These days it seems I seldom bake bread comprised of only a single flour. Usually, my mind busily weaves together a formula of different flours after I decide on an end goal. The end goal is my compass, dictating the direction as I work backward to make it happen: the flavor from this flour, this one is extra nutritious, add some extensibility with this one, perhaps a bit of color with this other, and maybe some added strength, if necessary. Lately, though, I’ve been focusing down on a formula comprised in total of ancient einkorn wheat flour. I’ve baked with einkorn many times in the past at less than one hundred percent of the total formula (and my einkorn miche is always my go-to for large dinners) but pushing the percentage of einkorn results in unique sourdough bread.
Out of the oven, this bread has a captivating crust: rustic fissures with golden undertones and hints of burgundy. The golden boules, as I like to call them, that have that perfect balance between tender interior and substantial, toothy exterior. The rich and tangy flavor pairs so well with a variety of foods. My favorite use, and right now in perfect seasonal timing, is to use it as a base for fresh chopped tomatoes, basil, extra virgin olive oil, and a dash of balsamic.
The warm—perhaps the best way to describe it—the flavor of the crumb stands up to and balances out, the acidity in the tomatoes and vinegar. It also makes some of the best toast with cultured butter and fresh preserves. The interior crumb of this bread stays moist for days after baking. The rich, warm flavor seems to even amplify as the bread ages a few days after baking. It’s one of those bread, like 100% fresh milled whole grain, where I like to let sit at least half a day (or even until the next day) before slicing. Although, I won’t blame you if you cut into it shortly after taking it out of the oven, a treat we all have to try at least once.
Let’s first discuss einkorn flour selection and then get into a few challenges I’ve discovered with this grain and my proposed solutions.
Einkorn Flour Selection
For this formula, I used Jovial’s organic all-purpose einkorn flour. Their flour has a beautiful creamy complexion, and it clumps readily in hand (indicating plenty of natural oils present). In working with their einkorn for my previous miche, I milled their whole berries just before mixing and included the resulting flour at 100% extraction (whole grain). For this bake, I wanted to push the percentage of einkorn flour and use all-purpose in an attempt at an all-einkorn hearth bread.
Upon mixing einkorn with water, you’ll notice it has a silky, smooth texture. It tends to break apart easily, feels sticky, and makes mixing by hand a little challenging. If you have a danish dough whisk and are accustom to using it, this might be a good time to take it out. Additionally, I’ve found it to be rather picky with hydration: if you push it too high, the dough will quickly become unusable. As I said above, be conservative with the water through mixing and only add it if the dough feels and looks like it’s able to take more. More on mixing and hydration in the next section.
Nutrition
Studies have shown there are health benefits to eating ancient einkorn wheat. In addition to being a good source of dietary protein and some vitamins (especially B vitamins and thiamine), einkorn has been shown to have higher carotenoid (antioxidant) levels, particularly lutein, also known as “the eye vitamin.” And while einkorn is high in protein, it’s gluten levels are relatively low. Thus some who are sensitive to modern wheat seem to do fine with einkorn sourdough bread (of course, each person is different. Einkorn does contain gluten, so it’s not suitable for those with Celiac disease).
For more einkorn nutrition information, including comparisons between einkorn and modern wheat, head over to Jovial’s website.
Einkorn Sourdough Bread Recipe
This dough formula would also make an excellent pan bread.
This recipe yields a relatively challenging dough to work with. However, the following section will discuss some of the observations I’ve made and techniques used when working with this grain. Additionally, and as always, feel free to adjust the timing and formula to align with your particular flour and comfort level.
My goal was to produce a hearth style loaf, but if you find the dough very slack and hard to handle, you can always use a bread pan to make sandwich bread. The structure of the pan will help keep the dough from spreading and make shaping much easier.
