Elements » semolina flour

Semolina Sandwich Bread

Sheila — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 06:27:19 +0000

I love trying new bread recipes, and I was excited when I found a bread recipe which included semolina (along with bread flour) in the dough. I made it the other day, and I have to say it turned great!!!

The bread is soft yet firm enough for sandwiches. And it tastes great!!

We cut some of the bread into small, bite-sized pieces and then made mini cheese, olive, and Peppadew sandwich bites with them.

The next day we enjoyed dipping our bread in raw lentil hummus. Yummm!! (Recipe for the raw lentil hummus is coming soon.)

Anyway, I’ll definitely be making this bread again and again. It’s absolutely wonderful!!

If you want to learn how to make it, head over to www.seriouseats.com for Donna Currie’s recipe. I didn’t braid my bread the way she did because I wanted loaves to make sandwiches. But certainly give it a whirl if you like. The bread is really easy to make and it melts in your mouth! You’re gonna love it!

Greek Walnut Cake

Sheila — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:09:47 +0000

I’ve been wanting to make a Greek cake for some time now. I found several recipes online, and I also have several recipes in book I have here at home. Well, last night was the perfect time to make one. I only had a few hours to throw a cake together, and I also wanted one which was sweet but not too sweet. I reduced the sugar in cake’s syrup, and it turned out to be just right. You could really feel the walnuts, and the sweetness wasn’t overpowering. It was also quick and easy to make. If you decide to try it sometime, keep in mind that this cake is not at all soft and fluffy, but rather it’s a very dense cake.

Our friends really enjoyed the cake after dinner last night, and they said this cake is a good one to enjoy for breakfast. It certainly does go quite well with coffee or tea. Kemal and I enjoyed the cake as well, but the next time I make it, I’m going to make it in wider cake pan.

I have a set of three round Springform pans, and I used the smallest one. Next time I’ll use the middle size so the cake isn’t quite as tall. This is because when I poked holes in the cake with a toothpick, the toothpick wasn’t long enough to make holes all the way to the bottom of the cake. This resulted in the syrup not reaching the very bottom of the cake so the bottom part of the cake was too dry.

It was still a delicious cake, but I want the moistness of the cake to be even throughout the entire cake, including the bottom.

I wish I could show you a picture of the cake after it was cut, but I needed to bring the cake to our friends’ house, and I didn’t want to bring it cut. I had only a few minutes to photograph the cake before we left the house. Here’s what it looked like:

Greek Walnut Cake (Adapted from Nancy Gaifyllia, Greekfood.about.com)

Olive Oil Crackers

Sheila — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:11:21 +0000

I just had to have crackers to go with my split pea soup yesterday so I made two kinds…sesame olive oil and pesto basil. Here are the pesto basil crackers:

You can see a picture of the sesame olive oil crackers here. They’re on my plate with the split pea soup.

You just make the olive oil cracker recipe below and then top with whatever your heart desires. They’re very easy to make, taste great, and crunch beautifully! Top them, dip them, spread stuff on them, crunch them!

Believe me, I know all about crunching…it’s one of my favorite things to do. I love almost anything crunchy…something about that lovely sound is music to my ears. Okay, are you ready to crunch and munch? Get ready, get set, CRUNCH!!!!

Olive Oil Crackers (Recipe Source: Heidi Swanson from www.101cookbooks.com)

Note: I thought these homemade crackers would make a lovely gift during the holidays, especially if they were put in a holiday tin to make it look more festive; however, I’ve found out otherwise. They tasted good enough to give as as gifts, but I just had a pesto cracker with my coleslaw for breakfast, and the cracker lost some of its crispness after only 24 hours of being made. The olive oil sesame seed crackers were still as crispy 48 hours after making them as they were right after making them; however, by the third day, they were getting stale and loosing their crisp.

I think the pesto crackers lost their snap so quickly because the pesto topping is heavier and thicker than a light brushing of olive oil and a few sesame seeds. I’m not sure why the olive oil sesame seed crackers didn’t stay fresh more more than 48 hours though. I’m disappointed in that.

I think the next time I make these I’ll cut the recipe in half since they don’t last very long. And in the meantime, I’m going to try a few more cracker recipes to see if I can find one in which the crackers stay fresh and crispy for a longer period of time.