Working Mama Pane di Semola- Natural Yeast Durum Wheat Bread

Durum wheat bread is made with a fine semolina flour which can be easily found in most Asian shops. This kind of bread is mainly made in the South of Italy, the most famous being the one from Altamura, near Bari.
Here is our recipe:


Ingredients:

600 gr strong bread flour                                                                                          
400 ml water                                                        
15 gr salt                                                                    
100 gr refreshed natural yeast
1 tsp malt

Dissolve the refreshed natural yeast in the water, add the flour and start folding the water through it. Work it into a dough and then let it rest, covered, for 40 minutes. Add malt and salt then work the dough again until it is really elastic and smooth.

Once you are happy with your dough get a big glass or plastic bowl, spread or spray a little bit of olive oil and put your dough in it.  Cover with cling film and put it into your refrigerator fro 12 to 24 hours.
So if you make your dough at around 10 pm, it is ready to come out of the fridge when you come back from work the day after.

When you take the dough out of the fridge transfer it gently onto the counter then flatten it with your hands in a rectangle. Fold the corners in and then roll it quite tightly into a cylinder.  Dust your proofing basket with semolina, or alternatively dust a tea towel with semolina and put it over a bowl, a pan, or whatever container is handy, and put your dough to raise for about 40 minutes to 1 hour.

Preheat your oven at 250 degrees with a baking stone in it, then tilt your dough onto the hot baking stone. Do not forget to make quite deep cuts with a razor blade, as the dough raises quite considerably during baking.

Bake for 10 minutes at 250 and then for 30 minutes at 200 C.

Last night I was too tired to bake the bread, so once I formed it, I put it back into the fridge; this morning I removed it from the fridge and let it rest and room temperature for about two hours, then baked it as per instructions above.

This bread can also be made in a day with the procedure explained for our plain bread, just double the dose of refreshed natural yeast (200g instead of 100g)