Durum Wheat Sesame Bread

This durum wheat sesame bread includes a gorgeous golden crumb with a crunchy seeded crust. 

This bread is made with a combination of one-third bread flour and two-thirds durum flour. It's fabulous for breakfast toast, sandwich bread, or for dipping into your favorite sauce. 

Semolina Bread with Apricots and Sage

This semolina bread with apricots and sage is a wonderful combination of sweet and savory. The apricots add a sweetness and the aroma of sage totally reminds me of Thanksgiving. It's a wonderful bread for breakfast with butter and honey, or even some melted cheddar. It's also amazing with soup.

Potato Semolina Rolls | Make Ahead Dinner Rolls

The first time I made these potato semolina rolls was for Thanksgiving. They were pretty miraculous. Why?

1. You assemble these rolls in advance, refrigerate the shaped dough, and bake them while your roast or turkey is resting. 
2. They are so incredibly fluffy and moist.
3. You can serve them fresh from the oven. No cooling required. 
4. They are delicious.

Sesame Seeded Semolina Bread

This Sesame Seeded Semolina Bread has a wonderful nutty, sweet flavor and a beautiful yellow crumb. It is wonderful with butter, and makes delicious toast. It is the perfect accompaniment for fall's soups, stews, and chilis. It also makes delicious garlic bread.

The best part? You make the dough in advance, shape it, and bake it the next morning.

Durum Bread

I have wanted to try making this Durum Bread for quite some time. I love the nutty flavor of durum flour, but I'm sometimes defeated by the fragility of the dough.

Durum flour has a high protein level, and is typically used for making pasta. It does not behave like bread or all purpose flour. However, it does make amazingly flavorful bread, as long as you pay attention and make sure you are developing adequate strength in the dough.

The flour can be found in Indian markets or online. You may even be able to find it at a big box store. I get mine from King Arthur Flour, as well as Surfas Culinary District (we are lucky enough to have the mothership here). Don't confuse it with the more coarsely ground semolina. Durum is finely ground.

Kesra - Moroccan Flat Bread

Kesra is a Moroccan country bread that is common at every meal in the region. It can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and to sop up all of the delicious sauces and salads that are traditional to Moroccan and north African food. It is often used in the place of utensils. (I've also seen it referred to as hobz or khobz.)

Semolina Torpedo Bread | Pane di Altamura

I love the nutty flavor of semolina, but working with the flour has its challenges. Bread made with 100% semolina does not develop a thick crispy crust like bread made from high protein all purpose or bread flour. In fact, the crust tends to crack. Regardless, it has a beautiful color and a sweet nutty flavor.

I have made a few breads (click here and here for two of my favorites) with a combination of semolina and bread flour. This is the first time I've made a bread recipe that uses entirely durum flour.

This bread is made from the same flour from which pasta is made, but the flour is more finely milled. If you attempt to make it with the coarsely ground semolina available in the grocery store, substitute half of the durum with all purpose or bread flour.

This small loaf is hand kneaded. It involves a starter that is allowed to sit with the rest of the flour sitting on top of it for about 4 hours.

The loaf is small... about 3/4 of a pound.  I found the dough fairly easy to work with and shape. I baked mine in a clay baker, but having one is not necessary. Instead, bake the bread directly on a pizza stone and add steam to your oven.

This is a good video describing the various methods of creating a steam oven. I use a variation of the methods, except I do not use lava rock... any porous rock will do... long story... something to do with a trip to Hawaii and angering the volcano goddess Pele. =)

Golden Semolina Torpedo

Adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible

Ingredients

Sponge

100 g durum flour

1/8 tsp instant yeast

3/4 C room temperature water

Flour mixture

117 g durum flour (or half durum, half all purpose flour)