Observations and My Approach
Hydration
In my testing, I found the best results, regarding final taste and texture, with the dough at 75% hydration. While 75% hydration may not seem drastically high, always remember this number is directly related to the grain you’re using. In other words, the percentage doesn’t mean much taken out of context; it only becomes meaningful when compared to the flour you’re using (and perhaps even that particular batch of flour). Further, there is no point to increasing hydration if you don’t see a benefit from it — we don’t push the number to push the number. At 75% hydration, the dough is slack and sticky and requires a deft hand when preshaping and shaping.
If this is the first time you are working with einkorn at 100%, I’d suggest you start with 65-70% hydration and work it up through a few successful bakes, if desired.
Mixing
Mixing this dough by hand is challenging because of the sticky nature and low gluten properties of the grain. I found the best approach was to keep my very hands wet (using the mixing water, not adding more) through the mixing process. If you have a Danish dough whisk it might help aid mixing. I also avoid slap and fold kneading or any dough work on the counter — it’s done all in the bowl, relying on several additional sets of stretch and folds during the bulk to finish strengthening.
Pre-shaping and Shaping
Be sure to pre-shape and shape the dough tight using well-floured (or use water) hands. A tight pre-shape will help impart critical structure to the dough after dividing, setting the stage for a uniform and tight final shape. The dough should show its strength with defined edges when it’s placed in the proofing basket. I have more details, with a picture of the result, in the Shaping section below.
Fermentation Activity
I find this flour leads to an incredibly active dough. In testing, I ended up over proofing an early trial of this dough. To remedy this, I dialed back my levain percentage and employed a stiff levain to help. I would also avoid pushing the cold proof any further than 12-14 hours. Even though in a home fridge the dough is kept very cold at 38-39°F (3-4°C), the dough can quickly overproof.
Einkorn Sourdough Starter
To ensure this bread is truly 100% einkorn, you’ll have to convert your starter over to an all-einkorn sourdough starter if you don’t already maintain one. An alternative to this would be to create a second starter from your current one and feed it einkorn flour for a few days to convert it over. I’ve made this recipe with both a modern wheat starter (my typical sourdough starter) and also an all-einkorn 100% hydration variant—both work equally well.
Ok, on with the formula!
Vitals
| Total Dough Weight | 2000 grams |
| Pre-fermented Flour | 3.50% |
| Hydration | 75% |
| Yield | 2 x 1000g boules |
Einkorn Sourdough Levain
In testing this formula, I found the best performance, taste, and timetable when using a stiff einkorn levain. Even though the flour I’m using is sifted (all-purpose) and not whole grain, this dough can quickly overproof at warmer temperatures. To offset this I found myself gravitating to a stiff levain at a very low pre-fermented flour percentage. Mostly, I treated this all-purpose flour as I would whole grain.
At 100% inoculation (the percentage of ripe starter used to build the levain) my levain was ready to be mixed into the dough after 3 hours at 77-80°F (25-27°C).
When assessing readiness, look for a leveling off of the “dome” that is created as this levain is ripening. Additionally, you’ll see significant aeration at the sides, and if you gently poke at the top, it’ll give readily under pressure. This levain is a fast build: it ripens from the first feeding to maturity in only 3 hours. The high inoculation percentage and warm temp expedite the timetable. If you’d like to lengthen this build to better fit your schedule, drop the inoculation down to 50% ripe starter and it’ll be ready around 5-6 hours.
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 39g | Ripe sourdough starter (100% hydration) | 100% |
| 39g | All-purpose einkorn flour (Jovial organic all-purpose einkorn) | 100% |
| 17g | Water | 45% |
Dough Formula
Target final dough temperature (FDT) is 76-77°F (24-25°C). For more information on final and desired dough temperatures, have a look at my guide to the importance of temperature in baking.
Note that the baker’s percentages listed below are with respect to the final dough ingredients and do not take into account the levain.
