Sourdough Semolina Filone
A few months ago I made Tom Cat's Semolina Filone [1] from Glezer's "Artisan Baking." It was a really tasty bread, but I wanted to try something different. This week, I made it again, but substituted sourdough starter for the poolish to get another dimension to the flavors. The results were pretty good. After cooling, the crumb had a smooth mouth-feel, while there was some chewiness to the crust. I probably could have baked the loaves a few minutes longer to get a crispier crust. The next morning, the sour had increased as expected, but it was not overwhelming by any means. It toasted up great.
I used two different types of Durum flour. Extra fancy is what is normally called for in the recipe. Since I had it, I also used whole wheat durum. The total of the durum flours was about half of the total flours with AP flour the balance. 2/3 of the AP was from the large amount of sourdough starter that I used (about the same amount of starter as there was poolish in the original recipe). The mixing technique was a little different. Last time I found an error in the book that increased the total hydration. Even after correcting for this, the recipe produces a very wet and hard to work with dough at 81% hydration, so I cut it back to 75%. I added the last 50 grams of flour along with the salt, about halfway through the mixing. The gluten developed by the third stretch & fold, but it was still a very slack dough. I think they may be a bit overproofed as the oven spring was less than last time. I also clearly shaped one loaf with a tighter surface and it shows in the scoring. Overall, though, I am quite happy with the loaves.
Here is the formula and technique:
-Brad