The Fresh Loaf

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Hamelman's semolina bread (sourdough)

Chiesa_Dan's picture
Chiesa_Dan

Hamelman's semolina bread (sourdough)

Hi,

yesterday i baked my first try at Hamelman's semolina bread, the sourdough version. I increased the durum to about 70%, but the levain was all white flour still. The loaves were retarded for 18 hours at 4ºC and in an effort to not get very big holes, i degassed the dough as much as possible prior to shaping. Before mixing, i did an autolyse of about 20 min. and then mixed 2,5 min. on medium speed on a Kenwood machine.

Baked right out of the fridge in my WFO, with steam for the first 10 min., for 45 min.

Overall very good flavour and aroma, just slightly sour, but balances with the sweetness of durum flour. Next time i'll try 100% semolina, since the crumb was still too gummy for what i would like in a semolina bread; had no problems whatsoever with shaping or rising or oven spring, so i suppose it will not go terribly wrong then.

Here are a couple of pics:

 

Good baking to all,

Daniele.

Tommy gram's picture
Tommy gram

100% Durum Flour, you are brave, I would want to cut it a bit with some bona fide Semolina, the coarser stuff. I look for Durum flour in Chicago but can only find 50# bags, too much for me. Would love to fiddle around with some, maybe I should just bite the bullet and buy a bag.

I do 8 pounds a week of mostly 90% white 10% semolina.

Your 70% is bold, got me beat, looks good.

Chiesa_Dan's picture
Chiesa_Dan

Thanks,

well, there is at least as much variation with durum than there is with wheat. The durum flour i used in this bread is not as tough as others i tried, nor it is as yellow. Flavor, too, was not as good as it can be with other durum. Still i was very pleased, and the dough was easy to work with; that's why i will try 100% with this flour next time.

Seems like here in southern Europe, but especially in my homeland Italy, there is great variety of semolina and durum flour to be had, so it takes some time to try them all... Different grain varieties, different coarseness etc. etc.