farina ??

milled very very fine.

Think Cream of Wheat, a fine meal.

cheers,

gary

//edit: I see that farina is indeed flour in Italian. In the US, it is a fine meal, usually from wheat, but can be any grain. The commercial product Cream of Wheat, mentioned above, is an example.  --gt

Farina is quite simply normal wheat flour.

... usually, "farina" is Italian for "flour".  If you post the YouTube link, I can see if they give more detail.

When I was growing up my mom made farina, and cream of wheat.  We ate that as a hot cereal.  That's the only thing I know about farina.  Farina tasted good as a cereal.  I liked it much better than cream of wheat.

Vittorio Viarengo is my buddy. His site http://www.vivalafoccia.com is being worked on so that the recipes are also in English.

In the meantime, I have translated the recipe, which I use all the time, into English.

Grissini Ingredients:

160 g H2O

6 g of salt

40 g of lard (or olive oil)

1/2 tsp of malt syrup (Vittorio uses dark corn syrup as a substitute)

375 g of Italian 00 flour (or regular AP flour)

10 g of cake yeast (or 4g instant or dry yeast)

Corn flour, semolina, or rice flour for dusting

Process:

Dissolve the salt in the H2O

Add the lard or olive oil

Add the malt syrup (or corn syrup)

Add 1/2 of the flour

Mix until creamy and smooth.

Add the yeast

Slowly add the rest of the flour

Mix for 20 minutes until you get a smooth dough without any lumps

Shape the dough into an oval loaf and cover it.

Let it rest for 15-20 minutes

In the meantime, cut a sheet of plastic wrap 2 times longer than the loaf

Spray some water on your working surface and lay the plastic wrap on it in order to keep it flat and still.

Brush or spray some oil on the top of the plastic wrap.

Flatten the loaf and then fold it in 3 along the long axis of the loaf (see video) in order to strengthen the dough. You want to end up with a rectangle about 8 cm wide. Seal the seams.

Center the loaf on the oiled plastic wrap

Brush or spray with olive oil.

Cover the loaf with the plastic wrap so it is air tight.

Let it rise for 60-70 minutes or until doubled in size.

Put the semolina/corn flour/rice flour in a plate.

Remove the plastic wrap from the top of the loaf.

Cut the loaf into pencil-wide slices along its short axis using a dough scraper or wide spackling knife (from the hardware store). Cut quickly in one motion and scrape away from the loaf to get a uniform piece to stretch. (The end pieces will not usually be uniform.)

Roll cut piece in the coating flour. (I skip this step per my wife's preference.)

Holding the piece on each end with your fingertips, stretch it out to fit your baking screen or pan. (I use pieces of aluminum window screen folded over on the ends.) Place it on the screen, leaving about 2-3 cm between pieces.

Repeat until you have used up all the dough or your screen real estate.

Bake in a 400-450 F oven for 10-15 minutes or until a light golden brown.

Roy's tips:

Some dough relaxer or additional oil helps to make the dough more extensible.

I like to flatten the loaf and use a very wide spackling knife so the grissini don't need as much stretching.

Use convection if you have it. Try to get both sides done at the same time.

The final product should be crisp and crunchy, but not hard to bite. If you find some soft spots, turn off the oven and put the grissini back in with the door cracked for 15-30 minutes.

For additional flavor, I use home-made herb-infused oil (rosemary, garlic, thyme,sage). It is subtle and doesn't overpower the taste of the grissini.