Semolina Sandwich Loaf
I’ve been so curious about semolina flour.I didn’t understand much about it and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of information regarding it.After reading as much as I could find in various bread books I decided I had to take a stab at it.So last weekend I baked this yeasted sandwich version along with another sourdough version. (I will post that one separately.)
I found the perfect, fresh durum patent flour at Heartland Mill which has been such a great source so far in providing harder-to-find flours.The shipping and handling is a bit steep but so far I can’t find a local source for this particular semolina or the wonderful Golden Buffalo high-extraction flour that is so perfect for the Thom Leonard Country French.
This bread showed the most incredible oven spring that I snapped a couple photos while still in the loaf pan for perspective to show just how high that thing ballooned.The first time I opened the oven to rotate the pan I actually gasped.Then I broke into laughter.You all know that feeling!:o)
It is such a beautiful loaf in so many ways but also very delicious and moist.This is a big keeper recipe for me and I remain intrigued by the nutty, sweet flavor of semolina.If you are looking for a very tender and flavorful sandwich loaf this is a great choice.Another plus is the recipe is quite easy and very quick.I think from beginning of initial fermentation to pulling the baked loaf from the oven was just under 4 hours.
It also makes delicious toast and, for me, the beautiful saffron colored crumb is just outstanding.
Excerpted: Leader told how he received an urgent phone call the night before he left Altamura telling him that his guide had forgotten to show him this bread – a straight dough semolina loaf made by Altamura bakers specifically for sandwiches.A loaf was quickly delivered to his hotel room and he expressed gladness when he saw the gorgeous red-gold loaf with a delicate crust and even golden crumb.He said it was unlike any sandwich bread he’d tasted and how his customers would love its rich wheat flavor and olive oil perfume.The small amount of sugar gives this bread great tenderness. As he mentions this recipe is a great introduction to the unique character of semolina flour.I agree.
More photos can be seen here:
http://zolablue.smugmug.com/gallery/3505682#197785385
Semolina Sandwich Loaf – Daniel Leader, Local Breads
Time:8 to 12 minutes to knead; 1 1/2 to 2 hours to ferment; 1 to 1 1/2 hours to proof; 35 to 45 minutes to bake
Makes:1 Sandwich loaf (31.2 ounces/885 grams)
300 grams (1 1/2 cups/10.6 ounces) water, tepid (70 to 78 degrees) – 60%
5 grams (1 teaspoon/0.2 ounce) instant yeast – 1%
500 grams (3 1/4 cups/17.6 ounces) fine semolina (durum) flour – 100%
15 grams (1 tablespoon/0.5 ounce) granulated sugar – 3%
50 grams (1/4 cup/1.8 ounces) extra-virgin olive oil – 10%
10 grams (1 1/2 teaspoons/0.4 ounce) sea salt – 2%
Mixing the dough:Pour the water into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.Add the yeast, flour, sugar, olive oil and salt and stir with a rubber spatula just until a rough dough forms.
Kneading – By hand:Lightly dust the counter with semolina flour.Scrape the dough out of the bowl and knead it with smooth, steady strokes until it is very smooth, shiny, and elastic, 10 to 12 minutes.
By machine:Use the dough hook and mix the dough on medium speed (4 on a KitchenAid mixer) until it is very smooth, shiny, and elastic, 8 to 9 minutes.
Fermentation:Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container with a lid.Cover and leave to rise at room temperature (70 to 75 degrees) until it inflates into a dome, reaching double; 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Shaping loaf:Grease a loaf pan (8 1/2 x 4 1/2) with oil.Lightly dust the counter with semolina flour.Uncover the dough and turn it out onto the counter.Form the dough into a pan loaf.Nestle the loaf into the pan, seam side down, pressing it gently to fit.Lightly dust the top of the loaf with semolina flour and cover the pan with plastic wrap.
Proofing:Let the loaf rise at room temperature (70 to 75 degrees) until it crowns just above the rim of the pan, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Preparing oven:About 15 minutes before baking place rack in middle of oven.Preheat oven to 375°F.
Baking:Place the loaf on the middle rack of the oven.Bake until the loaf pulls away from the sides of the pan and the crust is a deep golden brown, 35 to 45 minutes.
Cooling and storing:Remove loaf from pan and allow to cool, right side up.Cool bread completely before slicing, about 1 hour.Store the cut loaf in a resealable plastic bag at room temperature.It will stay fresh for about 3 days.For longer storage, freeze in a resealable plastic bag for up to 1 month.
