TWD: Semolina Bread

 I am not going to lie to you.  I really don't know what Semolina Bread is.  I have never eaten it before (that I know of) and I have never made it before.  This was the first time purchasing semolina flour.  It's known for it's pasta uses which I am excited to try since I usually just use all purpose flour when I make pasta.  I am not sure my pantry can handle storing one more type of flour though.  I am still on the fence as to whether I would make this again or buy the flour once I run out.  Don't worry, I will keep you posted about this super important decision I am about to make.

The bread was good.  I am not sure what it was supposed to look like.  I really feel like I need pictures sometimes to understand what recipes are trying to say.  I was supposed to flatten the dough into an oval and then roll it from one long side to the other to form a plump loaf.  Hmmm, okay, I guess that's what I did but it just ended up looking like French bread.  Just tell me to shape it like French bread for Pete's sake!  But maybe I wasn't supposed to?  Who knows?!  I did add a couple tablespoons more flour than the recipe called for to try to fit the description of what the dough should be like; "...smooth and elastic but somewhat sticky."  Maybe another picture would have been helpful?  The final rise said 2 hours and I felt like I could have gone longer but didn't want it to over-rise at all and make the slashing part (which always makes me nervous) more problematic.  

 Either way, the bread seemed to turn out okay, we ate it with some Italian inspired sausage and vegetable soup and everyone enjoyed it.  The kids then finished the rest of it off quickly today. 

If it's one of you lifelong dreams/goals to make semolina bread, I can recommend this recipe.  It seemed to work well.  Some of the other bakers talked about decreasing the salt, which I didn't do, but it might be helpful, depending on what you will be doing with your bread.

For the recipe (or to see what the bread should maybe really look like) you can visit the blog of one of our hosts for the week:

Keep it Luce 

or

The Way to My Family's Heart

If you want to see what the other TWD bakers did this week you can go HERE.