I was unable to post to the list for a while, and got tired of trying to
repost this reply to the original enquirer regarding semolina vs durum
flour, but here goes another try--supposedly my e-mail to the list should
now be acceptable again!
Semolina is a coarser grind of flour made from the durum wheat berry; it is
not necessarily a whole grain flour. It's used for pastas and for dusting
things when baking bread, eg, to keep loaves from sticking to baking
bricks. Durum flour is a flour made from the same durum berry, and
probably can be had as whole grain flour or white flour.
Durum wheat berries have a higher protein content than regular wheat, but
it's not supposed to be as good for making bread because the gluten is
different (I presume that means the protein has a distinct amino acid
sequence?).
However, for years I've ground durum wheat berries in my grain mill to make
fresh durum flour and used it to make fine breads with a nutty
flavor. However, without lot of special handling, it makes heavy breads
when I use it by itself. I mostly use it in flatbreads where a chewy bread
with a little less rise is acceptable, and typically as a 50-50 mix with
soft wheat berries (the equivalent of 50-50 durum flour-whole wheat pastry
flour), or occasionally 50-50 with unbleached all purpose flour.
I'd never substitute semolina for durum flour in bread, although I do use
my fresh-ground durum flour for pasta.
Diane Brown in St. Louis
(unrepentant fan of chewy durum flour breads)
brown_d@kids.wustl.edu