[Sca-cooks] What Samidh Flour Isn't

[Galefridus Peregrinus]

So I asked my wife about this question. What she had to say is that the 
amounts given in al-Warraq's bread recipes are almost certainly 
guidelines. She further stated that there are some environments in which 
measurements of flour by weight and water by volume will work, but only 
if the conditions are relatively consistent: nearly identical 
temperature, humidity, storage conditions for the flour, etc. Otherwise, 
she says that you end up tweaking the recipe every time you make it.


She further agreed that in theory at least, a high-gluten flour like 
semolina should not produce a crumbly product, because it would make for 
an overly elastic dough.


-- Galefridus

> Message: 7
> Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 00:37:46 -0400
> From: Galefridus Peregrinus To: "sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org" 
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] What Samidh Flour Isn't
> Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> A similar discussion of this matter has been occurring on Facebook, so 
> I am reposting here the comments I made there.
>
> Before reading the recipe:
> "The problem that I see with semolina flour is that it has the 
> opposite characteristic of what's specified. Semolina is relatively 
> low starch and high gluten -- that's why it's used for pasta. And 
> while the recipe specifies exact weights of flour and water, I know 
> from living with a baker that such information is often provided as 
> more of a guideline than a set of exact instructions. When she makes 
> bread or other raised dough baked goods, my wife routinely adjusts the 
> ingredients until the dough "feels right." I'll ask her when she gets 
> back from traveling -- she's out of town until Sunday."
>
> After reading the recipe:
> "I checked the al-Warraq recipe for aqr?s fat?t/crumbly crackers. It 
> seems to me that as both the flour and the bread itself are described, 
> it pretty much has to be a low gluten flour that is used. If it were 
> made with a high gluten flour like semolina, then it would be highly 
> unlikely that the final product would "crumble in the mouth" when 
> eaten, as the recipe describes."
>
> -- Galefridus