bit too stiff and leathery, but otherwise good. Neutral taste - good for eating with flavored oil/dip, or for sopping up soup or strew.
Patel SG WW durum is only $.40/pound. Just $7.99 for a 20 pound bag.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/68155/46th-bake-05072021-87-stoneground-ww-durum
Had a hilarious collapse in bread machine, but it tasted great.
90% durum, 10% AP. Hours soak with salt, and without yeast. Then added 1 tsp yeast.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/68196/47h-bake-05112021-90-sgww-durum-ugly-tastes-great
A remake of the previous bake in the bread machine, with 1/2 the yeast. 90% stone ground WW durum, 10% AP, 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast. No soak this time.
Still had a slight collapse. But it came out good.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/68228/48th-bake-05152021-bread-machine-90-ww-durum
I hadn’t baked with semola rimacinata for quite some time and felt it was due. I’ve been thinking that we seldom see semolina in enriched breads, at least I don’t recall seeing many, so I decided to try using it in a SD Hokkaido Milk Bread. I can’t say that it disappointed me whatsoever. The details of the bake are here in my blog post.
I just run my semolina through my Komo mill.