Semolina Sandwich Bread

I am so glad to be finally posting a non challah, bread related post. I've been baking lots of goodies, that you'll hear about shortly, but have been neglecting the dear namesake of this blog. I'm glad that I'll be making this a special one too. You see, I could never find semolina flour in America let alone dream about finding it in Israel. So sadly, I've been skipping over all the semolina recipes in my bread books that called for it. Until... That's right! In the land of the unfamiliar flours, I found real Italian Semolina Flour.... This past Sunday, my close friend S and I spent the afternoon at the beach in Tel Aviv and enjoyed dinner on the pier. Walking back to the busstop we stopped at this huge and beautiful health food store and of course, I had to stop in. There's something about health food stores and supermarkets that call my name. That's right. I must stop into every supermarket I see to see what they have. Do they carry my favorite yeast? Are there any potential baking ingredients hiding on the shelves. You get the point. So I'm browsing the flours and there it was. To my complete and utter shock. Semolina. Flour. I bought two bags. I know. I should have bought more. But I want to be able to actually justify the purchase and use it all before it goes back. I can always get more, after all. This will hopefully be the first of a few experiments with this major find of mine. You'll be hearing about them, so bear with me! I started off with a simple Semolina Sandwich Loaf that can be found here. I actually own the book that it comes from, Leader's Local Breads, but of course, it's in America. I made this bread at night after coming home from a date-- I needed to relieve the stress so I kneaded some dough. Always makes me feel better, let me tell you. I let it rise a bit in the fridge and then stayed up and watched He's Just Not That Into You, again, until the dough had risen. I shaped it and then let it proof all night in the fridge and baked it fresh in the morning. Oh the smell. Like no other. The flavor of semolina is delicate and it yielded a tight crumb that was a beautiful pale yellow, chewy and soft. I really liked this and have been eating it here and there every day. I suspect it would be yummy with jam. I would change the olive oil that I used as I think the flavor is a bit too intense. But otherwise, seriously good. Next time, I'd really like to try extended fermention or some sort of Semolina soaker (say that ten times fast) to really coax the flavor from the wheat. Sending this post to Yeastspotting. It's been too long since I've joined in!What a find!All the dry ingredients.Whisked together. Adding the oil...and the water... mixed to form a shaggy dough.

I turned it out for its autolyse..then kneaded it until a smooth ball was formed, about ten minutes. The dough has risen in the fridge. I turned it out..

patted it into a rectangle..formed a logtucked the edges under,and placed it in its pan.The loaf has proofed in the fridge-- although it hasnt quite crowned over the pan.The oven spring was still lovely as was the crust. Here's the crumb-- nice and yellow.

Mmmmmm!