I’ve been playing around with a new bread formula.
It’s a lower hydration (69%) version of my ciabatta con semola rimacinata di grano duro, and it’s proven (no pun intended) to be a good base dough for shaping.
- 300g active sourdough starter (fed at a ratio of one cup water to one cup flour)
- 580g cold water
- 500g bakers/bread flour
- 500g Semola Rimacinata di Grano Duro (remilled durum wheat semolina flour)
- 18g fine sea salt
Note: don’t be tempted to use fine or coarse semolina instead of remilled semolina (durum wheat) flour – the former is too coarse and won’t absorb enough water, and you’ll end up with a soggy mess. If you can’t find the rimacinata, substitute more bread flour or 00 flour in its place and reduce the water to 550g.
. . . . .
I’ve been experimenting with a new shape, inspired by this photo sent to me by my friend Anna in Paris. It’s known as La Sarmentine – a sarmenteux is a climbing plant, and Anna thinks the name might be related to that.
The bread is made by shaping a long baguette and then using scissors to cut a slit into the ends of each loaf to allow them to be separated into “ears”. I was really happy with the crumb…
. . . . .
Also, inspired by Brydie’s quest, I’ve used this dough to make Italian style rolls. After half a dozen phone calls, I finally tracked down a rosetta stamp at Chefs’ Warehouse (and I’m still wondering why I didn’t just call them first!).
The dough was shaped into 125g balls, before being imprinted with the cutter. Each batch of dough made 15 rolls…
Shape the bulk proved dough into a tight ball first, then dust the top well with rye flour and stamp hard – right through to the bottom of the ball. Dip the cutter into rye flour before each press, and allow the rolls to prove a second time before baking. I didn’t manage to achieve a hollow centre, but Small Man did declare at dinner that he thought these were my “best breads ever”…
I now own three cutters – the rosetta stamp, plus a couple of German made metal ones which were a gift from the lovely Chris (who is not cranky, despite what his girls call him)…
I haven’t had much success with the small metal star-shaped one yet, but the spiral one has produced amazing rolls, which look like small sculptures…
This new dough recipe has been very popular – we’ve had the neighbours over filling large paper bags with rolls for school lunches…
Playing with bread is always such fun – thanks Brydie, Anna and Chris for inspiring this latest baking adventure!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Wish I could call past and fill my paper bag with 13 of the best! They look great and such like the real ‘ rosetta’ panino. Congrats! x
Thanks Yvette! They were great fun to make! :)
I sooo wish I lived closer to you, too Celia. I think I’d be popping in quite frequently. Just off to the Chef’s Warehouse now to order one of those cute little cutters ….
Amanda, you’d always be welcome! The cutters only seem available from Chefs – I searched and searched and couldn’t find them anywhere else!
The stamps are fantastic. I’ve always wondered how they make the breads with the little knobbly bit on the top.
I think those loaves look like lady legs or someone dancing!
Thanks Claire – I think they look a bit like conjoined rabbits.. ;-)
I LOVE the spiral cutter results Celia. I wondered how they would turn out. They could well be better than the classic rosetta….big call I know!
As someone who got to take home a bag of rolls for kids lunches I can only agree that these rolls are a marvel. They didn’t get quite the same excited response as the fresh peas from your garden. Although to be fair Sam did not get a chance to try them. Tara and I ate a pea each and then looked at the third one that we were supposed to be saving for Sam. After about a minute we decided that we would eat it and quickly feed the shells (evidence) to the chooks so Sam would never know what he missed out on. I have found my packet of growing peas and I am going make sure I plant them this weekend. Oh and make some rolls too!
SG, aren’t they just so cool? I was really chuffed with how they turned out! I’m sorry Sam missed out on peas – maybe he’ll have to come and get his own.. :)
I am jealous of your bread making abilities!! – I started to research sour dough and making my own but have put it in the too hard basket (for now) I wish I could fill a paper bag with those gorgeous looking rolls! well done :-)
Thanks Ally! Sourdough really isn’t tricky once you’ve established a rhythm…
Those rolls are beautiful!! Makes me eager to get back to bread-baking……
Abby, thank you! We don’t buy bread, so I find it hard to not bake, or there’s no bread for lunches! :)
What an awesome job – the rosetta stamped rolls look wonderful! I saw shell shaped rolls today (like conch shells), but have no idea how they’re done ..