Comments
That crumb looks ab-so-lute-ly PERRRRRFECT!
Zolablue, I tried a 'clipped' recipe for semolina bread and remember being distinctly under-whelmed with the result, but this is so pretty I'm going to try again with this recipe. Thanks for posting, lovely as always.
ZB,
Wow, that's phenomenal oven spring. Hey, how'd you do that? I know, RTFM (Read That Fine Manual, a common retort in the technology world), in other words read another beautiful write-up like the one above to know just how it works. Thanks for all the recent comprehensive how-to blog entries with great photos.
Bill
Another beauty ZB! I love that you did this in such a short time. I have a bag of Semolina from KA that I have been looking for a formula for. I'll have to give this a try. Great job as usual on the write up. You're such a pro!
Eric
Browndog, did you use durum patent or the grainier semolina flour? I ask because I had quite an interesting experience trying to add the latter to a ciabatta recipe. It behaved very differently although tasted fantastic. I have been trying to find out how the differences in the grind of semolina affect the dough and final bake. It's pretty interesting. Do try this for a luscious loaf. My hubby just ate a tuna salad sandwich on it and told me it was outstanding!
Thanks, you guys. Honestly, the oven spring on this baby just floored me. I let it rise to just about an inch over the top of the pans worrying about letting it go too long based on the other sinking semolina dough mixture experience but it just magically poufs like crazy in the oven. And it has a very unique flavor that is wonderful.
I know some people turn their noses up at sandwich loaves but how could you when you get something like this. Even sandwich loaves have their place. (I was looking for the perfect bread to make cucumber sandwiches with this summer, while my plant was growing, and I'm betting this would be a good choice and very pretty.)
Zolablue, This looked so amazing I just had to try it even though I prefer to use sourdough starters only. I followed your recipe and had the exact same experience. I did not think I would get it in the oven soon enough but then it rose considerably higher with wonderful oven spring. I am letting it cool before I cut into it but it smells amazing. My DH wants white sourdoughs with dried fruit and nuts in all his breads but he is really checking this one out. I also did two loaves of sourdough semolina & durum flour that came out just as nice. Next time I will try 100% semolina with the sourdough starter. I only bought 2# of semolina flour this past week but I expect I will be stocking this again. Right now I have two organic pumpkin pies taking advantage of an already hot oven and a cool stormy, rainy day here in Santa Fe (when is summer coming anyway??) ok major hail storm now! Here is a picture of the loaf and I will add another picture after it cools and I can cut it open.
Thanks for the recipe, Melody in Santa Fe
Which one is the whole grain, the durum or semolina?
Neither is whole grain. In general, they both come from the same part of the grain, the endosperm. So it is the equivalent of the white flour from a strain of wheat that happens to have a (more) yellow shade of endosperm. Durum is just ground fine, into a fine flour. "Semolina" is grainier.
Now, if you happened to come across some(either type) which specified "whole grain", then the above becomes a different story. If whole grain is available, it's certainly more rare than even the endosperm varieties(in the US).
I totally love the semolina loaves I've made, but I have questions about durum flour as opposed to semolina. The bread is called semolina, but the recipe often calls for durum flour. Now, I have semolina, and when that's used up I have durum wheat that I can grind up.
So the questions are:
(1) What do I use in semolina bread? Is the semolina too grainy? Will soaking it help? And if they don't want me to use the grainy semolina, why do they call the bread semolina?
(2) When I grind up my durum wheat in my NutriMill, what will I get? Can I get durum flour?
Rosalie
I'm not knowledgable enough about semolina even though I've used it quite a few times. I just follow the recipe and use what's called for. But sometimes it's not clear what is called for. I think zolablue said she uses durum because it's finer. As far as I know duram flour is a fine ground semolina.
Where did you get durum wheat grain from? I'd like to try making durum myself in my Nutrimill. Hope someone will give us clear answers. weavershouse
Weavershouse and Rosalie, when I made the Pane Siciliano I used Bob's Red Mill #1 Durum Wheat Semolina flour - that is what it says on the bag. They don't mention baking with it but say that it has an exceptionally high percentage of gluten. The texture is much finer than cornmeal. A.
It was tough finding it, but I found durum grain online at www.naturalwaymills.com. I have yet to try it.