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 1066g | All-purpose einkorn flour (Jovial organic all-purpose einkorn) | 100.00% |
| 6g | Diastatic malt powder (optional) | 00.52% |
| 811g | Water | 76.09% |
| 22g | Salt | 2.07% |
| 95g | Ripe, stiff levain (see above) | 8.89% |
Method
1. Stiff Levain – 10:00 a.m.
Build the levain (everything listed in the Levain section, above) and store somewhere around 77°F (25°C) ambient until ripe, about 3 hours.
2. Autolyse – 12:45 p.m.
Einkorn has little in the way of extensibility: it tends to tear and fall apart when stretched. I experimented with varying autolyse times between 15 minutes and 1 hour and didn’t notice any significant improvement to extensibility or improved mixing. Here, I opted for a short 15 minute autolyse to give the flour time to hydrate fully. If this isn’t convenient, skipping the autolyse period would also work.
If you choose to autolyse, add the called for flour, malt powder, and all but 150g of the mixing water to a bowl and mix together by hand. Cover the bowl and let rest for 15 minutes.
3. Mix – 1:00 p.m.
To the bowl containing the flour and water from the autolyse step above, break up the ripe, stiff levain on top and add a splash of the reserved water. Mix by hand, or with a dough whisk, until well combined. The mix will be very wet and almost look like it won’t hold together. Perform folds in the bowl to add strength for 5 minutes. Mixing in the bowl keeps things relatively clean and contained.
Let the dough rest for 10 minutes, covered.
Add the salt to the top of the mixed dough with a splash of the reserved water. Mix thoroughly. At this time assess the dough: does it look like it can handle the remaining 150g of water? If so, add the water, if not, omit the remaining water.
It’s essential to hit the 76-77°F (24-25°C) desired dough temperature for this dough, use an instant-read thermometer (like my trusty Thermapen), and make sure the temp of your dough is in this range.
Transfer the dough to a tub or thick-walled bowl for bulk fermentation.
4. Bulk Fermentation – 1:20 p.m. to 4:50 p.m.
Perform a total of 5 sets of stretch and folds during the bulk. The first set is 15 minutes after the start of bulk, and the second set is 15 minutes after that. From there on, the remaining sets are 30 minutes apart. After the last set, let the dough rest for the remaining bulk fermentation time.
If you nailed the final dough temperature, and it’s kept fairly warm, the dough should be ready to divide after 3 hours and 30 minutes.
5. Divide & Preshape – 4:50 p.m.
At the end of bulk, as seen below, the dough will have risen some (perhaps not as much as you might be accustom to), be smooth on top, and show signs of healthy fermentation. If you gently shake the bowl, the dough mass will jiggle. Dump the dough from the bulk container to a lightly floured work surface. The dough will be wet, sticky to the touch, and will likely want to spread some. Using well flour hands and a bench knife, divide the mass in half and shape each half into tight rounds. This can be challenging; use as much flour as needed and shape as tight as possible.
Let the dough rest for 15 minutes, uncovered. Keep an eye on the dough, if it starts to spread quickly, skip the remaining rest time and proceed directly to shaping.
6. Shape – 5:05 p.m.
Liberally flour your shaping area and the top of your rested, and relaxed, rounds. Using a bench knife and your hand flip one round over. Fold the bottom up to the middle. Then fold each side, left and right, over to the other to form what looks like an open envelope in front of you. Then, grab the top and fold it up and down to about the middle. You can then flip this whole package over and use both hands to drag the dough down towards you as your pinky fingers create tension. If the dough needs more tension, slightly rotate the mass and continue to drag down with both hands. Repeat as necessary. Using your bench knife invert the round into a proofing basket liberally dusted with white rice flour. To encourage maximum rise the next day, be sure to shape each round tightly. After you place the shaped round in the basket, I found performing two “tucks” of the dough to help it keep shape (see above). Using wet or floured hands, grab the very side of the dough with two hands opposite each other and gently pull up and over to the center to seal. Rotate the boule and repeat the tucks at the opposite ends (you’ll end up with four flaps overlapping in the center).
