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Semolina Bread

This bread was new to me but didn’t disappoint. Semolina bread is an Italian baking classic. It’s chewy and dense. The semolina flour used to make the loaf is milled from durum wheat. That’s the same flour used to make pasta. This loaf is very easy to make but an all day project–the total rising time is about 6 hours.

You can find the recipe here at: The Way to My Family’s Heart and Keep it Luce.

The hardest part for me was finding semolina flour. My regular grocery store didn’t carry it.  I found a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Semolina Flour at a slightly more upscale grocery nearby. Other than that it was a series of fairly easy steps: mix the yeast with some water and flour for the sponge (then rest for 2 hours), make the dough in a food processor (rise for 2 hours), shape the dough (rise for 2 more hours), and then bake for 35 minutes at 400 degrees F.

Other bloggers have complained about the saltiness of this bread so I did reduce the salt slightly than what the recipe called for to 1 1/2 teaspoons. I was not shy with the slashing and used a long serrated knife to make the cuts. After researching semolina bread a little online I decided to use an egg wash and add some sesame seeds to the top. This seems to be the classic presentation.

Semolina bread is a hearty comforting loaf that can compliment just about any meal. That makes it a keeper in my book.