March 6, 2013 - 3:52pm
Help needed: Accidently bought semolina instead of durum flour
I had planned on attempting this recipe http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4213/semolina-sandwich-loaf and mistakenly bought semolina from the bulk bin section of my local grocery store.
I am under the impression that durm is just a very finely grounded semolina.... if this is true, can I grind my semolina into durum flour? Will my new Country Living grinder grind the semolina fine enough? http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/country_living_mill.aspx?gclid=CMrGv9Oj6bUCFadFMgodyBgA0w
If my grinder will work, how fine do I need to grind the semolina?
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You don't even have to grind it, most recipes asking for durum work just fine with semolina.
In my experience, you can sub the coarser semolina for fine durum only if the amount in the bread is fairly small. I've tried making breads with the coarser stuff where a large part of the flour is supposed to be fine durum, and the flour didn't absorb nearly as much water as the finer grind, even after an extended autolyse, leaving the dough too wet. Also, the texture of the bread is somewhat compromised, being denser with the coarser flour.
I did try to grind it finer, but none of my regular home equipment could manage the task. Gave up on food procesor after twenty minutes of ginding with no appreciable difference in the flour. Ditto for blender. But I don't have a flour mill, so I would be interested to hear if yours can manage the task.
I just buzz it up in my Krupp's cheapo coffee mill and semolina becomes durum flour pretty quick. Since durum is a thirsty flour, and twice so with the Desert Durum that had half the water (6%) of regular durum, I like to let it have a long autolyse of 2-4 hours too.
Inspired by your luck with your cheap Krups coffee grinder, gave mine a try with some Spicy World Semolina, which is more finely grained than Bob's Red Mill, it seems, but still gritty. Well, all it did after much whirring was to make the flour warm. No fine durum patent flour like that glorious stuff Stan sells at nybakers.com.
So, since we just finished inhaling a batch of roles made with 1/2 NYB's durum patent and 1/2 Italian 00, decided to make up a bowl using cheapish Spicy World gritty semolina and White Lily bread flour (cheap bread flour in Southern US groceries), and threw in some vital wheat gluten, too. In a few hours, we'll be able to try the new cheaper stuff with the lovely expensive version still on our palate-memories. I'll let you know what we think and maybe even make side-by-side batches with pics if it seems a worthy experiment.
I just took some fine semolina about 75 g and buzzed it up over (5) 30 second blitzes, letting it cool off between and the grittiness was about 1/3 what it was before, the flour stuck to the lid of the grinder (semolina would never do that), the color was a shade lighter and the volume about 1/5 greater than unbuzzed semolina. The grit never goes away completely when using the Krups but it was hearly as fine as any other grain we grind up in it. It won't be as fine as any milled flour from Stan but its only a $10 mill too. Plenty good enough for bread making. Normally, we don't grind fine semolina for bread and it turns out fine. You just want to autolyse it for at least a couple of hours.
You should do a blind taste test with your rolls Heidi.
Although the current batch is in the oven, I forgot it on the counter and it never got its stretch and folds. It may have overproofed. I'll need to do another test when we haven't just been to our favorite BBQ buffet and returned in a porkfat coma!