October 11, 2010 - 10:06am
Semolina Bread
The family were coming to supper and as a change from my usual sourdough loaf to go with the hearty soup I decided to make Semolina Bread. Pane di Semola on another page of my notebook, guess I really liked the sound of this recipe to copy it twice. After the dough has doubled the instructions say to punch it down (!) and "chafe" for 5 minutes. I searched high and low and could not find a single reference to chafing, so I folded the dough over a couple of times and let it rest before dividing. I am sure some kind TFL member will be able to tell me how to chafe? By the way, the bread got rave reviews for the lovely soft crust and yellow crumb, but my grandgirls pointed out the space for the lazy baker! A.
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Good to know that your Pane di Semola was successful this weekend....mine was not! 'Twas truly a failure! Would you be willing to share your formula or it's source? Would love to give it another try. And, sorry...no clue as to what it means to "chafe" for 5 minutes.
Thank you.
Hi bakerjane, I'm sorry to say I don't know where the recipe came from - but I'm happy to share.
Starter: 1/4tspn yeast, 2/3 cup water, 1cup bread flour. Mix all to make a thick batter, leave covered on the counter overnight.
Dough: 1 1/2teaspoons yeast (less for instant yeast), 3/4 cup water, 1 cup bread flour, 1 2/3 cups semolina (durum) flour, plus more to dust, 2 tspn salt (I thought this was too much but I may have meant kosher salt and used regular), 2 tbspn olive oil.
Sprinkle yeast onto 1/2c water to proof - I used instant yeast so just mixed it with the flours. Stir the flours, yeast and salt together, add yeast, oil and starter and enough water to make a soft sticky dough. Knead until smooth and elastic, let rise until double, 1 1/2-2 hours. Punch down and chafe for 5 minutes (see explanation above), let rest 10 minutes. Make 2 round loaves, place on baking sheet (oiled and dusted with semolina flour - or use parchment paper), flatten with palm of hand, sprinkle with semolina flour. Cover with cloth, let rise until double, 1 1/2 hours. Bake in preheated 400* oven for 30 minutes until lightly brown.
As I said, the crust was soft and the crumb a lovely yellow color and really delicious. My grandgirls are getting to be too critical - the lazy baker would have been quite tiny! I hope you will enjoy this version as much as we did, A.
"chafe" the bread, which is to gently turn the risen ball of dough tucking in the lower edge as you go
Thank you so much, sheffield. That sounds like shaping a boule, but in this case the chafing was done before dividing and shaping the loaves. So maybe my folding over a few times did the trick, but next time I will do it properly, A.
Annie...
Thanks so much for sharing the recipe...will give it a try and hopefully will be more successful that Sunday's failure. Did make polenta bread yesterday and it was successful...both were recipes from Gleezer's Artisianal Breads but truth be told, I did tinker a bit with the semolina forumula. That may have been my undoing. j