7. Proof – 5:15 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. (the next day)
Cover each basket with plastic to prevent it from drying out as it proofs overnight. In my home fridge at 38°F (3°C), I proofed this dough for 14 hours.
8. Bake – Preheat oven at 6:30 a.m., Bake at 7:30 a.m.
I baked these boules on my Baking Steel in my oven (see my post on how to steam your home oven for baking), but you could also use a Dutch oven or combo cooker. I baked one round at a time, but you might be able to fit both on your baking surface.
Preheat your oven with baking stone/steel for one hour at 450°F (230°C).
Prepare a pizza peel and two pieces of parchment paper. Remove the dough from the fridge, uncover the baskets, and turn out the dough from the proofing basket onto the parchment that is resting on the pizza peel. Score the dough with a bread lame as desired, and load into your preheated oven by dragging in each piece of parchment holding the dough.
Bake for 20 minutes with steam. Then, remove the steaming pans from inside the oven (or remove the lid to your combo cooker) and bake for an additional 30-35 minutes, or until done, without steam in the oven.
Once fully baked, let the loaves cool on wire racks for at least one, preferably two, hours.
Conclusion
While there might be a few challenges in working with this dough, with practice it yields an outstanding einkorn sourdough bread. The result is a solid, flavor-laden loaf that is sure to delight. Due to the gluten properties of einkorn, you won’t achieve a tall rise out of this bread, but that’s beside the point — it’s all about flavor, texture, and nutrition here. The subtle, tang from natural fermentation paired with the warm, round taste of einkorn results in a truly memorable bread.
Crust
The crust is rugged and deeply colored, igneous even. It’s this kind of crust that has me reaching for the bottle of extra virgin olive oil each time I happen to walk by the cutting board. And to be honest, that happens a little too often on the day this bread is baked.
I like a heavy dusting of white rice flour in the proofing baskets to provide a little aesthetic contrast, a slight reprieve, to the well-colored exterior. The crust is always the first thing you see when you pick up a loaf of bread, and when you see one like this, it’s hard to resist the urge to cut—or even tear—forthwith.
Crumb & Taste
When well fermented, the interior is light and uniformly open. This is a substantial loaf of bread, but through proper fermentation each slice has levity to it, providing just the right amount of chew. The tender interior texture is rather surprising: even days after baking this bread seems to hold on to its moisture, retaining that tenderness and soft chew much longer than expected. Still, be sure to store your bread properly for maximum shelf life.
Thanks to the stiff levain and lengthy fermentation timeline this einkorn sourdough bread has just the slightest of tang at the end of each bite. This subtle sourness heightens your sense of taste, allowing the rich, yet sweet, the flavor of the grain to fully express itself. I would venture to say this bread ranks up there with some of the most flavorful I’ve made.
Thanks so much to Jovial for sponsoring the development of this einkorn recipe and for this post! As always, the opinions and content here are my own.
If you use this recipe, tag @maurizio on Instagram so I can take a look!
Einkorn Sourdough Bread FAQs
The dough is very sticking when mixing, how can I make this easier?
I find hand-mixing this dough in the bowl to be easiest. A dough whisk might help keep your hands clean during the initial stages of mixing. From there, keep your hand moist when doing folds in the bowl to prevent the dough from sticking. My recipe relies more on stretch and folds during bulk fermentation than strengthening the dough up front so don’t worry if the dough isn’t super smooth at mix-time.
The dough is hard to shape, what can I do?
While einkorn is high in protein, its gluten properties aren’t the same as modern wheat. This results in a dough that can be overly sticky and wet by the end of bulk fermentation. If you’re having trouble shaping, try reducing the hydration of the dough next time (see the section below for the formula at 70% hydration). This will help bring a lot of strength to the dough, making it more manageable during shaping.
