August 13, 2017 - 3:43pm
Got whole grain rimacinata semola - now what? Asking for ideas
My wife bought me a 1Kg package of Italian whole grain "rimacinata" semola (from the packaging: "semola integrale rimacinata - grano decorticato"). I regularly bake both 100% whole wheat bread and 100% semolina bread, but have never tried whole grain semolina, and was wondering if anyone here has experience with this variety of flour. I want to make some bread using only this flour (including turning my regular wheat sourdough starter into a 100% semolina one), but since I got only one package, I'm unwilling to waste any of it just experimenting.
Any ideas or recipes are very welcome!
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And I make it often. Granted it doesn't use wholegrain Rimacinata but I don't see why you can't use a straight swap. You might need a little extra water so don't be afraid to add some when making the final dough. Here is what you're going to need to do...
1. Take a little of your starter and build a 50% hydration AP flour (or bread flour) starter. With a few feeds, when it's strong and mature then move onto the recipe.
2. The recipe has two levain builds which you'll use your new starter for. They are called dough one and dough two.
3. The recipe uses a mix of AP flour and durum flour. Wherever it says durum flour or Rimacinata just use your wholegrain version.
4. It's not clear in the video but the final proofing is done in the fridge!
Without further a-do...
Pane cafone (Neapolitan peasant bread) - original Italian recipe
Thanks for the interesting recipe, Lechem! I was thinking of making a 100% semolina bread (tried an Altamura-like recipe in the past with some success), but this "pane cafone" is certainly a contender! I won't be baking anything until Friday, so still collecting ideas. My main concern is about any particulars on the handling of whole grain semola. I guess it probably requires more water than the usual semolina I've been using (I make my 100% semolina bread at about 63% hydration), but I also wonder if it would benefit from a soaker/autolysis. For example, I wasn't really successful in making 100% whole wheat bread consistently good until I came across Reinhart's so called "epoxy method" , but not sure this method will give good results with the semolina flour.
Wholegrain durum flour is also known as Atta flour. Used a lot for Indian breads.
Try searching for atta flour sourdoughs. I've just had a quick search and found this: http://breadtopia.com/sicilian-no-knead-bread/
You can try using 100% durum flour.
Ohh! So this is "atta flour"?! I had come across some references to it before, but was never curious enough to investigate. Have never tried a no-knead bread recipe, from the photos it seems they get a good rise out of this one. Thanks again!
on bakes using whole durum atta, or 100% (or close to it) whole grain durum. A search on "attamura" will bring you some of the recipes used, along with some great advice on the handling and idiosyncrasies of the flour.
For myself, I did a couple of loaves with 100% whole grain durum (fresh milled at home), and found that it was really nice to work with when I went by what felt right to my hands, and paid very close attention to what it was doing during ferment and proof (and that I didn't enjoy working with it, or the results, when I went with lower hydration and recipe timing). The most important advice I got was to sift it before using it, as that makes a world of difference in how it mixes and how the dough feels. If you end up sifting out a fair bit of the larger bran pieces, then they are perfect to use in building the levain (since that gives them the most time to fully hydrate and soften up).
I did not enjoy the flavour and texture at all on my first loaf with the durum, but discovered that the lack was in my handling of it and not the properties of the grain itself (wrong hydration, not developing the gluten soon enough, and going by the clock and not the dough, and so missing the "sweet spot" on the fermentation).
On my best try, I used one hour of autolyse (flour and water only, at 63% hydration), added 100% hydration levain (20% pre-fermented flour) and 0.8% diastatic rye malt and 2% salt, then kneaded it to full windowpane while gradually increasing hydration to just over 75%. My room temp was about 67 deg F, and I found that the fermentation got off to a really slow visual start (no visible bubbles or expansion while doing stretch-and-folds over the first few hours) but then it suddenly almost doubled in size in about 15 minutes. I pre-shaped, then shaped, and then immediately refrigerated in a covered banneton for 18 hours, then baked straight from the fridge. I would say that having the gluten fully developed at the beginning, and then hitting the sweet spot on the fermentation made all the difference in getting a loaf with some nice spring, an airy crumb, and a really nice flavour.
I haven't done a 100% whole grain durum for a while, but did just do a couple of "bats" with 55% whole grain durum and 45% AP at 66% hydration, and am really happy with the flavour, crumb, and crust. I end up adding some durum to a lot of my loaves now, since I love the flavour when it is timed well, and my whole wheat "mother" starter is maintained with durum only.
I hope you find some great ideas in the posts here and others you'll find with a search:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24415/altamura-bread-atta-flour
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24702/pain-au-levain-red-fife-2-and-attamura-bread
Thanks for the detailed answer, and also for the tip on "attamura" bread. With all this information, shame on me if I fail to get anything good out of this "atta four". :) My starter is 100% whole wheat, and I'll convert it to a 100% semolina one for using with this flour. The tips on autolyse, getting an early gluten development and paying attention to the fermentation process are duly noted! Many thanks!
Will read all the other attamura recipes carefully and get back with comments and hopefully some photos of the result (whatever it may turn out to be).
Hello:
With atta flour, you could also try chapatis.
