Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Tuesdays with Dorie - Semolina Bread


Today`s recipe for the Tuesdays with Dorie group is „Semolina Bread“, a recipe that was contributed by author, teacher and baker extraordinaire Nick Malgieri.




The recipe itself is not long and seemed rather uncomplicated. Apart from yeast, all purpose flour, salt, and olive oil, the main ingredient of the bread is semolina flour, a flour often associated with Italian breads, it is a flour milled from durum wheat, it is yellow in color and the very flour used for pasta making. The obvious store to get this flour was my favorite Italian store. I have often bought semolina flour before (I use it for pasta making and for baking cakes) but for this bread, I needed to replenish my stock.

The preparation, although somewhat of a lengthy process, was easy enough. After you prepare the sponge and wait two hours for it to rise and double in volume, you add the remaining ingredients, mix everything together for a few minutes, put the dough into an oiled bowl and then you wait for about another two hours for it all to double in volume (first rise), then you deflate and shape, transfer to a baking sheet and wait another two hours until the dough doubles in bulk again (second rise). Then you slash lines on the sides of the loaf and then you finally get to bake the bread for about 35 minutes. Of course, I had to use a really sharp kitchen knife for the “slashing” since I was fresh out of razor blades. I must say that the bread did smell wonderful while baking.

All sounds not too complicated but somehow, without a picture, I really did not know how this bread was supposed to look like. Not that I had never seen semolina bread before but this particular one was a bit of a mystery to me. I should also add that semolina bread is not a bread readily available at the bakeries around here unless you can find one of the very few bakeries that specializes in Italian breads.

So, I ended up having to bake the bread twice. The second time the semolina bread just looked better that my first try, not as flat, more bread like and a little bit more, well, photogenic.

I served the bread with a wonderful light olive oil for dipping (the same one that I used for the dough, although only one tablespoon was required) and some delicious green and black olives. The taste testers loved nibbling on this bread and agreed that I should bake this again sometime. And I will bake it again because although I was not all that happy with the "looks" of this bread, I loved the way the bread tasted, fresh and toasted, the day after it was baked.




Our gracious hosts for today's recipe are Renee of The Way to My Family´s Heart and Anna of Keep it Luce - a big Thank You to both!

To see how the other Doristas prepared the Semolina Bread, please click here.

18 comments:

  1. This is a great bread! We loved it.

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  2. Beautiful :-) I like that you made it twice.
    I think the finely ground durum semolina is lovley to work with (and makes for a great pizza crust).

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  3. I agree...a picture would have been most helpful! The crumb of your bread looks perfect! Beautifully done!

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  4. Your crumb looks great Andrea! This is the perfect bread to have with other italian things, like olive oil for dipping and olives. What works great also are sesame seeds on top. Have a great week!

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  5. Beautiful! Perfect pairing! I'm craving that now. :)

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  6. I think I will have to use the leftover bread for dipping. Great idea! Your bread looks lovely. I think many of us had the same issues.

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  7. This is my second time seeing the semolina bread and it looks wonderful!!! It's very interesting to use semolina for bread and you did amazing job even without a picture (I'm not a baker, so this would scare me. Hehee). The inside bread looks so perfect. What a wonderful job, Andrea!

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  8. It's a very good tasting bread, isn't it? We loved it as well and I will probably make it again very soon as hamburger buns.

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  9. I totally forgot about dipping it in olive oil. That would have been wonderful. I'll have to remember that for next time. I am glad you enjoyed it.

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  10. Andrea, I always need a picture so I went "fishing" out in space for this week's recipe. I put in Nick's name and semolina bread and asked for photos. I found several and Paula had actually made this bread a year ago. So, I did start out with a picture which made this bread-baking easier. Yours still looks pretty gorgeous and delicious, honey. Don't step back from it at all. I think it's wonderful and interesting that both of us, on two different continents, are watching the Tour de France, Live. At the same time. We didn't even know each other during last year's Tour. I also have French television so sometimes I even watch it in "français". I must say - Sunday was a bit "tacky", wasn't it?

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  11. It's interesting how different each loaf looks this time 'round. We skipped the recipe this week, but everyone's lovely loaves is making me wish we hadn't!

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  12. what an interesting recipe! must try!

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  13. looks beautiful! What better way to enjoy bread, than with a little olive oil!

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  14. Andrea, Your semolina bread came out gorgeous…I chose to skip this one…way too hot in my neck of the woods to turn on the oven!!

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  15. I skipped this one like Kathy. It seems I always get the first TWD recipe made and then don't manage for the rest of the month. You've made this bread sound delicious, so I'll try to make time to make a loaf.

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  16. Lovely loaf. It would make a good dipping bread. Will have to try that next time I make this loaf. Loved the chewy-ness of it.

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  17. Your bread looks delicious! I love the idea of serving it with olive oil and olives, I bet it complimented it wonderfully! This was a hit in our house also, I will be baking it again!

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