Why doesn’t the dough rise when I bake it?
While there could be many causes for this, my initial guess is usually over-proofed dough. Try reducing the proof time in the fridge by 2-4 hours and see if this helps eke out more rise.
I’m not getting a nice ear when I score and bake, what gives?
This dough will not yield a super high ear (the area that lifts up on a loaf where it’s slashed). Other causes could be a dough that’s over proofed, not shaped tight enough, or simply not scored deep enough.
What’s Next?
If you’re looking for another large loaf, my Hop Miche, made with a dark, malty stout, has all the lovely qualities of a large loaf (keeping quality! Incredible crust! Delicate crumb!) but with a rich and earthy flavor.
Happy baking!
171 Comments
Hi Maurizio,
I have to start by saying thank you, again. You provide so much valuable information, and so beautifully.
I have some questions about flours – I am gluten intolerant and have been baking with spelt and some einkorn. I have ordered 25 lbs of organic whole grain einkorn from einkorn.com and am anxiously waiting for it to arrive.
I have struggled some with the all-spelt loaves I’ve been making. They’re not bad, but they’re far from perfect! 🙂 I have been reading about extensibility, elasticity, different types of flours, etc. in an attempt to get better results, and in re-reading you all-einkorn recipe, I got confused.
In that recipe, you note that einkorn is “low gluten” and you explain that you experimented with autolysing the dough to increase extensibility. That completely confused me. I thought that the ancient flours were considered high-extensibility? I went looking around and found some studies of the ancient grains – one study I found (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6769531/) noted that einkorn, emmer and spelt have much higher ratios of the GLIA/GLUT gluten proteins than modern wheat.
Common wheat is most suitable for bread making, because the flour forms a viscoelastic dough with a high gas
holding capacity when it is mixed with water. In contrast, flours of ancient wheats yield softer dough with low elasticity
and high extensibility because of their poor gluten quality [1,9,10,11].
It is generally accepted that gluten proteins are one of the most important factors determining the baking quality of
wheat flours. Gluten proteins are storage proteins and classified into gliadins (GLIA) soluble in aqueous alcohol and
glutenins (GLUT) soluble in aqueous alcohol only after reduction of disulfide bonds. Not only the amount, but the ratio
between GLIA and GLUT (GLIA/GLUT) has been shown to be responsible for good baking quality. GLIA/GLUT of
common wheat is typically 1.5–3.1 [12,13], but a recent study showed that the GLIA/GLUT of ancient wheats was much
higher (spelt: 2.8–4.0; emmer: 3.6–6.7; einkorn: 4.2–12.0) [11]. However, only samples grown at a single location were
used in this study and it is known that the soil and climatic conditions combined with fertilization have a large impact on
protein quantity and quality. We previously identified the GLUT content and GLIA/GLUT as good predictors of baking
quality and, thus, high bread volume of flours from both modern and ancient wheats [11].
Then there’s this – https://www.einkorn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Grain-Nutrition-Comparison-Matrix.pdf, which shows the protein content of einkorn and spelt as either higher or comparable to modern wheats.
So it seems that the different behavior of the ancient grains in baking is due to the different ratios of GLIA to GLUT, not to the overall protein content. The research article I quoted from above says that “Not only the amount, but the ratio between GLIA and GLUT has been shown to be responsible for good baking quality.”
On the Einkorn.com website, they say that “Einkorn’s protein structure…has a higher ratio of the soluble to insoluble proteins. 2:1 in fact. Whereas, modern wheat and other varieties has a ratio of .8:1. Insoluble proteins are difficult for the body to digest. Einkorn’s 2:1 ratio in soluble protein to insoluble may lend to another reason of why it’s easier to digest.”
I’d say that’s probably also why the dough can so easily become over-hydrated? What about extensibility issue? It seems like rather than increasing extensibility that it would be elasticity at issue? Or am I over-thinking this?
