Semolina Sesame Artisan Bread

By Peggio

Ingredients

• 3 C luke warm water
• 1 1/2 TB granulated yeast
• 1 1/2 TB salt
• 2 C durum whole wheat flour (NOTE, if you are not grinding your own durum ww flour, but using Semolina flour, make it 3 C)
• 4 1/4 c. all purpose flour (NOTE, if you are using Semolina flour, use 3 1/4 C of AP flour)
• 1 T. sesame seeds
• 1 T. cornmeal
• 1/2 tsp cornstarch

Details

Adapted from wildlifeinthewoods.blogspot.com

Preparation

Step 1

Mix the yeast and salt with the lukewarm water in a large 5qt container. I use a large plastic tub with a lid, but I do NOT seal the lid to make it airtight.

Mix in the flours using a large spoon. (I use a large wooden spoon. By the end of adding all the flour, I wet my hands to mix in the last bits of the flour into the dough. The dough is a fairly wet, sticky dough. You can certainly use a mixer if you'd like to, but I don't find that I need one.)

Cover (not airtight...this needs to off gas a bit...but then...don't all God's creatures need to do that? Yeast is no exception.). Allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top) approximately 2 hours.

The dough can be used at this point, or you can store it in your fridge for up to 14 days. As if you could wait that long!!!

When You're Ready to Bake:

Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off about half of it. (About 2 lbs.) Dust it with more flour and quickly shape it first into a ball, and then into an oval (ish) shape. Allow to rest on a sheet of parchment paper that you have sprinkled with cornmeal for 40 minutes. (If you HAVE a pizza peel, then use that to let it rest on, and to help you transfer it into the oven. I don't have a pizza peel, so I use parchment paper as my sling for transferring the bread dough loaf to the oven onto my baking stone. It can stay on the parchment paper for the baking: no problem. No need to transfer it off directly onto the stone.)

TWENTY MINUTES BEFORE BAKING:

Preheat the oven to 450º, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack, and the bottom of a broiler pan on the shelf just below that.

Time to use that mysterious cornstarch that's in the ingredient list.
You're going to make a Cornstarch Wash to make the bread shiny, and help the sesame seeds to stick to the outside of the bread.
Cornstarch Wash:
Blend the 1/2 t. of cornstarch with a bit of water to form a paste. Add 1/2 c. of water, and whisk with a fork. Microwave for 60 seconds, till mixture appears glassy. You can store the unused portion in the fridge, covered with plastic, for the next loaf.

Just before baking, paint the surface of the loaf with the cornstarch wash, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and slash the surface of the bread (I usually make 3 diagonal slash marks) about 1/2" deep, using a serrated knife.

Gently place the loaf on the parchment paper onto the hot baking stone. Pour 1 c. of hot tap water onto the broiler tray below it, and quickly close the oven door. Bake for around 30 minutes, until deeply browned and firm. Adjust baking time to the size of your loaf, and your own oven's performance.


Allow to cool before slicing and eating.