Einkorn Sourdough Bread
I’ve been making sourdough bread for years… our weekly pizza recipe is made from our sourdough recipe, but funnily enough I’ve never posted this loaf! Likely it’s because I haven’t been able to eat grains in years… but of late, my son Matt has taken an interest in artisan bread so has been giving his hands to it! This beautiful loaf is his third loaf and he has been trying to “score” a classic “ear”. Unfortunately einkorn doesn’t behave the same as regular gluten flours. The gluten is much more gentle on the gut and people who are non-celiac gluten sensitive can even often eat Einkorn without any issues… as it is the most ancient grain we know of, with only 14 chromosomes to process. It’s easy to break down in the gut and so doesn’t have nearly the inflammatory response in most people as other flours. We have a pretty old sourdough starter… which is realistically older than Matt (I froze it and left it in my parents freezer when I moved to Ireland when the kids were little and it survived!)
It’s not typical for artisan loaves, but we like to add kefir to ours as it helps it stay moist for longer and fluff up a bit more easily without all the tricky einkorn sourdough steps folks usually have to take.
We hope you enjoy it!
Brenna & Matt
Sourdough Einkorn Bread (Overnight or Same Day options)
Ingredients
- 4-6 cups einkorn flour
- 3 tsp sea salt
- 2 Tbsp EVOO Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp yeast optional, but speeds it up. If you don’t use it you’ll want it to rest the full 14 hours
- 1 tsp honey or maple syrup to activate yeast
- 1/2 - 1 cup warm filtered water not too hot, or it will kill the yeast
- 1 cup einkorn sourdough starter
- 1 cup A2 milk kefir or you can use more sourdough starter
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup additional einkorn flour to finish depending on moisture
- 1 cup warm filtered water
Instructions
- Combine flour salt and olive oil in a large bowl, make a well in the center and pour the yeast, honey and warm water. Let sit 10 minutes to activate and for the yeast to consume all the sugars. *Note, if you want this done quickly, like in the same afternoon, use 1 tbsp yeast and 1 tbsp honey.
- The amount of flour will depend on how large a loaf you are planning to make. The smaller end will obviously make a small loaf to feed a couple of people. I will sometimes dump 4 cups of flour in the beginning and 2 cups starter materials (einkorn starter & milk kefir or just einkorn sourdough starter) in with up to a cup of water if I’m going for a couple loaves.
- Pour in the starter and stir it up a bit with some of the flour so it can “sponge” and leave it for a few minutes. Pull in the remainder of the flour with a wooden spoon and add water as needed. The key is to pay attention to the dough. It is an overnight loaf, so you’ll want it to sponge (and look like a thick pancake batter).
- Cover with clingfilm and leave overnight, up to 14 hours. (you can do this early in the morning if you plan to bake it at night.) Again, adding yeast and kefir will speed this up. I often do this and make the dough in the morning to bake for dinner.
- The next day, when you plan to bake, either prepare a brotform to raise the dough by dusting it with flour OR preheat a cast iron pan or pot in the oven to 450°F.
- When it is pungent and bubbly, add a cup of flour and mix with a dough hook, watching it carefully for about 10 minutes to make sure it doesn’t need more flour or water. If you are doing this by hand, bravo, but you might be at it for an hour or so.
- If it is still very wet, add another 1 tbsp to 1/4 cup at a time of flour, but proceed with caution as you want to find the balance between wet and too dry. When the dough forms a ball it is essentially finished. You want to be able to pick it up without it getting completely stuck to your hand.
- Fold it in a ball into itself, pinching the bottom closed several times until you have a nice round.
- Place it into the piping hot Dutch oven or cast iron pan with the pinch seam at the bottom. Dust the top with flour, let proof for an hour at 89°F for an hour or room temperature for longer and when it has puffed up, make your “score” slices. This isn’t necessary, but can make for a pretty loaf. It will burst open of it’s own design otherwise.
- When it looks about ready to bake, as in it has risen to almost the desired size, preheat the oven to 425°F.
- If you have a dutch oven bake with the lid on for 30 minutes, and then remove for another 10-15 minutes of baking.
- If baking in a cast iron pan, check it after 40 minutes. If it is browning on the top and makes a hollow sound when you tap on the bottom, it is finished.
- If you want it less crusty, bake at 380-400 for a little longer. If you want it more crusty, place a sheet pan with a cup of water or a few ice cubes in the rack below in the oven.
Notes