Kathy
I just pulled this out of the oven. I baked it at 230 degrees Celsius in my Haussler mono electric brick oven. Cooked for 20 minute with steam and 22 without. It split down the sides, despite adequate use of the lame. Interesting look. I did get oven spring and an ear, which I didn’t expect. Can’t wait to cut into it. I have einkorn berries that I bought from Pleasant Hill Grain. How would the recipe need to change to use fresh milled einkorn.
Glad it turned out mostly well, Deborah! With freshly milled flour, you’ll likely need to increase the hydration of the dough.
I followed the leaven posted for this recipe, insured ambient temperature was warm, but after 3 hours, it had nice bubbles on top but definitely not “stiff”. What could have been wrong? Many Thanks!
So from an inauspicious start I am sitting here smelling the most amazing fragrance wafting from my oven. I am going to be hard-pressed to wait an hour, let alone two. Details forthcoming.
I bought the wrong flour, whole grain einkorn, and not enough. I used regular all purpose for the remainder.
I way overshot on the final dough temperature, about 81F. In order to compensate I left the dough in a cooler location and forgot. So you’re getting the idea. In the end I allowed bulk fermentation to go until the dough looked right, though I could not discern any jiggle. I shaped the dough into boules, but they slipped on my granite counter. To get tension I had to push under then tuck when I got them in the basket. So disaster anticipated, but I baked them in a dutch oven the next day and couldn’t be happier. They rose very high. The last slices, three days later were the best. The bread seems to go from a granular to a silkier texture with time.
So this is my second time working with einkorn. The first with a starter. Let’s just say it has a high learning curve. I completely over hydrated. It was a large gelatinous blob that I was chasing across the work surface. I managed to finally contain it enough to scoop it into some loaf pans. The result was delicious, but nobody else will ever see or taste this. I will lick my wounds, order more einkorn and go back in.
Yes, it’s a challenge to be sure. It’s very, very sensitive to over hydration and the dough in general is sticky and harder to handle. The flavor and nutrition is worth the ordeal, though! And once you get a feel for the dough, it seems to get easier every time.
This recipe was great! I was a little worried during the bulk fermentation that I had messed something up — I ended up leaving it for an extra hour and a half because it didn’t look bubbly enough or have the “jiggle” that the recipe mentions to look for. My temperature control was not great and it was probably lower than recommended, so I think the extra time helped. Even when I shaped and transferred to the fridge, there were fewer air bubbles than expected and not much jiggle. But low and behold, the bread came out so well! It’s got a nice sour twang to it and it feels hearty but with a very pleasant texture. Will make again!
So glad to hear the loaf turned out well, Amy!
Like others, I had to proof for much longer- the whole process took 48 hours. But OMG- worth waiting for- I made the loaf with kalamata olives. Possibly the best bread I ever ate? Got my Einhorn flour from Bench View Farms online. This bread is amazing.
Wow, that’s a long duration—great job on the modifications as needed!
If I skip the overnight cold proof and do a shorter warm proof, how long would you proof for and at what temp?
I’d say around 1-3 hours, temperature depending.
I ordered whole grain Einkorn freshly milled from einkorn.com and am trying this recipe today. Sifted to remove the bran and hoping for a lovely loaf!
I hope it turned out great, Joyce!
I have einkorn berries and a home mill. Could I make this bread using freshly milled einkorn flour? Wondering if I would need to sift out the bran to make it more akin to the all purpose einkorn you used, or if I could use as is and make adjustments (I’m assuming that might mean to shorten the fermentation and proofing times, but not totally sure). I’m trying to make for a friend who (might be) slightly gluten sensitive, so trying to keep it to 100% einkorn, which is why I opted for this recipe instead of your einkorn miche. Thanks for your wonderful recipes!
