Semolina Wholewheat Bread

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Semolina Bread from Sandhya's My Cooking Journey
My theme for the final week of this month's marathon is 'bookmarked recipes'.  It is almost impossible to pick just 3 dishes from my ever growing list of bookmarks, so I narrowed my search to just breads. After the month long mega baking marathon from April, I have many breads and other baked goodies bookmarked -- I thought this will be the beginning of many I tried from those.
First up is Sandhya's 'Semolina Bread'. Her pictures really won me over and I immediately bookmarked it to try soon. I actually made the bread twice since she posted.

Semolina bread has been on my to-try list for a very long time. But most of the recipes I saw, needed a covered cloche or a special baking utensil. Also most of them looked very crusty and chewy. Since my family prefers soft, sandwich bread I never got around to try any of the recipes.

But when I saw Sandhya's post with the beautifully sliced soft bread, I knew this was the recipe to try. I had semolina flour in the pantry (one of my many impulse buys) and that is all you basically need along with some yeast, sugar, salt and extra virgin olive oil. Semolina flour can be subbed with fine sooji available in Indian groceries but the coloe of the bread would be a little pale.
I added some whole wheat flour to make it a little fiber rich. This bread is perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It makes a great toast, great sandwich and just a great bread to snack on.

Recipe adapted from here & here.
Ingredients: Makes 1 8½"x4½" loaf

Fine Semolina flour or fine sooji - 2cups
Wholewheat flour - 1¼cups (or use 3¼cups of semolina flour)
Instant Yeast - 1tsp
Tepid Water (70~78°F) - 1½cups
Sugar - 1tbsp
Extra virgin Olive Oil - ¼cup

Sea Salt - 1½tsp

Method:

• Combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer or in a large bowl. Mix and knead until the dough is smooth, shiny and elastic, about 8~9 minutes on the machine (10~12 minutes by hand).
• Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover and let rise until it doubles in volume, about 1½~2hours.
• Grease a 8½"x4½" loaf pan. 
• Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Form the dough into a loaf and place it in the prepared pan, press gently to fit in the pan. Sprinkle the to with semolina flour, cover the pan with plastic wrap and let rise for another 1~1½ hours or until the bread crests just above the rim of the pan.
• Preheat the oven to 375°F. Bake the bread for 35~45 minutes or until the loaf starts to pull away from the edges and the crust is deep golden brown. 
• Remove the bread from the pan and let cool completely before slicing.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 52.