The second recipe I made from the Breads Section of The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri, was the one for Semolina Sesame Braid, on page 82. (We are not publishing recipes from the book, so if you like what you see, buy the book and bake along with or without us).
The
recipe makes a large 16" loaf of bread which disappeared around here in a day.
Ingredients were: all-purpose flour, semolina flour, salt, yeast,
water, and sesame seeds.
This dough is quite wet. It was easy to work
with when I was mixing it up, resting in the bowl 20 minutes, another
mix, and another rest for 10 minutes, but then when I turned it onto the
board to do the kneading, it was wet, loose, sticky, and hard to
handle.
There was very little in the way of
kneading, just a folding over several times. I had been warned
previously by those in the group who baked this bread previously and was
ready with a bit of extra flour to make it all come together in a soft
dough that was more easily handled, especially since I needed to braid
it.
Go ahead and giggle...what can I say...I cannot braid...all those strands going all those
various ways, who knows what is supposed to go where and how (I am the
least crafty person you will ever meet), but I tried and it sort of
looked braided, kind of. Then on the two hour rise, it puffed up and I
couldn't see the braided strands that well. No matter, it tasted
great!
All in all, very straightforward and simple. It made a
delicious bread, the guys were eating it out of hand and using it to
make sandwiches as well. Definitely a repeat.
If you would like to bake along or be a part of the Modern Baker group, you will find all that, plus a tab to link to the blogs posting the Breads, with the blogroll here.