Doesn't it say it's durum wheat on the package? It's possible to make bread with durum wheat flour (especially hard amber durum), but durum is the high-protein variety of wheat more commonly used for making pasta.

Wheat has a gluten group we commonly call "gluten" and it is actually made up of two types of proteins - glutenins and gliadins. Glutenins provide the elastic quality that allows bread dough to expand, and that is the protein most prominent in hard wheat used for bread making. The dominant protein in durum wheat is gliadin, which contributes to the viscosity and extensibility - which works best for pasta.

Out of curiosity, did the bread have a slightly yellow color? That is a baking trait when using durum wheat flour.

-Grainlady

One thing you can try is to mix it with bread flour when making bread and use 3 parts bread flour to one part of durum flour to start, and not exceed 50/50. You can also add vital wheat gluten to the durum flour - I generally add 1/2 tbsp VWG per cup of alternate flour - that may or may not be enough. Also, you can increase the amount of yeast if you are determined to make a regular loaf of sandwich bread, but I think this flour would be better for making foccacia, pizza, or long Italian style loafs - anything that does not require height.

If you have more than you can use in a short period, I would recommend storing it in the freezer.

Lars

Good tips, but it's never going to be what you want it to be. Another possibility is to donate it to a food charity that knows what to do with it, or trade it with a friend who actually wants to make chapati.

You can also try taking the unopened bag back to the store for an exchange. It's good customer relations for them to accommodate you. Then you could get bread flour and have the rest of the first bag of durum flour for pasta and naan and the hard wheat flour for bread.

Thanks for your help! I was thinking of getting some VWG, or try increasing the yeast. I was also thinking of mixing it with regular flour.

I'm out of regular flour which is why I bought 2 bags of this. :(

I'm hoping I can trade it with someone who uses this bread, I have a request on our local online cafe.

Yes, Grainlady, it's yellowish. It took me aback when I opened the bag!

I'm so happy! I had purchased 2 bags of this flour, and one was unopened (obviously). I took a chance that the store would let me exchange it (no receipt) and they did.

I'm going to work the remaining bag of Golden Temple in with my all-purpose with each batch. e.g. 1 cup GT and 4 cups AP.

Oh, excellent! I'm so glad you were able to exchange it!

Here's a recipe that calls for a combination of durum atta and bread flour. There's also a recipe for spiced banana bread using the durum atta flour. It's supposed to be really good for pancakes, too.

Sounds a bit like semolina flour and that can make a lovely Italian sesame seed topped bread. I'm guessing and would appreciate comments from people who have used semolina.

westsider40-

Semolina (meal) is a coarse grind of flour milled from the endosperm of durum wheat (bran and germ removed). The #1 flour pictured above is just a finer version, also milled from the endosperm of durum wheat. Unfortunately the name "semolina" is often used incorrectly in the U.S. without stating whether it's the coarse meal or the flour, or it says semolina flour when it is the coarse meal.

Before going gluten-free, I regularly milled durum wheat into a coarse-grind meal for a 100% wholegrain version of semolina (not wanting to miss out on the nutrients and fiber only found in whole grains). I also milled durum wheat into a fine flour. You use the coarse grind flour (semolina) for making pasta, and the finer flour is used for making noodles, which is the best use for meals and flours milled from durum wheat. BUT, both can be incorporated into breads.

For instance, the recipe for Semolina Bread from "BREAD A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes" by Jeffrey Hamelman (Director of the Bakery and Baking Education Center, King Arthur Flour), includes 40% bread flour and 60% durum flour.

Beth Hensperger's "The Pleasure of Whole-Grain Breads" recipe for Sesame Semolina Bread uses a sponge made from 2 cups of semolina FLOUR and 2 cups of bread flour, and then an additional 1 c. semolina flour and 2-1/2 to 3 cups bread flour (makes to 2# loaves).

I regularly made a bread machine recipe for Buttermilk Farm Bread that used 1 c. semolina flour and 3 c. bread flour (I milled hard white winter wheat for the bread flour).

There are also lots of recipes for 100% Semolina Flour breads, both flat breads and loaves, but I would suggest using a recipe that is designed for 100% Semolina Flour, and not use a standard bread recipe that uses bread flour (milled from hard wheat) or all-purpose flour (milled from a mix of hard and soft wheat). Durum wheat and hard/soft wheat are different varieties with different dominant protein groups, as I explained above, which work differently in bread recipes.

-Grainlady

Plllog, I make pancakes from scratch regularly, so I'll be sure to use it in that! I'll use it for gravies, making my mayonnaise, etc.....anything that doesn't need leavening.

I'll bet it would be great for pasta, but I don't make that.

There are also some lovely soups that use semolina, if you google around. No personal recommendations (wheat is an asthma trigger for me), but I've often been frustrated looking for, say, a new tomato soup recipe, by the number of the ones I find that call for semolina.

Jasdip, I hope you'll tell us all about it when you get to using your durum atta.

Just for the sake of clarity: Semolina and atta are different on a definitional basis. How to use whole grain durum instead of semolina (see Grainlady's post above) is interesting. The point is that recipes that call for semolina are more adaptable to durum atta flour, than standard bread recipes, where combining with affect the rise. (Which is why I posted the recipe that calls for both as a reference.)

"Semolina", however, is a true synonym for "endosperm". The root of the word means "seed", and the way it's used in European flours, from which we borrow it, is to refer to the endosperm of durum wheat. Italian flours have a fineness rating of 00, 0, 1, 2 which is very clear and easy to understand. North American versions tend to use words like "flour", "meal", "fine" and "coarse" rather indiscriminately, without good standardization.

Durum atta flour is (at least, traditionally) whole grain durum flour. "Atta" means baking flour.

The Golden Temple #1 Fine durum atta is "Durum Wheat Flour and Wheat Bran Blend". It is enriched the way white flour is. The label also says, "May contain Barley, Mustard, Oat, Rye, Soybean and Triticale ingredients," and that the formulation is subject to change. I'm not sure if they use these other grains as conditioners, bran fillers if they don't have enough wheat bran, or if they're just traces from a shared facility.

The blurb on their website calls it "silky" for "feathery" light (Indian) breads, which makes me think it's meant to be similar to #0 or even #00 semolina, but with bran.

There's an easy recipe on the back of the bag for Chappatti which you form into discs and brown. I'm going to try that sometime soon.

This recipe uses fine semolina flour to make very good anise cookies. They are best freshly baked. The dough keeps nicely in the fridge so I'll make a batch and cook 4-6 at a time if I'm not making them for a group.

edited to add the link to the recipe.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lidia's Anise Cookies recipe

This post was edited by cloud_swift on Sun, Jun 29, 14 at 18:37