However, be warned, it is extremely difficult to make a tender, flaky chapati that puffs up like a balloon. They are most often, tough and leathery. I've tried and failed many times. I think it's like biscuits, you have to make them every day, twice a day, for 20 years before you make good ones. Once you've had a good chapati, you will be ruined for what is found in restaurants here in the US.
But it is an admirable goal.
Enjoy your new flour, whatever you decide to do!
Hadster
I found a lovely site that discusses semola rimacinata and pan di semola rinacinata.
I am not so sure that what you have is atta. Semolina looks pretty different from the atta I have seen.
Here is a good explanation of Indian wheats and atta flour
https://www.kannammacooks.com/why-my-atta-flour-doesnt-work-in-bread-loaves/
From the brief reading my understanding it... It's the same thing but the preparation will produce a different flour. One more suitable for flatbreads then the other.
Our original poster will have more success with making a sourdough as they have the finely ground whole wheat durum flour as supposed to atta flour.
Thanks for that Clazar123. I'm going to get some Atta flour and use as a percentage of a recipe rather than using as a wholegrain rimacinata flour.
After reading the site you linked, I don't think I have atta flour. Mine is Italian, so most likely just whole grain semolina. Wish I had more of it so I could try all the suggested recipes! Here's a photo of the package:
First, I want to thank everyone who contributed with ideas or recipes! I was unsure how to handle this flour and what to do with it, but the information in your comments and links gave me confidence to use this one package of whole grain semola flour.
In the end it proved not to be so different from other "rimacinata semolina" flours that I had used in the past. I decided to seek inspiration in the basic formula for the Altamura bread, but deviated from it in a number of important ways since I wasn't really trying to emulate the "Attamura" project.
First the the ingredients:
Whole durum rimacinata semola flour: 500g (100%)
Levain at 60% hydration (prepared with the same flour): 100g (20%)
Water: 310g (62%)
Salt: 1 tea sp (~6g, or 1.2%)
Olive oil: a little less than 1 tbsp (about 9g)
So the main differences from the POD Altamura formula were:
- Slightly higher dough hydration to account for the higher water absorption of the whole grain flour
- Far less salt (the original recipe calls for 2%), just a personal thing (what's the point of making your own bread if you can't make it to your own tasting :) )
- A little olive oil, again according to my preferences in taste
As to the process, I did build the levain in several stages: all in all there were 5 "feeds", of which the first two to convert my wholewheat 80% hydration starter to 100% whole grain semolina, and the next three to make the 100g levain needed for the recipe. There was a surplus of 40g in the end that I decided to keep as my 100% semolina starter.
Now, I'm not sure the original recipe calls for an autolysis, but I've noticed that many people do include a 30 minutes to 1 hour autolysis in their versions of the recipe. Since usually I get home at 8PM, I didn't want to spend even 30 minutes waiting before starting to work on the dough. What I did instead was to prepare a "soak" in the morning using all of the four (500g), water (310g) and salt. I left it at room temperature for about 30 minutes, then put it in the fridge before leaving for work. The last feed of the levain was done at the same time, but left out of the fridge.
Back from work 11 hours later, I brought the soaker back to room temperature (left the bowl floating in warm water for 10 minutes), cut it into about 15 pieces to ease mixing, added the 100g of levain and the olive oil, and mixed it all (about 5 min). Let the dough rest for 10 minutes, then kneaded it by hand for about 10 minutes. Again a rest of 5 minutes, then 5 more minutes kneading.
During the bulk fermentation, I did at least 4 (maybe 5) stretch-and-folds at 20 to 30 minutes intervals (wasn't really timing it). Didn't cover the dough with a piece of cloth as usually mentioned in the Altamura-like recipes: just worked the dough in the bowl as I always do, using with a big dish as a lid in-between.
No s&f for the last one hour of bulk fermentation, then pre-shaping, 15 minutes wait, then final shape as a boule. For the final proofing I use a small 1.2 litre metal bowl which I lined with towel paper before dumping the shaped dough upside-down into it. I know from experience that for recipes using 500-550g of four, the dough is ready for baking when it rises to the top or slightly over the top of this little bowl. So covered it with a plastic bag and placed it into the fridge for the final proofing. Now, I usually bake next day (oven pre-heated for 40 minutes), at around 8:40-9PM, taking the dough out of the fridge at 8PM . This time I was surprised to find the dough had risen a lot more than I expected, and I suspected it was over-proofed.
For baking, I followed my usual routine: sprayed dough surface with water (remember, I wasn't going for an Altamura clone), scored, placed in a pre-heated pan ("dutch-oven"), baked covered for 15 min, let steam out for 1 minute, covered again form 15 more minutes, removed the lid and let it bake for another 8 minutes. That's it. Didn't get as much oven spring as I had expected, but not so bad either. Upon slicing the loaf I noticed the crust was separating from the crumb, confirming it was in fact a little over proofed, so for future loaves I'm going to either do the final proofing in a cooler corner of the fridge or bake it earlier if possible.
Taste was definitely great, no question about it! I don't know how to describe it, it's not so nutty as a 100% "soft" wheat bread, but still quite different from other semolina flours that I had used before.
Some pictures:
(sorry, colour is awfully off in above photo! for a closer-to-real colour, please look at the last photograph. this one is just to show you the appearance of the crumb, showing some signs of over-proofing)