Semolina flour is made from durum wheat and it is refined with the bran and germ removed, and the semolina flour is milled from the endosperm (inner-most portion of the grain). It comes in different grinds, as well as a fine (durum) flour (it should say on the package which grind it is - coarse, fine, flour).

If all you have available is in a coarse grind, you can process it for 5-minutes in a food processor until it is finer. The more coarse the semolina, the cookies will have more "tooth" and will be grittier.

-Grainlady

Can you get fine couscous? That's what you need.

Can you get fine couscous? That's what you need.

Why couscous? It's pasta... You dip your hands into the wet flour and rub them together making little balls like sweater pills. It's a totally thankless job, so I'd rather buy machine made couscous. I suppose it'll turn back into flour in a recipe, but it's just as easy to buy a bag of fine semolina, which is what is called for.

Acraftlady, Look for a package in the baking aisle that says "fine semolina" and ignore whether it says "flour". You don't want 00 or "superfine" semolina, which is great for pasta and pizza. You also don't want #2, which is coarse. If it just says "semolina flour" and doesn't tell you the size, it may or may not be right, but probably is okay, since the American idea of what "flour" means isn't coarse. Italian flours are labelled with numbers from 00 to 2, depending on the size of the bits of grain. I can't get a handle on the packaging definition of "fine", which probably doesn't have a standardized meaning, but as long as it says "fine" or "number 1" or "number 0", it should do well in your cookies.

Sometimes there is confusion!!!

GRAIN PRODUCT BASICS - SEMOLINA AND COUSCOUS

More confusion caused by multiple meanings for one product. What is semolina to you - a hot breakfast porridge, a wheat product or baby food? And while we are at it, is couscous a form of pasta? (info)

Couscous with vegetables

Semolina (sem oh LEEN ah) [Alteration of Italian semolino, diminutive of semola, bran, from Latin simila, fine flour, ultimately of Semitic origin.]
1. a hot breakfast cereal made of the endosperm of soft wheat
2. a wheat product cooked and used primarily for baby food and the elderly
3. any coarse ground grain, i.e. rice semolina, corn semolina
4. gritty by-product the flour made from durum wheat used primarily in making pasta
Couscous (KOOS-koos) [French, from Arabic kuskus, from kaskasa, to pulverize; Berber, k'seksu, of Semitic roots.]
1. a hand rolled pasta made of semolina popular in the Maghreb countries (Morrocco, Tunisia, Algeria)
2. a dish of the same name in which couscous is prepared and steamed over a soup or stew primarily of chicken or lamb with vegetables
(Sources from various dictionaries and encyclopedias.)
~ If your associations with semolina is any of the first three definitions given above, then it will be a surprise to learn that semolina is primarily used for producing pasta and couscous - a very unique kind of pasta associated with Moroccan cuisine but indigenous to Tunisia and Algeria as well. Have a look at a box of couscous or any dried pasta and you will find semolina as the main ingredient (some pasta products list semolina and egg).
Semolina is the endosperm or heart of the durum wheat kernel - a hard wheat variety with very high gluten content and high protein to carbohydrate ratio. Durum wheat is more coarsely ground than other flours. The milling process separates the endosperm from the rest of the grain.
Durum flour is finely ground semolina (endosperm). It's amber colour is what imparts the rich yellow typical of semolina pasta which is produced industrially by extruding or forcing the firm dough through metal dies to create the many shapes available. It produces a very resilient product that can stand up to the pasta making process and retain its shape in cooking, even if overcooked.
Don't confuse it though with semolina breakfast cereal, (i.e. farina, Cream of Wheat - US) which is a little finer product and is not made from durum wheat but a softer variety of wheat. It is rather pale, lacking the characteristic amber colour of the true semolina made from durum wheat. In Europe, this breakfast cereal is sold in small packages and called semolina (UK), semolino (Spain and Italy), Griessmehl (Germany) and semoule (France). It is also used to cook desserts and thicken soups etc.. To further confound the issue, farina in Italian refers to flour of any kind.
Couscous is made from durum wheat semolina before it is ground even finer to make durum flour and is a unique pasta favoured in the Maghreb (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria). It also refers to a dish of the same name in which the grains of semolina are prepared in several steps consisting of dampening the grains with handfuls of water and working them between the hands to break up clumps into ever smaller granules. Eventually these granules are placed in a couscousiere, a two part pot containing the couscous in the upper part that has fine holes in its bottom. This is set over the lower part in which a delicious soup usually of chicken or lamb with vegetables is cooked. Couscous, the dish, can also be made of cracked wheat.