Thanks Keely – shell shaped rolls sound like a challenge!
OH! How lovely!
I wish I had a paper bag full.
I will have to make some- between you and Brydie, I am feeling low on the bread pole!
Heidi darling, that would be impossible, you are the breadshaping queen!! I would love to be able to give you a paper bag full though.. :)
Young Dredgemeister, nearly 7, was kindly given a bag of Celia’s rolls last night as he’d shown such enthusiasm for her earlier baking efforts. He inhaled one at her place and then had the majority of another back here – all AFTER dinner. THis morning he went off with a third smothered in Vegemite for lunch, having noted that our neighbourhood chef would blitz Masterchef if she ever wanted to . Given that competing in the TV cook-off would mean 3 months away from our street, this will not be permitted.
It was nice that he came over and picked his own! Trust me, I’m not going anywhere (at least not willingly!). :)
Your best bread ever- now that’s a recomendation! My favourite is the spiral shape, it’s just so very pretty. A feast for the soul as well as the belly!
Becca, I was so pleased with that – it was so visually appealing! Tasted pretty good too.. :)
Ooh what perfect little rosetta rolls and I had no idea you needed a stamp to get that. I always assumed it was a bit of deft twisting action.
Lorraine, I think you can make rosetta rolls through clever shaping, but probably not with the dough I was using. I know for a fact that most of the bakeries make them with a stamp! :)
just love love these rolls..it’s torture not being able to whip one out of my computer screen and chomp into it.. :)
I agree with teawithhazel….looking at your pictures always makes me hungry! they all look so very yummmmmm! :)
Jane, Shelley, thank you! The boys have made short work of the ones that were left! :)
Beautiful buns! I’ve never heard of bread stamps and I’m now on a mission to track some down. Thanks as always for such detailed instructions – I learn so much with every bread post you publish Celia.
Thanks Sally! I’d never heard of them prior to last week either! I have the lovely Joanna to thank for that.. :)
Here’s her original post:
http://zebbakes.com/2011/08/16/o-is-for/
Celia you are amazing! Thankyou for making it seem so easy to do such complex things – I still think its probably complex but reading your posts I feel like it just might be possible!! We have a “Chef’s Warehouse” in Adelaide so I’m going to check out if its a “Nirvana” like the Surrey Hills one!
Julia, that makes me happy, thank you for saying that! Complex is just lack of practice, and stuff ups are almost always edible! :) I hope your Chefs Warehouse is as cool as ours! :)
What fun you’ve been having, Celia! Loving the shapes produced by the cutters, especially the spirals. I think my girls would declare them “Snail Buns”. :)
Chris, that’s perfect, snail rolls! :)
Spectacular, Celia!
I’m still so ‘green’ at baking bread that I’m a bit confused by the reference to 00 flour. I’ll have to search the internet and see if that’s somewhat equivalent to my usual white strong bread flour.
And your photography skills are quite excellent, also. :D
Misk, thank you! The 00 flour is a fine grade Italian flour. It’s as soft as talc and produces a more delicate crumb than regular bread flour. The one I have isn’t particularly high in protein, so I usually combine it with regular bread flour when I’m using it for loaves.
until today I did not know you got bread stamps! Thanks for letting us all know :)
Tandy, I’m only a week or so ahead of you! I didn’t know about them until recently either! :)
Those spirals are superb! Wow Wow Wow! Thanks for the mention too darling. My first batch has proved very popular here at home and I am on the track of a recipe and method to obtain those holes, but in the meantime we are all so happy! Rosettas flowering everywhere :D
Such a quest Brydie set us all on, just like the Knights that say Ni.. :)
Can’t wait to see your flowering rosettas!
Those rolls are beautiful! I wish I could do something like this. I can’t even get the regular bread recipe right…
Tes, I’m sure you’ll nail it! You make such beautiful food! :)
I am very impressed!
Thanks Cindy! :)
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Big smile here :-) To think the whole thing only began a week ago.
Now that spiral stamp…oh la la! That makes it look very fancy pancy!
That’s the next one you’ll have to get, Brydie! Thanks again for the inspiration! :)
thanks for sharing this bread. I like to try this one. btw, can you explain how you get the hydration of 69%?