I did a little bit of research. Semolina is from the endosperm, which I think means that we will not have semolina when we grind wholegrain durum. Also, "semolina" has various meanings. That gets especially confusing when they shift the meaning during a single conversation.
The semolina I've used in my breads has been from a bin at the natural food store. When I grind up my durum, who knows how it will compare.
Rosalie
I apologize for not seeing this thread. I think I need to sign up for nudges so I know when something has been posted. I have been on and off the forum so sporadically the past couple months I have much to catch up on so SORRY! :o)
I haven’t learned anything new about durum since baking this semolina sandwich loaf and the sourdough semolina (also really good bread) so I’ll share what I posted in another thread and hopefully this will help:
From the things I've read about using semolina for bread is that it should be the more finely milled durum or what is also called durum patent flour. I bought mine at Heartland Mill but you can also order it from King Arthur.
Hamelman writes in his book, Bread, pages 35 & 36, "...while durum flour has a higher percentage of protein than either winter or spring wheat, the protein is by no means all usable in the formation of the gluten matrix. There is a tendency for doughs containing a high proportion of durum to break down during mixing, and the baker must keep a careful eye on the degree of development in the mixer."
He goes on to say that generally durum (fine flour) is preferred over semolina (coarse flour) because the coarse grains in the semolina have a puncturing effect on the dough.
I did experience that very thing when I added some coarse semolina to a ciabatta recipe. I think because the recipe called for extensive mixing the protein broke down and subsequently the dough not only didn't rise to the height it should have but it took a very quick downward plunge which I found amazing. I still baked the bread and because it was a very high hydration ciabatta it worked and actually tasted wonderful. But it was a good test for me to witness the differences between the behaviors of both types of semolina flour in bread.
Rosalie – I also find it confusing that they call the flour semolina when they really mean it must be durum finely milled flour. It would help to establish a standard of referring to these flours to distinguish them from each other. And I have no idea about home milling it but I can tell you it doesn’t need to be soaked. The durum I have is silky fine powder.
I wonder if I can take Bob's Red Mill Semolina and run it through my grain mill to grind it finer, and then it'd be the same thing as the "patent" semolina flour, e.g. the fineness is the only difference? I may try this ...these loaves are just beautiful and I really want to try one out for flavor and what not. Hmmm... Maybe I'll pull out the mill and give it a whirl (yuk yuk)
Brian
I have a NutriMill, and it wouldn't be able to do that. What kind of mill do you have, Brian?
Rosalie
My mill is a manual mill, a Country Living Grain Mill. Seems to work very well. I have a motor and may motorize it at some point, but it's easy enough to crank that I haven't felt real motivated yet.
Brian
I see the confusion regrding hard wheat flours is very common ;-) Same here. I can tell you that in order to make Altamura bread (and most hard wheat breads in Italy) the use of "remilled semola" is required. In practice it's an intermediate stage between the result of the first milling (semolino) and the finest flour (that is generally used to make pasta).
I heard roumours that in the finest flour the gluten proteins are too damaged, but I don't know if it's true.
A food processor can make ground grain into a finer grind.
--Pamela
Semolina is the endosperm from the durum wheat berry. I use durum wheat for Durum sunflower sourdough and I love it. It looks and feels like regular baking flour where the semolina is somewhat grainy. I just baked my first 100% semolina loaf and can hardly wait to cut into it. I too buy the whole durum wheat berry since I prefer to grind it fresh myself. I found the semolina flour at a local health food store based out of Lakewood, CO. The semolina is more yellow in color then the durum flour though even the durum has a yellow cast. Hope this helps. Here is a picture of my 100% semolina and to the right are two loaves that are about 50% each semolina and durum flour.
You can see that the loaf to your left is more yellow and it is 100% semolina. If you grind durum wheat you will get durum flour. Melody in Santa Fe
I just sliced the 100% semolina and the round 1/2 and 1/2. They both taste wonderful and even Steve loves them so I just might have to share. I plan to take the third loaf into the office tomorrow to share with my fellow techies. Here is a picture:
The one on the right is the durum semolina SD and it is a bit more dense but almost the same color of yellow as the 100% semolina. I am very happy with them and glad I tried both versions today. Melody in Santa Fe
I love your crockery pans, where ever did you get them?? What a pretty table and leafy green african violet, too by the way.
Beautiful stoneware, love the round one, love them both. Where can I buy them???
I made this with levain (rather than throwing it away when I fed the starter), omiting the yeast in the recipe. Although the color was not so yellow, the taste was terrific and oven spring was great. Definitely a keeper.
