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My past.  I did post this before, way back in 2016, in the wake of all the chatter on TFL about pane di Altamura.  And just in the past few days Benny and Caroline have been posting semolinas, just about my favorite subject when it comes to bread.  Benny's was his take on the Altamura bread, which, although the original Altamura bread has an odd beauty all of its own, on its best days looks like something Victor Frankenstein might have left aside in a large glass jar.

Still same formula and times. I did one extra set of folds to develop the gluten even further because of Semola. I also proofed them a full hour before baking. I also took Kendalm’s advice on shaping and am well- pleased with the improvements on that “ score” which is also better. Better color which has always been good but really love this bake. Better grigne throughout scoring. 

Aug. 6, 2022. 97th bake. 

Oh my. This is the bread I've been looking for. 

I couldn't wait and ate a slice before taking photos. 

This is the 5th loaf in this series, (4 pan loaves, 1 boule) and I finally have it dialed in. 

I’ve had this bake on my list for sometime.  I saved the recipe when I read through his book months ago along with a couple other of his recipes.  I have to say that we quite enjoyed the texture and flavour of this bread.  Very rustic with a new chewiness and that nutty sweet flavour that durum semolina has.  I used semola rimacinata flour as is typical for this bread from what I’ve read.

Everything the exact same just added more Semola Rimacinata . Incredible crackling out of the oven. Gorgeous grine. Crumb shot in a bit. 

M

 Not quite as open with the increased Semola but given the incredible flavor and crust I’ll take it. 

The top crust is too flimsy, but, man-o-man, this is tasty. The discard with IDY worked a wonder.
 

Not much to say, except I'm re hydrating my 2g of dried starter from 3(?) years ago. I've been feeling better and store bought bread prices have been going up. Almost $4 a loaf here for the basic stuff. I've got bubbles in my tiny starter which is half rye and half whole wheat. If anyone remembers, I was having water problems when trying to get it going the first time. So far I have only been using filtered water and no bottled, so my fingers are crossed this stays alive (it's hurricane season and people panic buy the bottled stuff).

I hadn’t made a pizza in half year so it was high time that we had pizza.  I decided to try baking another Capricciosa pizza (capocollo, mushrooms, olives artichokes and tomato sauce) and ensured that the mushrooms were pre-cooked so that they didn’t flood the pizza with their liquid during baking.  To that end I dry sautéed the mushrooms after slicing them in sixths until they were nicely browned.  The artichokes I allowed to drain in a sieve so that they didn’t too much liquid to the pizza.

Benny's 100% wholewheat Hokkaido recipe is the recipe that just keeps on giving, and I keep on seeing miraculous loaves coming from the oven even as the recipe is tweaked and stretched which really surprises someone like me who is used to the experience of failed experiments when things are pushed too far.

Really pleased to have finally produced a beautiful loaf worth sharing :) Recently I didn't have much time for baking, so most of the time just put stuff together randomly with no specific idea in mind. It was kind of the same this time, but worked out well.