Semolina Bread - Easy and Delicious Recipe

5 from 7 votes

Semolina Bread - Easy and Delicious Recipe

Make this delicious Semolina Bread with sesame seed crust, it's truly irresistible! It has a slightly nutty sweet taste, bright yellow color and soft, slightly chewy crumb.

Prep Time20

Cook Time30

Proofing time4

Course: Bread

Cuisine: Italian

Servings:

Calories: 115kcal

Author: Svi

Ingredients

2 ⅓ cups durum wheat semolina flour (high protein) , 420 grams
1 ¼ cup water , 294 grams
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast , 4 grams
2 teaspoon salt , leveled teaspoon 8 grams
½ cup sesame seeds , 75 grams

Instructions

Prepare no-yeast starter.

Take a little over a cup of water from the total amount and mix with semolina. Reserve the remaining water for later.
2 ⅓ cups durum wheat semolina flour (high protein), 1 ¼ cup water
Knead until there’s no dry flour left. Cover with a plastic wrap and let rest for 1 hour.

Prepare the dough.

Add to the starter mix the remaining water and yeast. Knead briefly then add salt. Knead for 5 minutes using a mixer with a dough hook or for 10 minutes by hand until the dough is smooth and no longer sticks to the bowl.
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast, 2 teaspoon salt
Pull the dough from the side and fold it onto itself. Repeat the process a few times until a smooth dough ball is formed.
Cover with a plastic wrap and let rise until almost triple in size. It should take anywhere between 2.5 and 4 hours depending on the ambient temperature.

Divide and shape into rolls.

Once the dough has risen divide it into a few pieces. Depending on the loaf size you want to make you can divide it into 9 ounces (250 g) or 4.5-5 ounces loaves (125-150g).
Take each piece of the dough and flatten it out with the tips of your fingers or using a rolling pin. Roll into a 2 inch thick roll. It should be no less than 2 inches or 5 cm in diameter. Thinner rolls will dry out in the oven too much!
Pinch the seal and place on a lightly floured surface seal down. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.

Cover with sesame seeds and score.

Using a spray bottle lightly spray each dough roll with water than dip wet side down in sesame seeds.
½ cup sesame seeds
Arrange the bread rolls on the baking sheet well distanced apart as they'll almost double when cooked.
Using scissors make a few side cuts on each side of the loaf. On bigger loaves I like to make classic slit cuts with a sharp knife.

Final proofing.

Cover with clear plastic poly bag, tuck it under the baking sheet letting some air in so that the bag won’t touch the dough. As an alternative you can place a couple of glasses on the baking sheet between the bread loaves and cover everything with a plastic wrap. Glassed will prevent the plastic stick to the dough.
Let rise for 30-60 minutes. Again depending on the room temperature.

Bake.

Bake in a preheated to 465 F (240C) oven for 10 minutes. Then lower to 390F (200C) and bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Notes

See the Step By Step Pictures for visual walk-through of the recipe.
Use a kitchen scale to measure all ingredients in grams.
Use quality high protein durum wheat semolina flour. Check the packaging Nutrition Label and make sure protein content is at least 12%. This reads on the nutritional label as at least 4 g per 30 grams serving size or 12 grams per 100 grams. The protein content is the key that will determine the success of the recipe.
Let the formed loaves almost double in size before baking. If you don't, the bread will turn dense.
If your room temperature is 78 F (26C) or higher reduce the amount of yeast by half or so. If you don't do that your dough will rise very quickly and "explode" compromising this bread's flavor and structure. This is usually applicable during summer time.
If the dough is not moving after 2 hours of proofing, means the ambient temperature is too low. What to do: preheat oven to 86 F (30C), turn off and place the dough in well warm oven. If your oven won't preheat to such a low temperature, bring a small pot of water to a boil, place it at the bottom of the oven, place the bowl with the dough on the upper rack. The dough will start rising, make sure it's almost double in size before dividing it into loaves.
Same goes for proofing the loaves in the pan: if your room temperature is lower than 80F (26C) it will take them longer to rise. However if it's 70F (21C) or lower the leavening process might be blocked. In this case, do the same technique of helping them leaven in the oven. The loaves should almost double in size before baking (see pictures above for reference!!)
If your bread turned out too dense it can be caused by two things: 1) your flour didn't have enough protein or 2) you didn't let it rise well during the final proofing on the baking sheet. Follow the recipe to a T and it will turn out great.

Nutrition