Comments on: Whole Wheat – Semolina Crowns

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:21:11 +0000

I love this blog and this is one of my favorite entries.
The crown shape itself really adds to the delight of this bread.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:38:10 +0000

Really lovely, how bout sourdoughing it??

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:34:00 +0000

Lovely loaves, as usual, Susan. The slashing is beautiful. And I love the idea of creating the ring shape by using my elbow to start the hole!

What protein level is on the whole wheat flour that you are using? (I’m assuming that “flour” is simply unbleached all-purpose flour?)

By: Stefanie

Stefanie — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:23:31 +0000

I baked the bread now, and it turn out great! The crumb is not as open as yours, it is more even. I think that is due to replacing the white wheat flour with red wheat flour! But the taste is so good.
One of the two crowns is nearly gone, we try it warm from the oven with butter, we eat it for lunch with cheese and my boyfrind eat it in the afternoon with elderberrie gelee and while preparing dinner he sneak over to the bread and eat it just pure.
Thanks for the recipe!

By: a tasteful garden

a tasteful garden — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:30:36 +0000

yum! that bread looks gorgeous! i love using semolina. the first time i used it in my pizza dough recipe, i never went back. i’m going to try this recipe this weekend. thanks for sharing!

By: Fredrik Kronander

Fredrik Kronander — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:30:45 +0000

Your recipe here inspired me to try using 2 different preferments as well, instead of the sponge I used a starter from a pure rye sourdough and a poolish as you did. I was amazed by the superb leavening I got from that combination, the first time I overproofed the loaves as they rose a lot quicker than I’m used to when using pure sourdough starters, but today I shortened the proofing and got my best looking loaves ever! Really nice large holes throughout. I often have a problem with large holes just below the upper crust and then a denser crumb at the bottom, but this method resulted in an even crumb. Thanks for the nice tips!

By: Susan

Susan — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:14:48 +0000

Thanks for the kind comments, everyone!

Jo, white whole wheat is a whole grain flour milled from a certain variety of wheat — white wheat. It has a bran that is lighter in color and less bitter in flavor that the traditional red wheat. I’m not sure if it is available in the UK.

Stefanie, if you don’t have white whole wheat just use red whole wheat flour. The color of the bread will be darker and the flavor will be a bit stronger.

Laura, if you can’t find semolina, I’d substitute white flour for it. You could use whole wheat too, but you’d need a little more water and you’d get a denser bread.

By: lisaiscooking

lisaiscooking — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:20:57 +0000

Great-looking crust and lovely shape! I like the alternate slashes.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:28:50 +0000

These look magnificent!! The crumb looks amazing. Just stupendous, especially for whole wheat. I want to make this, but do you suppose the semolina flour could be swapped out for more whole wheat? I’m not sure that I can find that locally. . .

By: Madam Chow

Madam Chow — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:41:49 +0000

Beautiful! And I am experiencing crumb envy!