Here is a link to the sourdough semolina of Glezer's I made. This was outstanding bread as well. I absolutely love the flavor of this durum wheat and the color is just something you have to see to believe.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4215/sourdough-semolina-bread
I used this recipe with a few modifications using only semolina and durum flour. They turned out beautiul as well though I am obviously not slashing correctly and they did not brown as nicely as yours. I expect to cut into one shortly and see what the crumb looks like and do the necessary taste test:-).
They rose quickly and had excellent oven spring. Melody in Santa Fe where the sun is pouring through very briefly.
Rosalie,
Here is some information (BELOW) I got off the internet about Semolina and Durum.
It looks like if we grind WHOLE DURUM GRAIN we would get DURUM FLOUR INTEGRALE, like a whole wheat flour. To get FINE OR COARSE SEMOLINA we would have to grind only the endosperm, which we can't do. To get DURUM FLOUR we would have to grind SEMOLINA very fine.
If we sifted DURUM FLOUR INTEGRALE I don't know what the flour would be like or how it would compare, if at all, with what is sold as DURUM FLOUR.
Not much help, I know, but that's all I got. Who knows if TFL's own mad scientist, aka Bill, will be working on Durum. We'll see.
Semolina Granules: When the largest particles of the endosperm of durum wheat berries (a variety of hard wheat grown in cold climates) detach during milling, they're known as semolina. Pale yellow and granular, semolina resembles cornmeal and can be used to sprinkle on your baking stone, work surface, or parchment paper to keep breads from sticking. Semolina granules cannot be substituted for semolina flour in bread baking.
Semolina Flour: Amber colored and slightly grainy this flour is milled from semolina granules, Pulverized, these granules make a coarse flour that is high in gluten protein. Generally used in making pasta, it cooks up firmly and absorbs less water than pasta made with softer flour. When mixed with organic bread flour or whole wheat flour, semolina also makes fine Mediterranean breads,
Durum Flour Integrale: The whole-grain version of semolina flour, durum flour is made from the same hard wheat and is milled using the entire wheat berry. It has the traditional powderlike, brown-flecked texture of fine whole wheat flour and a pronounced wheaty taste.
Golden Durum Flour: Ground from the endosperm only of durum wheat, golden durum flour is the same thing as semolina flour except that it is ground finer. If you can't find it, you can make it yourself with the help of your blender. Simply blend one part semolina granules with two parts organic bread flour until a silky fine-grind texture is achieved.
I printed out your treatise for reference. I sounds like my ground durum will have to be used to vary my ground red wheat. And if I want semolina bread I'll have to go the natural food store and buy it.
Maybe I should try to make pasta with the durum.
Rosalie
Bill really is the one to help you with this. He knows everything! And with his new home milling process I'm sure he'll be able to tell you exactly how you can make this work.
ZB, Weavershouse, Rosalie,
I haven't even tried durum flour yet, let alone grinding my own durum wheat berries. I suppose the day will come eventually. Right now, I'm too wrapped up just fine-tuning all the milling and sifting steps for regular hard winter wheat. Next, I want to make a high extraction flour from some of the high protein northern plains wheat berries from Wheat Montana. I guess durum would be after that. The problem is that it's hard for me with just a mill and sieves to make fine, very low ash flour with a decent yield so far. I wonder if you could make a version of this recipe that would be from a higher extraction, finely milled (at home) durum flour that would still be good? Or, is the point of this to be super light in color and texture?
Bill
I weigh in grams when I bake and actually never thought of this while I was typing the recipe. I just checked the book and I have copied it the way it is written. It does seem that 1 1/2 cups of water would translate to 12 ounces instead of 10.6. Am I missing something magical here about fluid ounces or is this another typo in the book? Perhaps he meant to say 1 1/4 cups of water...?
Dolf - Can you help? Or maybe add this to your list? (Page 251...:o)
Oh, no, I didn't find the olive oil at all overpowering. The semolina has such a distinct flavor and I found this bread so good, in fact I've been craving it lately. I agree with Leader that it is a great introduction to fine semolina flour but then I am just mad for the stuff. I found it strangely elegant for a rustic pan loaf.
As for the stand mixer instructions, well, those are Leader's. I honestly did not realize that KA states never to go above speed 2. Trust me, I beat certain dough on high speed based on some of Leader's recipes and in my KA mixer! Poor thing, those KA mixers just are not made for dough and to be abused this way. I won't go into all the problems I experienced but suffice it to say they were great enough that I went out and bought myself a new Electrolux DLX mixer and I've never looked back.
