Daily Bread: Semolina Levain with Corn Flour

Sweet golden bread, two pretty little footballs. I replaced the 1/2 cup whole wheat in the last loaf with 1/2 cup fine semolina, and the 1/4 cup rye with 1/4 cup corn flour. In response to some customer comments, I also tried upping the salt a little. Brought one loaf to Democracy Now and it vanished before the bagels on the same table. Matt found it a little dry/chewy, and I know what he meant. I think if I'd given it another half hour or hour to proof it would have had a more open crumb, but the taste is excellent and the chewiness has its own attractions.

Now I have to practice making slightly larger loaves, as the ones I made last week for the bakery felt too small. Bulk production spreadsheets upcoming.

End of Week Baking - Flop Poilane and Semolina Mushroom Toast

No particularly fancy breads on the table in the last few days. I took another stab at the Poilane-inspired miche from Local Breads, and again it was kind of a flop. In an attempt to make long-rising bread happen on a school night (never the best idea), I set a series of alarms and napped as the wet and sticky dough sped through its rises. This plan worked well enough until around 2am, when the 570 degree oven I had turned on burned a little flour on the baking stone and caused Libby to wake up and turn the oven off. When I came into the kitchen a half hour later and threw the bread in, I only noticed the lack of preheating too late. I turned it right back up again, but the oven spring was more or less negligible. It tastes ok, but it just isn't anything special.

In an effort to console myself, I went back to the quick and easy last night, with Semolina Raisin Sandwich Bread. This one is quick and infallible and makes good toast, sandwich, and bread pudding bread. No glory, but fast gratification. Here it is toasted with mozzarella and mushrooms.

Pane di Altamura

This bread , from Local Breads, obviously holds a special place in Daniel Leader’s heart. It’s supposed to be made with all semolina flour from a semolina sourdough. If done right, it keeps a long time. Because I don’t have fine enough semolina flour, I substituted in 1 ¼ cup of regular bleached all-purpose flour. So far, so good. I got nervous at the beginning because the dough barely seemed to rise at all during the first ferment, but it puffed up in the oven. The fold shape is traditional, from the time when everyone brought their dough to the main village oven, the baker folded it, stamped it, and took a portion of it for payment.

Semolina Sandwich Loaf

Soft and sweet--perfect toast bread. And you know how we feel about taste in this house. If corn chowder was the signature dish of 26 Hope Street, baked eggs and toast is definitely the standard at our home now. This recipe is also from Local Breads, and is very quick and easy. I didn't have superfine semolina flour, so I substituted 1/4 cup bread flour and that seemed to work very well. The semolina makes it a really attractive yellow inside.