Baked: 8/4/2025
This was a 20% semolina dough with fresh basil and a small amount of parmesan. I really love working with semolina for its texture and color. I had a bunch of basic from our CSA that I didn’t know what to do with, so I decided to experiment with adding it to bread. As for the parmesan, it just seemed like the right choice!
Like the chocolate cherry sourdough before it, I baked one loaf using a loaf pan and the other as a boule.
My notes tell me that the boule was slack when I took it out of the banneton and that it flattened quickly. It didn’t have great oven rise. Still, the crumb turned out to be consistent and nice and springy.
What would I do differently? In the past when I have worked with semolina I have used bread flour rather than low protein all purpose flour, in the hopes that the higher protein in the bread flour would compensate for the semolina. I used AP flour this time. I’ll probably go back to bread flour for semolina bakes. Other than that, the basil ratio (approx 1 cup chopped) seemed just right.
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