Sicilian Sesame Semolina Bread from the Bakehouse

A two-day-only Special Bake coming up this weekend

Exciting news for anyone who’s been missing it: the Bakehouse’s Sicilian Sesame Semolina is back for a special two-day appearance this weekend! If you love it like I do, swing by and grab a loaf—or three—it freezes beautifully. Don’t hesitate to order ahead; we’d be thrilled to hold some for you!

For those who don’t know it well, semolina is the bread of Sicily. Made from silky, finely milled golden semolina and baked with a sesame-coated crust, you’ll find it in most every bakery on the island. For many Sicilians, it is, literally, their daily bread. I agree with Bakehouse co-managing partner Amy Emberling, who says, “I really enjoy that bread—to eat and just to look at. The color of the crumb is so beautiful!”

A few years ago, we set out to make our Sesame Semolina bread even better by baking it with flour milled fresh right here at the Bakehouse. The experiment elicited excellent results—as we often say, “You really can taste the difference.” In this case, the difference that fresh milling makes. The bread was already excellent, but milling the grain on-site took it to an entirely new level. The move, a few years back, to begin milling the semolina here at the Bakehouse is right in line with Natural Law #8: “To get to greatness you’ve got to keep getting better, all the time!”

We’ve gradually added more items to the “milled right here” list—at this point, most of our breads and many of our pastries now benefit from the full flavor of freshly milled grain. The Sesame Semolina bread is the latest bread to benefit. Hazim Tugun, who’s helped lead this fresh milling project from the get-go, says:

It’s a perfect example of how we can take an already great food to the next level. And it shows how freshly milled whole grain flours can do that. In this case, our current Sesame Semolina is mostly made of durum wheat flour that comes from the heart (or the starchy endosperm) of the golden durum wheat berry, hence the bread’s golden color—it is a combination of coarsely milled semolina and finely milled durum flours. With an overnight preferment (poolish) and a long fermentation the day that the dough is mixed coupled with toasted sesame seeds on the outside, you get an irresistible bread that gives you the distinct flavors of the durum wheat, the chew from the hardness of this wheat (after all, it is the wheat of choice for pasta), and it’s a wonderful combination with the toasted sesame seeds.

For the new Sesame Semolina, we are stone-milling Montana-grown organic durum wheat that we are getting from our friends at Janie’s Mill and using this finely milled fresh flour to replace one-third of all the flour that goes into the bread. That means we are getting the wonderful flavor and nutrition benefits of the bran and the germ as well—aromatic oils, minerals, and fiber, to name a few. On the inside, this new version has a slightly more moist and relatively softer crumb with a richer hue of yellow thanks to the addition of the fresh durum flour. Now, you can simply taste and smell more of the grain that this bread is named after … it’s sweeter, a bit nuttier, and to me, more satisfying.

What do you do with Sesame Semolina? Toast it—great with Coffee Blossom Honey (read on!), Zingerman’s Cream Cheese, olive oil, and fresh ricotta, or that apricot jam from France I wrote about a few months ago.

You can also make, as I like to do, a winter version of pane al pomodoro in the style of the southern Italian town of Altamura—famous throughout Italy for its distinctive bread: very large loaves (anywhere from 5 to 55 pounds!) that are not dissimilar in flavor and texture to Sesame Semolina. To make the dish, toast the bread, though if you prefer, using it fresh, just as it is, works well too. Pour on a reasonably generous amount of good olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Take some super-high-quality canned tomatoes—out of both a commitment to full flavor and friendship, I’m loyal to the lovely Bianco di Napoli tomatoes from my friend Chris Bianco (whose pizza in Phoenix is well worth going out of your way for). The Miragallo or Gentile tomatoes we have on hand from Italy are outstanding as well. Cut the tomatoes in half with a paring knife and press the cut side into the bread. Push gently so the bread absorbs the juices without tearing. Place the squeezed tomato pieces on the slice. Finish with a sprinkle of high-quality dried oregano—we have an especially great one at the Deli right now, hand-picked in Turkey just before the flowers open.

You can get the Sicilian Sesame Semolina Bread this coming weekend at the Bakeshop and Deli.

Or learn how to make it yourself