Jacqueline, I only had one bag of flour which wan’t enough to make the full loaf. I adjusted the ingredients to suit the amount of flour I had. I made the levain the same as the directions called for. My dough formula was as follows: 850g Einkorn flour, 659 of h20 but held back 100 grams, 75 grams of levain and 17 grams of salt. I ended up using about 30-40 g of the water held back. The bread turned out wonderfully! It is very sticky to work with and my dough was a little on the stiff side. I baked it in a combo cooker. I might try a loaf pan next time. This amount would fit in a pullman.
Does it work to half this recipe?
Yes, did this today. Prepared levain as given but used 1/2 of it for recipe. Boule is fermenting in my frig now.
Thank you for this!!! It worked perfectly! It’s delicious but I’d love to add some whole wheat flour to the mix but afraid of messing it up (and don’t have einkorn whole wheat right now – just bob’s red mill). What would you recommend?
Its fine, you can mix flours, I do so both for starter and the actual loaf
Do you happen to have a video of your shaping technique? I’m trying to follow the einkhorn sourdough perfectly, but using milled at home Eikhorn.
I finally tried your method, I have been wanting to but the dough being so hard to work with scared me 🙂 I have been using Jovial’s classic boule recipe which is foolproof and a great easy loaf and is my go to recipe. However, I find mine always turned out a bit dry as compared to what I think it should be and higher hydration was something I wanted to try. The loaves turned out great. The crust was awesome and the crumb was almost exactly what I was going for, much lighter. I was a little scared and didn’t use all of the water but I think I will next time as I think I can get it even more open and lighter with the extra water. It was hard to shape, but well worth the pain. Thanks for this method, my proof times were a lot longer than yours but for the most part I followed your instruction exactly. I will try it with all of the water next time and see how it turns out! Thanks!
I have followed your 100% Einkorn recipe with milling the flour at home. The loaf came out spectacular and the bread tasted fantastic. I used a 40 mesh Screen to sift the flour. My question is would a 50 mesh give me a lighter loaf. Does 50 mesh give me the equivalent of All Purpose flour? In these days (Covid19 ) I have no access to regular store bought bread flour such as King Arthur or Giusto’s although I have ordered from both mills. My second question is what if I mix Home milled Hard Red wha
Wheat Berry flour with Einkorn?
I appreciate any suggestions you have …
Hi maurizio, I can’t find any all purpose einkorn, only whole grain for now. What changes would you recommend if I plan on making a sandwich loaf out of whole grain?
Hi Maurizio, when you say one stretch and fold, how many individual stretches and folds is that?
Usually for me, one set of stretch and folds is comprised of four individual stretches in the bowl, one at North, South, East, and West. (I’m working on a Guide page post about this!)
I am learning to work with this ancient grain. I love the nutrtional value of it.
Lots of nutrition and lots of flavor — a great grain to be sure!
I halved the recipe to make 1 boule. Although shaping was a little sloppy, the loaf turned out fantastic! Thanks for the recipe.
Excellent, Jenny! Glad to hear it went pretty well. Yes, this dough is a challenge at times, but so worth the flavor. Happy baking!
Hi Everyone, Today I made baguettes. The recipe calls for an overnight poolish in which I substituted 35% of the AP flour with home-milled, unsifted einkorn. The results were spectacular! A beautifully carmelized crust and a moist crumb with good texture. The flavor was delicious! I gave two baguettes to a friend who couldn’t sop eating it (I kept the third baguette for myself and have had the same problem tonight with dinner).
My question is: what is the maximum percentage of home-milled, unsifted einkorn flour that you would recommend for baguettes? Do you think I can push the percentage further? At what point would there be diminishing returns?
Happy New Year to you all,
Nancy
Those sound great, Nancy. It’s hard to say how far you could go, I mean, you could go 100% einkorn, but you’d have to expect a more-dense baguette with a thicker crust and less loft to them. Personally, I’d probably stop around what you did: 35-40% to still keep some of that airy quality we look for in baguettes.
Happy New Year!
