First attempt with durum atta flour

I've been interested for some time in playing around with durum flour.  Between finding only the coarser semolina grind locally and being put off by the costs of mail ordering, I hadn't taken the plunge before now.  However, totally by serendipity, I happened to be in an IndoPak grocery store recently and they had a whole shelf section of various atta flours, most milled from durum wheat.  A 20-pound bag (only $12.99) followed me home and has been silently taunting me these past two weeks as other things kept me from baking.  Nothing outlandish, mind you, but when a niece gets married she wants her doting aunt and uncle there even if they do live 5 states away.

The flour I purchased is Swarna Fresh Durum Atta, milled by a UAE company from wheat of an undisclosed country of origin:

The label says that it consists of 100% durum wheat.  The nutritional information panel on the back of the bag lists the fiber content as 7g of a 100g sample, or 7%.  I infer that to mean that this is a whole or nearly whole wheat flour.  The items listed on the panel only total 92g, instead of 100g, so I'm not sure what else is there that didn't fit into the list of nutrients.  Non-dietary fiber, perhaps?:

The flour's color, a pale tan with golden tones, would seem to support that supposition:

The durum atta is on the left, contrasted with an unbleached AP flour on the right.  The atta flour has a slightly grittier feel when rubbed between thumb and forefinger.  While the naked eye isn't always a reliable measuring tool, the particle size of the atta seems to be just slightly larger than the particle size of the AP flour.

So, what to do with this new-to-me flour?  After much reading, Varda's Durum Atta Hearth Loaf formula from her post in 2011 looked like a good place to start.  While handling the dough, I decided to make a small increase in hydration, from Varda's 60% up to 62%.  Now that I've made it once, I'll probably experiment with nudging it up to 65% for a future bake.  While I've read of durum's trait of absorbing more and more water right up to the point of releasing water from the dough, the fiber content in this is high enough that I think the dough will be alright.  It may want a slightly longer autolyse but that will be a different experiment.

This dough, following Varda's instructions, handled nicely even though it was moderately stiff.  Per instructions, I used no bench flour.  There was only the slightest filming of dough residue on the countertop when kneading was finished.

I wound up having to extend the fermentation times slightly, while being mindful of the repeated mentions of durum's fermentation speed.  It may have been that the starter was slightly sluggish last Saturday; it may have been the dough's stiffness.  Whatever the cause(s), the dough was rather slow to inflate and I did not want to set myself up for an exploding loaf caused by under proofing.  As it turned out, I could have let it go another 30 minutes or so, since there was some cracking of the crust.  While I suspect that additional proofing would have helped, there is also the possibility that the durum's weaker gluten just would not tolerate much expansion.  

The finished loaf has a lovely golden russet color:

The crumb is very tight, with a multitude of tiny bubbles, while exhibiting the golden tones that durum is known for:

The crumb is moister than the dough's handling characteristics would have suggested.  A small amount of additional water still seems advisable.  While it might look like pound cake, the crumb does require chewing.  It isn't stiff but it is substantive.  Considering the proportion of flour in each slice, relative to the air and water content, I guess that isn't a surprise.  The flavor is very good.  There's a richness that might make one suspect the addition of some oil or butter but it is a lean bread (which is not to say that some butter or oil wouldn't be a good addition).  The sour notes are very mild.  They meld with, rather than overpowering, the other flavors.

All in all, I am very pleased with this first attempt at a 100% durum loaf and very grateful to Varda for her trail-blazing efforts.  It is definitely worthy of a repeat and I have plenty of flour left to play with.

Paul