Golden Semolina Bread
- Ready In:
- 3hrs 35mins
- Ingredients:
- 8
- Serves:
-
12
ingredients
-
Sponge Starter
- 2⁄3 cup durum flour (3.5 oz/100g)
- 1⁄8 teaspoon instant yeast
- 3⁄4 cup water (room temp)
-
Flour Mixture
- 1 cup durum flour (5.5 oz/155g)
- 3⁄8 teaspoon instant yeast (the total yeast for whole recipe is 1/2 tsp)
- 3⁄4 teaspoon salt, plus
- 1⁄8 teaspoon salt
- bread flour, for kneading
directions
- Make the starter: In a medium bowl, whisk together durum flour and yeast; then whisk in water and stir until very smooth for 2 mins; scrape down the sides of the bowl and cover with clingwrap.
- Combine the 1/4 cup of durum flour and the 3/8 tsp of yeast, then whisk in the salt.
- Gently scoop it onto the sponge to completely cover it, cover with clingwrap and allow to ferment for 1-4 hours at room temp (up to 24hrs in the fridge, remove from fridge 1 hr before mixing the dough).
- Mix the bubbly starter together with flour mixture (covering the top of starter) using a wooden spoon until all flour is moistened.
- Knead the dough in the bowl until it comes together, then scrape it onto a surface floured with some of the remaining durum flour and knead for about 5 minutes.
- Add more reserved durum flour as needed to keep dough from sticking (use a bench scraper to scrape and gather the dough as you knead).
- The dough will be slightly tacky and cling slightly to your fingers; cover it with the inverted bowl and allow to rest for 20mins.
- Knead dough for another 5 mins until it is smooth and elastic, adding more reserved durum flour if necessary.
- It's ok if dough is still slightly tacky, but you should be able to form a ball and holds its shape.
- Let the dough rise in a lightly oiled bowl, covered with clingwrap, until doubled in bulk 1 1/2- 2 hours.
- Turn the dough out onto lightly floured counter and shape it into a torpedo-shaped loaf (or regular loaf), set it into a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Cover it loosely with oiled clingwrap and let rise again until doubled in bulk (1 hr- 1 hr 15 mins); when the dough is ready to be baked, a fingertip-depression will very slowly fill inches.
- One hour before baking, preheat oven to 450F, with a cast-iron skillet or sheet pan on the floor of the oven.
- Make a few 1/4-1/2 inch deep slashes in the top of the dough with a sharp knife.
- Mist the dough with water and quickly set the baking pan on the hot stone/sheet pan; toss 1/2 cup of ice cubes into the pan beneath and immediately shut the oven door.
- Bake for 20mins, lower the temp to 400F and continue baking for another 10-20mins, until bread is golden brown (skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean or instant read thermometer read 208F).
- For crispier crust, lift the bread from the pan with a heavy pancake turner about halfway through baking and set into directly on the baking stone.
- When the bread is done, cool completely on wire racks.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
WaterMelon
Singapore
Hi everyone! I'm addicted to recipezaar - there are so many things that I love about this site; the wonderful people, recipes, lots of great pictures and there's always someone who'll answer my cooking/baking/general question.
I grew up in Malaysia, but now live in sunny Singapore. Both are beautiful tropical (read: HOT!) countries in Southeast Asia. There are so many good food here, especially ethnic stuff like spicy Malaysian curries (which will clear the worst blocked nose), flaky & crispy Indian roti paratha/canai, homey Chinese stir-fries, rich & decadent Asian desserts like kuih lapis (Malay many-layers cake), pineapple tarts, crumbly peanut cookies etc.
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