I’ve been baking with whole grain Einkorn for a few months now, my starter is a month old. My bread tastes great but falls apart. Everything I’ve done so far has been from Carla at Jovial’s recipes & methods. I want to try doing things your way to see if I get a bread that holds together, what changes if any would I make for whole grain?
Hey, Becky! Sorry for the delay. For a 100% whole grain einkorn recipe (I used Jovial as well) check out my 100% whole grain version. Happy baking!
Hi there, this link doesn’t go to your 100% whole grain version, it just goes back to this page. I’m so curious to read about your 100% whole grain einkorn version as I’ve had a lot of trouble with mine. Thank you!
Katie — super sorry about the mixup, I replied to this comment elsewhere and wasn’t on this page, I also misunderstood your question. You’re right, I don’t have a 100% whole grain einkorn recipe (this is 100% einkorn, but sifted). I’ll work on this, though, and get something in the works. I do usually see 100% wg einkorn loaves shaped as pan loaves so the hydration can be pushed pretty far!
Great thank you! I look forward to seeing what you come up with if you dabble with wg einkorn. I’ll try mine in a loaf pan next time.
I’ve made this many times based on your recipe, and it always turns out great. Today, I’m going to try using my new Pullman pans rather than the Dutch oven. Very excited.
Glad to hear that, Jerry. It should turn out wonderful in Pullman pans! Have fun and enjoy.
hi Maurizio!
i’ve been experimenting with the diastatic malt mentioned in this recipe in recent bakes. Specifically, 6 row malted barely that i’m processing in a mockmill. Is an unintended side effect over proofing with diastatic malt? The dough feels and looks great, all the way through shaping. However, 12 hours later at 38deg coming from the fridge, the dough appears to be over proofed. (the dough sticking to the banneton, flattening out when released into cast irons, very difficult to score, little oven spring/ear once baked). My assumption is that the 6 row malted barley has way too much enzymic activity! And even in a cold environment, things are not slowed down enough. I have a dedicated retarder, set between 36f-38f degrees, with 80% humidity. Anyways, I wasn’t able to find too much info on the additional of diastatic malt elsewhere on the internet, so am curious if you have experienced this before! Thank you!
For this dough specifically, in my experience I have not seen a correlation between adding malt and over proofed dough. Adding the malt yielded a higher rise and better crust coloring (which is typical and why we use it), but the dough didn’t have high enzymatic activity to start with, so the malt addition worked well. It is certainly possible that adding the malt pushed your dough into a area with too much enzymatic activity — reducing or removing the malt would certainly help with this.
If you did find a super sticky and tacky dough, it could be enzymatic activity that was too high. I’d say the best way to verify would be a side-by-side test, one batch with malt and one without — this is how I’d typically test. If you get around to doing this before me, let me know the results, I’m very interested!
Hi Maurizio!
Im new to bread baking entirely but decided to give it a try after learning of einkorn wheat flour. I created a 100% einkorn starter and fed it daily for two weeks. Its bubbly and beautiful and despite what I’ve read online it does indeed rise in my kitchen in the first 6 hours after I feed it. Ive made 3 loaves so far… the first one rose during the bake but cracked all around the middle of the loaf and it was super dense and doughy. The second was like a rock totally inedible, and the third… rose during the proof but not during the bake. I raised the temp that time to 450 and it was not doughy but still too dense. I want to give your einkorn sourdough a try but the recipe is more complicated than the ones Ive been using. Have you any suggestions?
Hey, Stacy! It’s hard to say what’s the cause for your dense loaves, it could be lack of fermentation, too much fermentation, over hydration, etc. My recipe is fairly straightforward in terms of making sourdough, I’d say give it a try! Be sure to use your starter when it’s nice and mature to make your levain, and similarly, use your levain to mix into your dough when it’s mature. Give it a try! If you run into issues, take photos and send me an email (in my About page) and I’ll see if we can diagnose.