Semolina vs. Durham

Submitted by CountryBoy on September 3, 2007 - 5:44pm

I recently made Semolina loaves of Hamelman's which is roughly:

Pate Fermentee or Preferment:
Durum Flour.. 1 ½ cups
Bread flour… 1 ½ cups
water ………..1 1/8 cups
honey ……..…½ teaspoon
yeast …..1 1/4 teaspoon

Final dough:
2 1/8 .. cups Durum flour
2 ¼ …. cups bread flour
1 3/8 .…. cups water
1 ……….Tbspn Salt…
3…………Tbspn Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sponge……..All of above.

They came out perfectly. Except I used Bob's Red Mill Semolina flour , instead of the suggested Durham flour which is supposed to be more powdery. These loaves turned out to have a crumb that was chewy, coarse, heavy and dense. If I buy Durham flour from King Arthur's then hopefully the crumb will be light and airy? Am I correct?

The point is that the bread books often make it sound as if the two flours are interchangeable but this experience suggests otherwise. Am I correct? Also Durham is not easily available at the stores.

Filed under:

Ingredients

Submitted by Trishinomaha on September 4, 2007 - 5:41am.

Chapiti Flour (I think) is essentially the same...

as the Durham flour that KA markets. Chapiti is easily found if you have any Indian markets in your area and yes - I've found there is a great difference between durham and semolina - semolia is much more coarse.

Trish

Submitted by subfuscpersona on September 4, 2007 - 7:08am.

Chapati flour is a soft, very finely milled, whole wheat flour..

...so it is the opposite of durum flour. Chapati flour would not be suitable for the original poster's recipe.

I turned to my favorite Indian cookbook for a definition...

Quote:

Known as atta, this type of wheat flour has been used in India for over 5,000 years...Most of the wheat grown in India today is this low-gluten, soft-textured wheat...Atta is particularly suited to flat breads...Atta is the entire kernal of wheat milled to a very fine powder.

Semolina is milled from the endosperm of durum wheat. In my location in the US, it is always rather granular. (I have read that you can get a finely milled semolina flour in Italy.)

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PS If you're looking for a substitute for chapati flour, you could try a whole wheat pastry flour, as long as it is finely milled (and maybe sift out some of the bran with a really fine sieve, if you're compulsive).

I have a Nutrimill grain mill which can produce very finely milled flour. I recently got some soft winter wheat to see if I could get close to chapati flour (haven't tried it yet, however, so the jury is still out on that one).