Einkorn Sourdough Bread

Fresh milled einkorn sourdough bread is a staple in my traditional foods kitchen. Einkorn is the most ancient form of wheat, and it has never been hybridized. It is particularly high in protein, B vitamins and trace minerals. Below I am going to share my best recipe for nutritious, buttery, golden einkorn sourdough bread.

Bread (bred)
n.

1. A staple food made from flour or meal mixed with other dry and liquid ingredients, usually combined with a leavening agent, and kneaded, shaped into loaves, and baked.
2. Something that nourishes; sustenance; regarded as necessary for sustaining life
3. Means of support; livelihood

Regarded as necessary for sustaining life…Yes, I do think so. I can’t imagine life without bread, can you? Though many modern people are living without bread – or are eating poor imitations of it – because they can’t digest it. This is a huge red flag to me. That our most basic and nourishing foods, like bread and milk, we can no longer digest. Is it that bread has actually always been bad for us? Or is it the ways in which we have changed bread that make it bad? I believe it is the latter, without a doubt.

Which brings me to Einkorn. This ancient heirloom variety of wheat is thought to be the purest food on the planet. And in fact it is the only wheat never to be hybridized. Einkorn is high in protein, B vitamins and trace minerals. Furthermore, it is easily digestible, even by those who have a gluten intolerance.

A Brief History of Einkorn

Einkorn is thought to be man’s first wheat. Formerly it was a wild wheat (Triticum boeoticum) that grew in the Tigris-Euphrates region. But around 7,500 BC humans began to cultivate it. Henceforth it was the staple wheat. Ötzi the iceman, who lived around 3,300 BC ate einkorn bread as part of his last meal.

Over time other varieties of wheat became cultivated, such as spelt and emmer. And thus einkorn fell out of favor.

Why Use Einkorn?

Breads made using einkorn flour are easier to digest and are higher in nutrients.

Our modern wheats have been bred to give a higher yield and a softer dough. Through the hybridization process, which has been taking place over centuries, we have created wheats with a greater gluten content than we would naturally find. While einkorn does contain gluten, it is in a much smaller quantity than modern wheats. Gluten itself is not bad, it is simply a protein. But our modern wheats contain much more than our bodies can handle. Especially if it is not properly prepared (sourdough).

I share more about the health benefits of sourdough and properly prepared whole grains in this post here and this one here.

Einkorn contains 30% more protein than modern wheat, and 15% less starch. In addition, it has a significantly higher content of vitamins and minerals, including zinc, lutein, manganese and B vitamins.

Tips For Baking Einkorn Sourdough Bread

• I strongly recommend using a kitchen scale and to measure your ingredients in grams. As opposed to measuring in cups. It is much more accurate, and therefore yields consistent results.
• I use a NutriMill grain mill to freshly mill einkorn berries into flour. This isn’t necessary, though flours in general are richer in nutrients when milled fresh. You can purchase all-purpose einkorn flour and whole grain einkorn flour already milled.
• Einkorn flour doughs are always wetter and stickier than modern wheat doughs. It is helpful to handle the dough with wet hands, so that it doesn’t stick all over you!
• Einkorn has a lower gluten content and a different gluten structure. This means that your dough will not get stretchy. It also does not need to be kneaded, but rather gently stretched and folded.

I purchase my whole einkorn berries from Azure Standard.

How to Make Einkorn Sourdough Bread

Here is my typical “Baker’s Schedule”:

• In the morning of day one (around 8am) I feed my starter following the instructions in my sourdough starter post. By the evening of day one my starter is bubbly and ready to be used.
• In the evening of day one (around 7pm) I mix up my dough. I do four rounds of “stretch and folds” (7:45, 8:15, 8:45, 9:15). Then I cover the bowl of dough with a plate and set it in the fridge to ferment overnight.
• In the morning of day two (again around 8am) I remove my dough from the fridge and shape it. Then I place it into a well-floured banneton basket and cover with plastic wrap or bees wrap and a clean tea towel. Then I let it rise for one hour at room temperature.
• While the dough is rising I pre-heat my oven, with my dutch oven inside, to 450 degrees.
• By about 9am I am ready to bake my bread. It bakes for 35 minutes with the lid on, then 15-20 with the lid off.
• Around 10am the bread is ready to come out of the oven. I then place it on a cooling rack for at least one hour before slicing into it. So in our house, the bread is ready to eat at lunchtime.
• I store my bread in a bread box and it keeps fresh for around three days. After that, if there is any bread left, I will slice it or dice it and store it in the freezer to use for french toast, bread pudding, stratas and the like.

Ingredients:
250g Active sourdough starter
315g Purified water
400g Einkorn all-purpose flour
200g Einkorn wholegrain flour
2 tsp. Sea Salt

The Evening Before:

First combine 250g active sourdough starter with 315g purified water and stir together with a wooden spoon until milky.

• If you are milling your own einkorn berries: Measure out 600g of einkorn berries. Run them through your grain mill at a fine setting. Then measure out 400g of the freshly milled flour and sift through a fine mesh strainer. Discard the bran. Leave the remaining 200g einkorn flour whole. Combine the sifted and unsifted flours together in a large mixing bowl.

In a large mixing bowl combine the starter/water mixture with 400g all-purpose einkorn flour and 200g wholegrain einkorn flour. Mix together with a wooden spoon, or your hands. It will be sticky and slightly difficult to work with.

Now cover the bowl with a plate or plastic wrap. Allow it to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minute rest, sprinkle the salt onto of the dough and massage it in.

Next, it is time to start the “stretch and folds”. To do this take one side of the dough and stretch it up, then fold it over into the center of the dough. Rotate to the next side and repeat until all four sides have been stretched and folded. Place the plate or plastic back top of the bowl and rest another 30 minutes. Do a round of stretch and folds every 30 minutes for one and a half hours.

Place the bowl of dough, covered with a plate or plastic wrap into the fridge to ferment overnight.

The Morning of:

Remove the dough from the fridge. It is now time to shape it. Einkorn dough can be a bit tricky to shape. I stretch the sides and fold them over to the bottom, to create a ball.

Next I place my einkorn bread dough ball into a well-floured, linen-lined banneton basket. I cover it with plastic wrap or bees wrap and leave it to rise at room temperature for about an hour.

In the meantime, I preheat my oven, with my dutch oven inside, to 450 degrees F.

Once the oven is hot and my dough has risen some, I dump the dough out of the basket onto a piece of parchment paper. I score it with a bread lame – usually just in a simple X.

Then I pull my dutch oven out of the pre-heated oven and pour a thin layer of cornmeal into the bottom. This does wonders for keeping the bottom crust of the bread from being scorched.

Now I place the dough on the parchment paper into the dutch oven and cover with the lid. Into the oven it goes, and I bake it for 35 minutes with the lid on, then 15-20 minutes with the lid off.

Once the bread is done baking I place it onto a wire cooling rack and let cool at least one hour before slicing.

If you try this recipe and enjoy it, I would be so grateful if you could come back and give it five stars. I love to see your pictures of my recipes, so please be sure to tag me on Instagram @verityfolkschool

As much as I can’t imagine life without bread, we must remember that:

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
    but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)

True nourishment and sustenance comes from God’s word. Stay in it, my friends!

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