[Sca-cooks] Pasta making and baking with semolina flour

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Mar 27, 2006, at 9:56 AM, Christiane wrote:

> I have a question for the bakers on this list. I have a couple of  
> pounds of semolina flour acquired from the local Indo-Pak store.

I've used whole-grain durum chapatti flour, in addition to the more  
common (around here) Italian-style yellow semolina flour. Is that  
what you've got?

> My thought was to try and use it to bake some Southern Italian- 
> Sicilian-style breads. Can this type of semolina flour be used for  
> this purpose?

Sure.

> The same thing goes with pasta making. Any advice would be  
> appreciated! I want to make my husband some ravioli!

My experience (and others' may vary) is that durum semolina, because  
the grain is so hard, is difficult to grind really fine, so it can  
behave a little oddly compared to other flours. Essentially, it takes  
a little while for water to be fully absorbed, and full gluten  
development doesn't really occur until the grain is moistened properly.

In general, what this means is you want to make an all-semolina dough  
just a touch moister than those made with other flours; where other  
recipes advocate adding enough flour to make a smooth, non-sticky  
dough, you want your semolina dough to be just a touch sticky, and  
you really want to knead the c®@p out of it, at which point it will  
begin to acquire a more standard doughy texture. When making bread,  
you should notice a dramatic difference in the texture of the dough  
between the first and second proofings.

For pasta, the same principal applies: it'll be just a little sticky,  
knead it to death, wrap/cover and let it rest a few hours in the  
fridge, then knead it again and proceed as for any other pasta.

Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04