A Day Of Baking.

Friday morning, I woke up to beautiful gray skies and SNOW!

Now, what does one do on such a day as this? I don't know about you, but I go to my kitchen counter where I can stare out the sliding glass doors and watch the snow flurries and I bake. All day long. I'm starting off with Semolina Bread. I found the recipe in Baking With Julia, based on Julia Child's PBS series

and written by Dorie Greenspan. Semolina flour, milled from durum wheat, is often associated with Italian cooking, since semolina flour is used in making pasta. Semolina flour is a glutenous flour, gluten being that mixture of proteins present in cereal grains, which permits breads to rise during baking as the gases within expand and are trapped in the gluten superstructure. The golden semolina flour gives this loaf a sunny color, a tender crumb, a nutty taste, and a nice crunch in the crust.

First, I made the "sponge." 1 cup warm water 1 teaspoon active dry yeast 1 cup unbleached, all purpose flour

I poured the teaspoon of yeast into the water.

Whisked in the yeast until dissolved

and let sit for 5 minutes.

Poured in 1 cup of the flour, whisking.

Whisk until you have a nice smooth batter.

Cover the bowl, and let rest until the sponge is doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

Next I got my ingredients ready for the dough. Starting on the left, going clockwise: 3/4 cup of unbleached all purpose flour. 2 teaspoons salt 1 Tablespoon olive oil 3/4 cup semolina flour

Here's the sponge over 2 hours later.

The sponge goes into my food processor.

Then I added just 1/2 cup of the all purpose flour.

3/4 cup semolina flour went in.

2 teaspoons salt.

And one tablespoon of olive oil.

Pulse the processor, on and off, until the dough forms a ball on the blade. This is so not a ball, so I added the leftover 1/4 cup of flour in, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it made a ball.

And here's my ball. I let the dough rest for 5 minutes, then processed for a full 20 seconds.

I turned the dough onto a lightly floured surface and, as warned, the dough was extremely sticky. I gave it a few pats to pull it all together.

Then put the dough into an oiled bowl, covered it with plastic wrap, and let it rest until double in volume. Again, about 2 hours. Now, I've mentioned this little trick of mine before, but here it is for those of you just tuning in. Whenever I'm making bread and get to the rising part, I cover the dough with plastic wrap and I put a wet towel in my microwave, nuke it for about 90 seconds, then I cover the bowl and dough with the hot towel and put it back in the microwave or the oven to rise.

While the dough was rising, Mr. Hawthorne and I took a little trip to Burger King, since I wanted to video that sign that says "NO VIDEOTAPING OR PHOTOGRAPHY PERMITTED." Too bad the sign was washed out. For a better picture, please click here. I wanted to yell out, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" but I restrained myself. (For information on "fire in the hole," go to Youtube and search it.)

Two hours later, ta-dahhhhh.

Next, I turned the dough onto my floured cutting board, deflating it with my hand, and patting it into a rough oval shape.

I rolled it from one side to the other, forming a nice plump loaf.

I turned the loaf over, tucked the ends under, transferred to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, covered with oiled plastic wrap, and let it rest until doubled in volume. Another 2 hours.

I then took a razor blade and slashed lines along the loaf.

I added a little melted butter on top.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes.

Eat immediately, with more buttah.

Next morning, I cut nice slices. This has a lovely texture after cooling and resting over night.

Butter and toast and drizzle with sourwood honey. Divine. Now, remember I only used 1 teaspoon of yeast out of the packet? That means I have leftover yeast. So, that means I'm doing another type of bread today. And you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see what it is. But, I promise you. It'll be worth the wait.