Sicilian Semolina Bread
I thought I would try D.T. DiMuzio's recipe from his book 'bread baking' for Sicilian Semolina Bread. Everything went according to plan and the dough tested close to the goal Temperature of 77F. Things could not have looked better...then I realized...Oh My Gosh!...I forgot to put in the Olive Oil...I knew I should have had it measured and ready to go....because if I don't have ingredients right in front of me...this happens! I didn't even have the bottle of oil out on the counter...so much for earlier thoughts about the oil! Oh it would probably be great even without the oil...but no...I wanted my oil. No matter what!! In it went.. all of it...slooooshing all around the dough...not mixing in very well ...what now! I picked up about a Tablespoon of flour tossed it in around the dough and things seemed to come to together pretty good. I don't think I will ever forget my oil again...lesson learned! Things looked pretty good...other than I had a very puffy wet dough to try and form into an S...so I did the best I could and made 2 scrolls..one with a backward S and one batard. We had several slices with dinner and we thought the flavor was great. So good in fact I thought I would take the one S out of the frig that I was going to retard for tomorrow. I thought I would let it proof a little longer and see if that would help the S not to get so blown away as in the first loaf. The first two were done on a pan with added steam>my new Lava Rocks!...I would do this last loaf in my Bell Cloche and see if there was any difference. Well, not really anything that noticable..they looked pretty much the same both even had the S pretty much blown away...I think my dough was a little on the wet side...then maybe again it was the oil being added later on made the dough slack...Any comment on this will be greatly appreciated. This was a first forgetting to add the oil and Im sure it must affect the gluten formation some how..so any comments and advice are very much appreciated.
2 S Scrolls - One S and Batard baked with steamed oven - One S in a La Cloche
Goal Temperature is 77F This is when I realized I had forgotten the Oil! :>/
Olive Oil has been added and Temperature holding at 77.7 Im thinking I need these lucky numbers!
Batard was nearly all eaten! It had a very nice buttery flavor from the duram flour...we are not crazy on the seeds..but I wanted to stick with tradition and they did add a nice toasty flavor. Things had turned out better than I thought adding the oil so late didn't seem to do to much harm.
S on the Left was Oven Steamed S on Right was baked in the Bell Cloche and retarded for about 2 hrs. in the frig.
longer before baking.
Crumb on Batard
Sylvia
Comments
I just got Dan's book yesterday. I haven't even looked at the recipes yet. That looks like a good one. (Tip to self: Mis en place! N'oubliez-pas l'huile d'olive! Or whatever the Italian equivalent might be.)
David
Thank you, David! This one really snuck by me...a senior moment as you say...I couldn't believe I remembered I forgot it..especially with no clues in site, like a big bottle of olive oil! I'm really enjoying Dan's book!
Sylvia
looks lovely! It looks delicious. your pictures please the palate!
I, too, do practice Mis en place for very good reasons!
Betty
Thank you, Betty! It wasn't in it's place so I definately missed it ; )
Sylvia
Lovely bread, Sylvia. Isn't it great when you hit the desired dough temp? Nicely done! I was just thinking of using the semolina flour I've had stashed in the fridge. Dan's recipe looks like it would work well.
That said - I checked the expiration date on the semolina and it says January 2009. I wonder if it is still good (it has been in the cooler all the time). Gads, I'm going to have to inventory the flours in the refrigerator and stick the list to the door.
Ah...mis en place. Some day I'll tell the story about the plastic bag of high gluten flour sitting on my dryer because I skipped mis en place one night.
Hi Lindy and thank you! Dan's instructions make it pretty easy to hit that temp. I made sure the starting temp. of the water was what he instructed and it worked out great! Your flour should still be ok since it was refrigerated. I have to mail order my duram flour. I can get a pretty fine semolina but it's not as finely ground as the duram flour from K.A.
Women can leave things in the darndest places! It must be all that multitasking we do. At least it wasn't in the dryer!
Sylvia
I've forgotten the sugar (yes, ALL OF IT) in banana bread and scones before. Thank goodness for things like chocolate chips and raisins.
I think your loaves look wonderful! :)
Thank you, jleung! I think I've done that too!
Sylvia
It's on my list too. I can't wait.
--Pamela
Hi and Thank You, Pamela, I'm a real lover of the Italian breads and the duram flour is just wonderful in the loaves and I also love semolina pasta flour in breads. That I can easily find locally. The scroll shape was fun and a new shape for me to try.
Sylvia
Sylvia, what can I say followingthe above comment other than wow! Really just beautiful! And you did that even with the oil glitch - impressive.
Marni
Thank you, Marni...I hope to never do that again with the oil...though..that little addition of flour was what did the trick! It seemed to give the oil that little bit of grab it needed...otherwise I think it would have just slooshed around on the nice smooth dough!
Sylvia