I'm not familiar with a bread machine but that is interesting about the rise differences. One thing that is stressed about semolina is that you have to be very careful not to let it overproof so that could be part of the problem in not getting quite as high of rise but also Hamelman talks about a point at which the dough can quickly break down from overmixing so it may be a fine line. I was shocked at the way mine sprung up and I'm quite sure I was jumping up and down when I saw it!
You're right, you need to use DURUM Semolina, the other is too coarse. I don't knead at all, just a couple of Stretch and Folds and mine doesn't come out as yellow as zolablue's either. Might be her camera. This is one of my favorites and I make it often. A strong olive oil might give you a stronger olive oil taste but I wouldn't use a cheap oil because that might give you a stronger or bad taste. We don't really taste the oil at all, it just tastes buttery to us. I buy a medium priced oil. Good luck, hope you try it again. weavershouse
And threw them into my grinder/blender for a few minutes (batches of 150g) being careful not to overheat. The granules were only semi-pulverized but I made it anyway. I used sunflower oil, and hardly kneaded at all. The loaf came out yellow and tastes great! After 30 min oven time, I took the loaf out of the pan and gave it 10 more minutes baking on rack for a lovely crunchy crust. The grain was grown here in Austria, w..a..y down south. The granules (grieß as it is called here) is sold here for dumplings and gnocchi.
Mini O
I made this yesterday morning, and there were only about 2 inches left by night. My whole family loved it. So easy to make, although my kitchenAid probably didn't enjoy the workout. I went out and bought more semolina already!
Marni
and a narrow bread pan. I made it last year (see above). Please note that the water in the top recipe is too much in cups. It should read 1 1/4 c water and that the pan is narrow, 4 1/2 inches. Mine is 4.
I'm making it right now.... also added a few shakes of nutmeg.
Mini
The Semolina Sandwich loaf came out looking just like your picture...very high (oh my what oven spring!) and a beautiful golden yellow with a nice crumb. It makes a delicous sandwich and is especially yummy when toasted. I have recently purchased 50 lbs of ConAgra's King Midas No 1 Semolina (very fine grind) and it worked perfectly. I bought the flour because I'm interested in recreating the Semolina Bread of my childhood.
I grew up in an Italian section of Brooklyn where the local bakery produced very crusty free-form loaves (shaped like rye bread) that were totally covered in sesame seeds. The crumb was a little denser than the Sandwich loaf, but it was soft and very yellow. I have a little boutique (I only bake what I feel like) bakery/cafe and am working with a GE electric convection oven. Can anyone out there point me in the right direction? I only have 40+ pounds of semolina left to experiment with ;-)
Thanks, Bonni
Bonni, tell us more about what you desire. Is the loaf you are looking for made with 100% semolina or with part semolina, part flour? There have been a number of semolina loaves lately in the blog portion.
--Pamela
Nancy58
It's just a large international/Whole FoodsType/Ethnic(multi) type store in Decatur(Atlanta), GA. Technically, Dekalb county, one of the five counties of the Atlanta, Ga metro area. Most just call it Dekalb Farmer's Market. It is not really a farmer's market. At least, in the most familiar sense. They do have a small website, but just as an introduction/presentation. No web sales. www.dekalbfarmersmarket.com. It is a big and very bustling place. About 55 cash registers, sometimes almost all with lines. They move extremely fast though. They are getting to have quite a following/reputation.
Yes, there is some distinction between semolina and durum flour. Don't know if it really means that much in this recipe, but the only way to really know is to have had access to all versions. All of the loaves pictured seem to actually have used semolina, except the original post. Maybe everyone blitzed their's through a processor, like me. Although, like I mentioned earlier, it really didn't seem to make much of a difference in mine. Mine was still certainly more like a fine corn meal, as opposed to a powdery flour, as durum is apparently supposed to be. My end result was a fine, smooth, soft crumb, like a sanwich loaf, though crustier, especially the top. I imagine I could have made the crust softer, if desired, by brushing the top with butter when it came out of the oven.
One thing that's worth noting about this recipe, and helps somewhat in understanding the rise/oven spring, is the amount of dough this recipe makes. The original recipe makes a mass of dough of 880g = 31oz = almost 2 lbs of dough for a pan size mostly used for 1lb loaves(8.5 x 4.5). I guess that much dough, if it rises much at all, has got to go somewhere; up, out, or both.
