August 4, 2012 - 11:57pm
Semolina Flour
I would like to try the semolina bread from this site, however I am not sure if semolina and semolina flour are the same thing. I have both coarse and fine semolina in my pantry, but am a little unsure whether either of these count as flour? Here in Sth Australia we are a little devoid of flour mills and a great selection of ingredients like different flours, etc. Am forced to make my own brioche buns coz hardly anyone knows what they are! They taste better anyway. That's backward for you. Hope someone can help with the semolina question.
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After hydrating the flour let it sit for half an hour to soak up any water, then make adjustments while kneading or folding. :)
Yesterday I was just throwing a loaf together, brioche sort of style. I started out with yogurt (probably way too much) and added old fresh yeast, milk, splash of water, one egg, one lump of butter, about one tablespoon of sugar (3 of those little sugar packages served with coffee, 5 ground green cardamon seed pods w/o pod and then set the bowl on the scales and added flour to make a soft dough. With the recorded amount of flour, I figured for salt to add in 30 minutes. Boy oh boy! was that one sticky mess of a dough but I did get more flour into it and more salt after tasting. I was worried I overdid something but greased a bowl, covered it and threw it into the refrigerator until late afternoon. It did rise to the edge of my mixer bowl. Dropped the bowl to deflate and tipped it out to behaved itself. Cut into 3 lumps and rolled out coils to braid. Now what?
Took a deep round cake pan and buttered it and dusted with a chilled mixture of finely grated nuts and seeds I use like bread crumbs, slightly green from the pumpkin seeds. Coiled the braid and dropped it into the pan, butter brushed the top, covered that and whisked it outside onto the hot (31°C) but shaded porch and turned on the oven to 200°C. Set the timer for 30 min. so I wouldn't forget it outside and sure enough I was on the money! I think it was the warm table that really turned up the rise. Brought it back inside and baked it when the oven was hot enough. No steam, great spring! 40min. Brushed with butter to soften crust and bring out the color. Made one jar of fresh blackberry jam too. Divided the ring and froze it for later. That keeps me from eating too much after I tasted it. So good, not too sweet (can add jam for sweetness) and delish! Fresh cardamon smells great!
Boy, that's what I call 'winging it'. Congrats Minioven on your success, and thx for your answer to my query.
Lamberta72
You want to use as fine a semolina as you can find, as the recipe actually calls for durum flour.
Durum flour is very, very fine. It actually is "flour". The recipe, like many others, is "Semolina" in name only.
That said, I used a fine semolina for that recipe, and it worked well.
Thx for that info mrfrost, will go forth and bake semolina bread.
I've been baking with a coarser semola since I moved to Brazil almost two months ago, because I'm having trouble finding the finer version. Should I get less water absorption or gluten development with this coarser version? I have noticed less spring, but I've also noticed other mistakes/variables along the way and hadn't yet thought the coarser semola than I'm used to could have been impacting things. Should I factor it in?
Blame my 7-day work week!
BUT the white, so-called "semolina" I used to buy in Adelaide supermarkets was called "farina" in the rest of the world, which means "Cream of Wheat", according to the dictionary. Not the same stuff as in your recipe.
"Durum semolina" is quite noticeably yellow in colour and it's what pasta is made from. In SA, you should have plenty of Italian grocers, especially in the city, who will know what you want. If your results were 'less than spectacular' you should check whether the flour is suitable for home-made pasta...
Aside: "San Remo" pasta company, based in Adelaide, is the only company I know of that actually exported pasta to Italy...also, a lot of the Italian pasta that Aussies import is made from Aussie wheat! Still, I know it can be hard to find what you want in SA without a lot of searching!
Best wishes,
Adam
Hi Adam .. thanx for your post. At the Adelaide Central Market this past week at a shop called Goodies and Grains, I managed to get some durum wheat flour, which I hope is either, or similar to, semolina flour. Does not appear to be very yellow, but a paler version. I think this is as close as I'm going to get to what I need. Adelaide, or for that matter, Oz in general, is not a country of home bakers methinks! Now, to source some reasonably priced bannetons! Will report back when I make the semolina bread again. Sondra
Thanks Adam,
I was talking about the durum semola/semolina. I haven't yet come across a white flour that claimed to be semola. I never use more than 20% (and usually only 5-10%) of the semola/semolina in my recipes, and in the end I think other factors were responsible for my problems rather than the difference in texture.
Things are coming out better for me now that I've made my other adjustments. Unfortunately even in a city as big and international as Rio de Janeiro, they are a bit behind on high quality food markets/grocers. After a couple months here I've been able to scrape together what I need.
Thanks again,
Eric