Sure…
300g starter at 166% hydration = 112.5g flour + 187.5g water
So total flour = 112.5g + 1000g = 1112.5g
and total water = 187.5g + 580g = 767.5g
Hydration equals % water to flour = 767.5/1112.5 x 100 = 68.98%
I had no idea those fancy shapes and patterns were done with a stamp! I always thought they were lovingly crafted individually by bakers rolling, cutting or twisting the dough. Those stamps do give a very “professional” look to the finished product though.
Kate, it’s a fun discovery, isn’t it? I was sure a week ago that they were all crafted by hand too! :)
Oh, that looks fun to make all those rolls!! I particularly like the snail rolls too. I’ve never seen those stamps for sale anywhere. I’d love to have the snail one. I think the La Sarmentine shape is cool too. When I first saw it, I thought it looked like a great fetch toy for a dog to chase after. The crumb shot makes it look very yummy indeed.
Melanie, they would make great dog toys!! We had another one last night – we’ve taken to referring to them as “conjoined rabbits”. :)
Here’s another baker who hadn’t seen these stamps till I saw them on Joanna’s blog. Now I am on a quest to find some, they look so good …. you have very lucky neighbours, Celia.
Jeannette, Joanna was right to refer to them as “obscure objects of desire”.. ;-)
Now I am getting really excited about my sourdough starter that should be coming any day now!! I will be back here for tips! c
A new starter is very exciting indeed! We bought ours from Northwest Sourdough and it’s been going strong now for five years! Hope you have fun with yours! :)
I’m visiting Sydney this weekend and hoping to get a peek at chef’s warehouse as we’re staying close by :) Is the rimacinata similar in texture to normal flour? I’ve never seen it, I only have semolina (and no idea whether it’s coarse or fine!)
Kat, will you be here by Friday? They’re not open over the weekend unfortunately…
The rimacinata isn’t like ordinary semolina – at least not like the sort I’ve seen available here. It’s very finely milled, much finer than the “fine semolina” they sell locally, and is like a true flour. I’ve only seen that grade in Italian flours.
Wow! Those lovely shapes are made with a bread stamp? I think those stamps are so neat. Never heard of them before. Do you think I can get them in Canada? Your bread/rolls look delicious, too bad we don’t live closer. I’m sure my family would enjoy them. Thanks, Celia, for sharing.
Manuela, surely you can get everything in Canada? :) It would be lovely if you lived closer too! :)
I get there early afternoon tomorrow so the plan is to visit first thing :)
I’ll have to pay more attention to semonlina flour!
Oooh, have fun! Can I suggest some things to look out for? They have a fabulous French hazelnut oil which we love, and their vanilla pods are very reasonable if you can split a pack with friends – they sell 500g for $75, which brings it down to about 70 – 80c/pod. We buy all our chocolate there – the Callebaut comes in 2.5kg bags as well as 10kg bags. Lots of breadbaking supplies too – bannetons, cutters, scrapers etc. Take money! :)
What a visual feast Celia. Do you mill your own flour and if so what have you found to be the best purchase? Our sourdough making has finally begun with the first batch edible albeit a bit tough on the outside. Happily we have located an organic wheat and rye grain grower close by.
It`s been a week for celebration, our chooks produced their first normal sized egg after a few weeks of smallish brown ones. Now we have organic wheat they`ll be starting a different diet.
Lorna, I don’t mill my own, but I have found a couple of millers that I’m really happy with. I have a couple of close friends who are millers and they’ve advised that it’s hard to make really good holey bread from newly milled flour – it needs to rest at least six weeks after milling before it’s good for bread. The other thing I’ve found is that for the bread I want to make, stoneground flour doesn’t really work as the flour doesn’t get milled to a consistently fine texture. Thankfully these days it’s possible to buy roller-milled organic flour if you look around (although I don’t use organic flour – it’s a bit too exy for our budget!).
Great news about your chooks! :)
Celia, Is the star-shaped stamp for Kaiser rolls?
Abbington, I think so! :)
[…] beautiful Rosetta Baking here from Brydie who started this quest and from Celia who found the presses in Sydney and has developed a dough using semolina rimacinata with great […]