Some of the differences in the rises may also be because of slight differences in pan sizes. The nominal size of my pan is 9 x 5 but it is actually 9.2 x 5.3 inches as measured by upper, insides. I scaled the recipe to be about 10% larger, so my doughball was 34.2 oz which was about as much as my breadmaker(used for mixing/kneading) is rated to handle. Really, a 9x5 pan can handle quite a bit more than an 8x4 pan.
I'm a newbie, so bear with me... I was looking for a source of flour for this recipe and accidentally stumbled across a bag labeled Swad Chappati flour in the ethnic foods section of Cub. At the top of the bag, it says Stone Ground Durum Wheat Flour. So I grabbed a bag and gave it a try. The loaves I baked turned out very similar to those in zolablue's original post, oven spring and all. It's a nice basic sandwich bread, with the extra benefit of a nice crunchy crust.
Flavor-wise, I have to say that I prefer a bread I've made a few times from the pasta-style semolina:
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/semolina-bread-679
I forgot to slit the top before baking but it obviously turned out well. The smell is sweet and delicious. Waiting for it to cool.
It's moist but not wet, not course grained but not fine like white bread either, and has a toasty, almost smoky flavor. Delicious and easy.
I can just look at these pictures all day. My friends think I'm nuts. I adore looking at beautiful food. This is like artwork to me.
I also cure and smoke my own bacon, ham, buckboard bacon, pulled pork, ribs, etc and make jams, jellies, marmalades and can them...same thing, I can look at the photos of what people have made and just smile.
I wonder how many others around here go far beyond bread making and do a lot of other food related crafts like cured meats, sausage, preserves, and cheese making? I know that we do... seems like a common thread among people that bake or use sourdough.
Brian
I got great results with a free form loaf (nice oven spring and crisp crust, not too thick) but the texture is the "dry crumblies" - I didn't even add all of the flour and used my stand mixer to do the kneading for about 9 minutes. I used KAF fine semolina, I wonder if this is the reason for the dry crumblies? Next time I'll let it sit after I add th eliquids and mix them in - I will get the hang of this hydration thing one of these days.
I used Bob's Red Mill No.1 Durum Wheat Semolina Flour and added a heaping tablespoon of vital wheat gluten. I used a kitchen aid mixer to knead the dough until it did not leave pieces behind on the mixer bowl. The dough was ever so slightly on the sticky side when I stopped the mixer, but I left it to ferment anyway. I waited an hour and a half before shaping the loaf. Then I laid it in a 9x5 loaf pan and proofed it for about 50 minutes (I was running out of time...) before baking it. 35 minutes later I opened the oven and found the wonderfully tall yellow loaf as pictured above by so many other happy bakers.
I rented Daniel Leader's book from the library last fall and I had bookmarked the semolina sandwich loaf recipe but never got around to making it...until today :) What a beautiful loaf; high-rising, crisp crust, moist and tender crumb. I will definitely bake this bread again.Thanks for posting this recipe on the internet!
I've tried this recipe twice. My first attempt followed the instructions exactly. I thought it was weird that the recipe calls for the water to be around 70 degrees. I thought "how is that going to activate the yeast?" And I was right to ask that question. The recipe states the first rise would take 1.5 -2 hours. Mine took over four. The second rise was faster, but there was zero oven spring. Nada.
In my next attempt, I used water that was 115. And the first rise was spectacular and did only take 1.5 hours. After the second rise, into the oven. But again, zero oven spring. Zero.
In both cases, the bread turned out great and my family devoured it. But I was really dissappointed that I didn't get the height pictured here.
Any suggestions?
What kind of yeast were you using? I use SAF Red Instant Yeast and it comes to life and raises bread at 70 F with no problems at all. Instant yeast doesn't need activation like Active Dry yeast...
Brian
I used Fleischmann's Rapid Rise. I've never seen SAF in my area.
I buy it 4 lbs. for $16.92 on Amazon and keep the open pound in the fridge and the others in the freezer. It has a year shelf-life in the freezer and 4 lbs. is about a year supply for us.
I made a pair of these loaves and they worked well, but I found that they were difficult to extract from my non-stick loaf tins (no other bread stick in them, just falls out) and hence they were slightly damaged, the top crust of one became completely detached! My family commented that they were more like cake than bread, but they still made good sandwiches and toast.
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