Overview (Has Gluten)
Semolina flour is made from milled endosperm of durum wheat. Durum wheat was one of the first crops to be domesticated, and evidence shows that it originally came to us from the Levant Region of the Near East and the Ethiopian Highlands about 10,000 years ago. We know it was cultivated in Byzantine Egypt, and used for traditional dishes such as couscous and tabouleh. Durum semolina is ground into a soft, yellow, coarse flour. It is high in protein, which means it is high in gluten. After it is milled into flour, this high gluten content makes it ideal for pasta, breads, pastries, porridges, and soup.
Semolina is widely used for making pasta, flatbreads and pizza dough.
Semolina flour comes in various grades, which could be roughly categorized into coarse, fine and superfine. A coarse grade is used for dusting bread, baking trays, and canvases. Fine grade is used in semolina pasta and combined with other flours in the baking of breads. Superfine semolina is used to bake pastries, cakes, and deserts.
