Hodgson Mill Semolina and Durum Flour

[StriperGuy]

Discovered this product at my local Super Stop and Shop after a long search for Durum flour. They call it pasta flour.

http://www.hodgsonmill.com/roi/673/All-Natural-Flours--Corn-Meals/Semolina-Pasta-Flour-05040.htm

I use Durum to bake bread and my usual source, the local food coop stopped carrying it.

Not exactly sure why, but on the box it says: Semolina and Durum flour. Those are basically just different grinds of the same thing, endosperm of durum wheat. In my mind this is Durum flour, not the much coarser grind of semolina.

Anyhow, baked some bread with this this weekend and it was exactly right.

In general I really like quite a few of the Hodgson Mill products including the stone ground corn meal for cornbread and pancakes and the whole wheat Graham flour for breads.

Excellent products at reasonable prices. Most supermarkets in the North East carry at least some of their products.

http://www.hodgsonmill.com/

[Channa]

Thanks for mentioning that. I order durum flour from the King Arthur catalog, but the postage is outrageous. Would you say this is ground about as fine as white flour? And do tell more about your bread!

[StriperGuy]

I could not tell the difference between this and the Durum flour I usually get. Perhaps a smidge coarser, but not at all noticeable in the dough.

1.5 cups Hodgson Durum
1.5 cups King Arthur Bread Flour
1.5 Cups Hodgson Mill whole wheat Graham Flour
1 pack of yeast
enough water to make very loose dough, almost a thick batter

Stir

Drizzle top with olive oil and cover with plastic wrap

Let sit in a cool corner for 48 hours (seriously). It gets all bubbly.

Heat oven to 500 degrees

Punch down dough.

kneed with some more bread flour shape into lose round loaf and place on floured peel and let rise until double in volume.

Place on heavily floured baking stone in oven.

Turn oven down to 450 degrees

Spritz top with water for every 5 minutes three times

Total bake time 40-55 minutes until done.

Yum.

[Channa]

Thanks again. That sounds easy and delicious! Could I add a bit of salt, or would that interfere with the 48-hour rest / rise?

[StriperGuy]

Whoops, I forgot that I added 1.5 Tsp of salt just before the final kneed.

[zamorski]

Don't know about the States, but here in Ottawa the Italian stores (of which there are a dozen or so) carry finely ground durum flour, labeled "semola rimacinata di grano duro." Lovely in breads and in pasta, too.