3/8 tsp instant yeast

3/4 plus 1/8 tsp salt

Reserve Flour

38 g durum flour

Bread flour for the kneading surface

Instructions

1. Mix the sponge ingredients in a medium bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let the bowl sit overnight (about 10 hours).
2. Whisk the flour mixture together and sprinkle it over the sponge to completely cover it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow it to sit for 1 to 4 hours. 
3. Mix the flour into the sponge with a spoon, and then your hands in the bowl. 
4. Scrape the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead by hand for about five minutes, adding additional durum from the reserved 38 grams as needed. The dough should be slightly sticky. 
5. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes. 
6. Knead the dough for five minutes more by hand. The dough should be very smooth. You can continue to add flour in small increments if the dough is too sticky. You should be able to shape the final dough into a ball. 
7. Place the dough into an oiled dough rising bucket or bowl, and allow it to rise until doubled, about 90 minutes to 2 hours. 
8. Shape the dough into a torpedo. Check out this video on how to do it (my loaf is not quite as pointy as it should be). If you are using a clay baker, place the loaf in the bottom half. If not, place the loaf on a piece of parchment paper. Cover with oiled plastic wrap. 
9. Allow the loaf to rise for about 60 to 75 minutes, until almost doubled. 
10. At the same time, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F with a baking stone and the top of the clay baker (if using) in the oven. 
11. Slash the bread and transfer it to the baking stone, and either cover it with the clay baker or steam the oven as illustrated by the video. 
12. Bake for 15 minutes and then remove the top of the clay baker if using. 
13. Lower the temperature of the oven to 400 degrees F. 
14. Bake for 15 to 25 minutes. The bread should be golden brown and the interior should reach 200 degrees F. 
15. Allow the bread to cool on a rack before cutting. 

Enjoy!

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Semolina Sourdough Bread

See how the edges of the slash stick up and are all toasty? Those are bread ears. It's what we bread bakers all strive for. These are my best ever. It's amazing what gets us excited.

Semolina Rounds with Black Sesame and Golden Flax Seeds

This is a lovely bread. The yellow color from the durum flour is so appealing. I love the flavor.

I found this recipe in the book, Amy's Bread, and I have made it several times. It's one of my all time favorites. The loaves are gorgeous. The original recipe calls for just the black sesame seeds, but I threw in some flax seeds just because.

While coarsely ground semolina flour is easy to find around here, finely ground durum semolina is not, so I buy mine from King Arthur Flour. Another source is Giusto's in San Francisco. I'm sure there are other sources .... In fact, Little India in Artesia is right in my back yard. I've even heard that Costco carries a durum flour called Mumbai Gold. Hmmmm. I'll have to check these out.

Semolina Rounds with Black Sesame and Golden Flax Seeds

Adapted from Amy's Bread. (Get the book, you will love it!)

Biga

Makes 14 ounces (more than you'll need)

7 ounces warm water (105 to 115 degrees F

1/8 t. active dry yeast

8 ounces unbleached all purpose flour

In the bowl of a stand mixer, stir the yeast in the water to dissolve. Let it sit for about 3 minutes. Add the flour, and mix with the paddle attachment on low for about a minute. Place it into a container and let it rise for 6 to 8 hours, until it has more than doubled. Use the biga while it is still growing and is not deflating. You can retard the biga by letting it rise at room temperature for an hour, refrigerating it overnight, removing it, and letting it sit at room temperature for three to four hours. 

Semolina Round

2 ounces warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)
1 tsp active dry yeast
12.5 ounces room temperature water
10 ounces biga
18.35 ounces/520 grams/4 cups durum flour
2 ounces medium ground yellow cornmeal
1/4 C black sesame seeds, or a combination of other seeds
1 T plus 1 tsp Kosher salt
Extra cornmeal for sprinkling

Mix the yeast and the warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer and let stand for 3 minutes.

Add the rest of the water and the biga and mix with the paddle attachment.

Whisk the durum, cornmeal, 2 T of the seeds, and the salt together.

Add the flour mixture to the stand mixer bowl and mix with a dough whisk or a large spoon until the dough forms a sticky mass.

Knead the dough with the dough hook for 5 to 7 minutes. Add additional flour if needed, but err on the side of less flour. The dough should be soft and supple.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Knead the dough for 2 to 3 minutes more.

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl or dough rising bucket and let it rise until doubled, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Divide the dough into two equal halves.

Gently shape each piece into a rectangle and then roll them into cylinders like a baguette. Roll the cylinders under your hands to elongate them until you get a 32 inch rope. Coil the ropes.

Place the loaves side by side on one sheet pan sized piece of parchment (on top of a pizza peel or a cookie sheet so you can transfer the loaves to the oven) that has been sprinkled with cornmeal with 3 to 4 inches between the loaves. Spray the grooves of the loaves with water, and and place the remaining seeds evenly into the grooves.

Cover the loaves with oiled plastic wrap and let them rise for 45 to 90 minutes, until almost proofed, but not fully proofed.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F with a baking stone on the second to lowest rack. Place a broiler pan on the lowest rack and fill a mister with water. Boil one cup of water.

Mist the loaves with water, slide the parchment with the loaves onto the baking stone, and pour the boiling water into the broiler pan. Cover your oven window with a dish towel so you don't break it!

Spray the oven walls and the loaves with water and close the door. Spray again every 60 second three more times, quickly shutting the oven door each time.

Bake for 20 minutes and then reduce the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes more.

Cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

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