07/04/07

My busy work schedule has prevented me from updating my website. It certainly hasn't stopped me from baking bread. In any case, what'd I eat for breakfast if there is no freshly baked bread? For the past 3 weeks, I have been baking bread using semolina flour to bake Semolina Fennel Raisin Bread. I had thought for a long time that it was one of the breads baked at Amy's Bread in NY but I only realized recently that it was the creation of the baker at Kyle's Kitchen and modified from Amy's Semolina Apricot Sage loaf. The combination of Fennel and Raisin was so good that I baked the loaves for 3 weeks until my wife hinted that it was time for a break from Raisin Bread. I don't blame her as 12 large loaves over 3 weeks is quite a lot to eat. They taste so good that this'd probably be my signature Raisin Bread.

Since I prefer breads with a more open crumb, I decided to cut down the semolina to 25% and this was used in the pre-fermet. The bread had a total hydration in excess of 75% since I am not including the 100% hydration in the preferment. The crumb texture was very good and the semolina did not make the crumb denser as I had feared.