Semolina Country Bread, made with Biga

SemolinaCountryBread.txt

Semolina Country Bread, from Biga

Biga (Italian bread starter)

from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook, by Beth Hensperger

1 2/3 cups warm water
1/3 t SAF yeast or 1/2 t bread machine yeast
3 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose or bread flour

Place water and yeast in the bread pan. Add the flour. Program machine for dough cycle and press start. 
Immediately set a timer for 10 minutes. When timer rings, press stop and unplug the machine. You will 
have a stiff dough ball that will loosen and become moist as it sits. Let starter sit in machine for 
about six hours. Prepare a plastic container (~1qt.), spraying sides, top, bottom with oil spray. 
Label with the date and refrigerate. Can keep for up to 2 weeks. You can also freeze in 1/4 cup chunks 
(this is what I recommend, it helps with laziness).

Semolina Country Bread (made with Biga)

from The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook, by Beth Hensperger

1 cup warm water
1/4 cup Biga
1 t SAF yeast or 1 1/2 t bread machine yeast
2 T olive oil
1 1/2 cups bread flour *
1 cup semolina flour
1 t gluten flour
1 1/4 t salt

* you can experiment with this, I've had good luck with 1 cup bread flour, 1/2 cup wheat flour, with about 
2 T of buckwheat flour added to the 1/2 scoop before you measure out the wheat flour on top of the buckwheat 
flour... gives the loaf a more rustic look and flavor.

Put all ingredients into the bread pan, use the French bread cycle, 1 1/2 Lbs loaf (if you have a 2 Lb machine), 
light crust. If you use the dough cycle (works great), preheat the oven to 425° F, form dough into a loaf 
(whatever shape you want) and bake for 35-40 minutes.

So, here's how this actually works. You lazily add some ingredients for Biga into your machine, and do the 10 
minute dough cycle thing, then you let it sit for six hours. You can do this in the morning and then fiddle with 
it when you get home from work (more than six hours, but who cares). When you decide the Biga is ready, you grab 
a box of zip locks, and dump in 1/4 cup balls of Biga, one per ziplock. When you've processed all the Biga, 
write what it is and the date with a Sharpie on each bag, and chuck it all in the freezer. Now, you're ready to 
make awesome bread whenever you feel like it. The morning of bread making day (or the night before if you want 
to get fancy with the timer), grab some Biga from the freezer and dump it out of the bag into your bread machine 
pan. When you feel like making bread (or if you're OK with using the timer to cook bread while you work), set 
up the machine following the Semolina Country Bread recipe. About 4 hours later (or longer if you're delaying 
the cycle with the timer), you'll have really great bread. Here's a tip, on "rise 3" or the final rise cycle 
of your machine, if it does more or less than 3, take a peek at the dough ball. If it's all on one side of the 
machine, whack it with a spatula until it's spread out evenly on the bottom of the pan, or at least mostly in 
the middle. That way your bread won't look freakishly tall on one end and short on the other. If you're leaving 
the machine to cook all day while you're at work, you'll just have to trust your luck.

If you get tired of this recipe, grab the book, there's many more Biga-based recipes in it, and it's a great book. 
Me, I'm lazy, and this is a good system, it works for me.