Pugliese - the quest for durum flour was over...I finally found it!
Somehow, durum flour eluded me. I thought that fine semolina was durum flour (given that they're both comes from durum wheat). I thought durum flour was called fine semolina in Australia.
Thank to Sylvia (SylviaH) for pointing it out in her blog post together with pictures that they're totally different. I then just knew that I had made semolina bread all along with fine semolina thinking that I got the right ingredient (mind you, the breads tasted lovely and the crumb strucdture was fine with fine semolina as well).
So, I was very excited when I finally found the durum flour at an Italian grocer. First recipe that comes to my mind was pugliese.
I used the recipe from Peter Rienhart's BBA, with 40% durum flour. The dough hydration is 77% without considering mashed potato. I also included about 20% mashed potato in the recipe (recipe only calls for 12% but I got the more from the left-over). So, the effective hydration could very well be close to 90% if taking into account the liquid from mashed potato.
This was the wettest dough I worked with so far. It was far too wet to knead, so I had to do the stretch and fold in the bowl for a number of times to develop the dough strength. It was fascinating to see the dough structure changed from pancake-like structure, to develop membrane and bond together. Ahh, the wonder of wheat!
The bread was lovely and chewy. Semolina tasted somewhat different from wheat, it's nuttier and sweeter. I also wonder what the flavour profile would be like if made using sourdough culture instead of yeast?
For full blog post and recipe, you can find it here.
Sue
Comments
Hi Sue,
I too am having trouble finding fancy durum flour here on Vancouver Island, but your lovely bread is a great incentive for me to keep trying. At the moment I'm making a starter from some semolina flour inoculated with a bit of mature rye starter and it seems to be coming along just fine. What flavour profile results from it is hard to say at this point, but it's certainly healthy and active. I'm looking forward to reading more of your experiences using durum flour. Great post!
Best wishes,
Franko
Starter fed with semolina flour sounds interesting and makes me wonder about the flavour profile as well.
I thought that I would never be able to find durum flour in Australia as well. I suppose it's not available through mainsteam channel, more like at a specialty store, like continental grocer or Italian grocer. My flour was packaged as "Semola" and all written in Italian on the packaging.
I'm doing the Semolina Bread from Hamelman book this weekend. I would love to find out what the difference it would make with the durum flour comparing to fine semolina as well.
Cheers,
Sue
What a beautiful crumb! What a find, imported Italian duram flour! I can just imagine your excitement at finding the DF. Your post has reminded me that I have some DF that needs to be used.
Thank you, for mentioning my post was helpful! If you scroll down there is a recipe for my version of RLB Bread Bible Pugliese, hope you try it, it is my favorite recipe using duram flour.
Sylvia
Yes, I was wrapt to finally find DF. I told my partner (he was with me at the grocer) that I was such a simple girl, doesn't take me much to feel happy, heh?...just a bag of flour, I'll be delighted, lol.
Yes, your post inspired me to make pugliese, and set myself for the quest to find DF, thank you. I'll have to try RLB sometimes too, to compare with PR.
Sue
Hello Sue,
That's so nice that you found some durum flour - you sure did put it to good use! That's a great-looking loaf :^)
from breadsong
Thank you for kind words:)
Sue
That crumb looks gorgeous, Sue. And that makes two bakes with semolina this weekend: Breadsong also just posted one. My semolina is quite gritty and I can't imagine it coming together into a dough at all. (One of the reasons I have never tried baking anything with it). All it is used for is dusting my pizza peel! But you and Breadsong have inspired me to try using it. Your comment on its nutty taste has got me especially interested. Do you have a pic of your flour that I could compare to mine? I am not sure that about the difference between semolina and durum that you mentioned in your post.
Thanks,
Syd
I took the photo comparing fine semolina and durum flour side by side. The fine semolina is slightly gritty, and white colour. I used them with Semolina Bread from Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread. The dough and bread were alright using fine semolina. Though, the dough was really really wet, as I suppose fine semolina wont' absorb water much at all. But the bread worked out in the end. The bread also staled a little sooner than usual, which I believe the result of water doesn't thoroughly incorporated in the flour. But the breads were nice, really nice nonetheless.
Below are photos of semolina and durum flour, and multigrain semolina bread I made sometimes ago with fine semolina (the one on the left in the phtoto).
fine semolina on the left and durum flour on the right
Semolina multigrain bread made using fine semolina (pictured on the left)
Sue
Congratulations!
From the photos, I think your Australian 'semolina' is what the Americans call 'farina' or 'cream of wheat'. (I lived in Oz for about 30 years...it was a bit confusing, at first.) DURUM semolina is a nice, yellow colour and looks even nicer than durum flour (to my old eyes, anyway!)
In Japan, there's not that much difference between durum semolina and durum flour, although I'll agree that the "flour" is slightly finer and feels less "gritty" prior to hydration and long, slow fermentation. In baking, I can't tell any difference, as I pre-ferment at least 18 hours (and often much longer when using refrigeration.)
I buy whichever is for sale in the shop that I am in and have no problems, as they both create a great tasting loaf!
Cheers,
copyu
Thanks for the information, copyu.
Absolutely agree that fine semolina (the gritty ones) also produces tasting loaves. I quite like durum flour as it gives the nice yellow tone to the crumbs, looks quite appetising. Fine semolina actually costs as much as durum flour here, only fine semolina comes in a smaller package.
Actually, I'm surprised that we have to import the durum flour from Italy, given that Australia is such a big wheat producer, and I'm sure we grow durum wheat as well (which is used in pasta). It made me wonder why.
Sue
The "San Remo" company (in South Australia) was the only Oz company that I'd ever heard of, that actually exported pasta to Italy! (I don't know their status, now...20 years later...)
Oz pasta is great, and they import tons of the stuff from Italy, as well...maybe people don't need to make their own? Even if 5% of the population wanted to make their own pasta, I doubt that the market would be big enough to make durum semolina/durum flour a regular supermarket item, just for the occasional home baker...it's obviously there, however, and available to the commercial pasta makers—no doubt about that!
Best,
copyu
Thanks for posting those pics, Sue. I did some research myself and came up with this fine post from Dan DiMuzio which, I think, explains it very clearly. I also looked in Hamelman's Bread (p.36) and he makes the distinction between semolina and durum flour. Both come from durum wheat except that semolina is gritty and the flour, well, more flour like (finer). Hamelman says semolina is hardly ever used in bread baking because it has a puncturing effect on the gluten. It seems his recipes for semolina bread all use durum flour as opposed to the coarser semolina.
All the best,
Syd
Very Nice result with Durum Flour, Sue! I, too, never found Durum flour. I bet Nicodvb can easily find it, as he lives in Italy.
hehehe, that's very funny, Khalid..yes, I bet TFLers in Italy are wondering right now, what the fuss about this durum flour..
Thanks for a lovely comments.
Sue
I wonder if one could use chapatti flour, sold in middle east and indian markets? The ones I've seen have listed their ingredients as durum flour.
Durum flour can usually be found at Indian grocery stores:
Temple brand durum.
Sher brand durum : Desi Style - normal extraction, like bread or all purpose flour.
Sher brand durum: Fiber Wala - high(er) extraction, has more bran than Desi Style.
see www.sherbrarmills.com