So, here's another baking recipe. It is from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. Great book, get it if you enjoy baking.
This bread is not vegan in a strict sense. It has a tablespoon of honey in it, but if you're okay with that, then cool.
Instruction:
First is first, start with a pâte fermentée. I outlined this in my entry on Pain de Campagne. So check that out for the starter, pâte fermentée.
The next day when that's ready take it out of the fridge, cut it into about 10 pieces and let it sit out, covered, for an hour. This takes the chill off. Mix 8 oz. Semolina Flour, 8 oz. Bread Flour, 1 and 1/4 of Instant Yeast, 1 and 1/4 tsp of Salt. Once the pâte fermentée is ready go ahead and throw that in the bowl of the dry stuff, and then pour in 2 tbps of Olive Oil, 1 tbps of Honey, and about a 1 and 1/4 cup or so of lukewarm water. Stir this all together until it forms a ball. Okay, if it looks too dry add about a tablespoon at a time of water, until it seems sticky enough. If you haven't ever baked bread, it will be until the bread is kind of tacky, but not necessarily sticky. Don't be afraid about messing up, you can always add a little flour, plus, more will be going into this when you make a bed of flour for kneading.
Okay get ready to knead for about 10 minutes, maybe a little longer. The dough ball should be smooth and tacky, not sticky. Put it in a bowl coated with a little bit of oil (only to ease getting it out later, the recipe doesn't call for it, but if you're not used to trying not to deflate bread, then this might be a good idea). Let it hang out at room temperature for 2 hours, it should about double in size. Take it out of the bowl and cut it into 3 equal pieces. Stretch a piece out to about 2 feet or so and working at each end, roll the ends toward the middle on opposite sides of the stretched out piece. It should work together into a little S shape. Once you have made three, put them on baking sheets that have semolina flour on them, to prevent sticking, and either put them in a big food grade back, or just cover them with saran wrap. I just covered them and they came out fine. The saran wrap kind of smooshed the S look, but oh well. You're supposed to put them in the fridge, but since I have roommates, I have no fridge space for huge pans of bread. I put it in our sun room, and it being winter in Chicago in a room with no insulation, that worked just fine as a fridge.
Okay, it says to proof over night, but it also says you don't have to. If you want a more developed flavor, let them proof over night. If you don't care, don't have fridge space, or for whatever reason, I would let it proof for a couple hours at room temperature, until it about doubles in size.
Then you hearth bake the bread, which is also outlined in the Pain de Campagne post.
It should be nice and brown with a crispy crust.
As said earlier, it's a little different since the content is about half Semolina. I don't know if I have ever had a Semolina bread. It is pretty good though. I would probably make it again.
