Baking Einkorn Bread
I recently ground some ancient einkorn grain and made
some flour for baking. I first made tortillas, which
were excellent. Then I got carried away…
We loved the nutritious einkorn tortillas so much, I went on to make pitas, bread, and cherry cobbler. I’m going to share my pictures and recipe for the bread first and then I’ll get to sharing the tortillas and pitas as soon as I can. But first I’ll tell you about the bread…and then pitas and finally tortillas! The full einkorn bread recipe is posted under the recipe section.
Einkorn grinds into such a light and soft flour, I was afraid it would plug up my All Grain mill. However, even with my mill on the finest setting, it milled out flour just fine. However, for the bread, tortillas and pitas, I decided to move the setting 3/4 fine. Next time, I will try an even finer setting.
All Grain Mill with Genuine Einkorn Wheat Berries
After 45 minutes or so of grinding the einkorn wheat grains in my mill, I had enough einkorn flour to make the tortillas, bread, pitas, and a little extra for cobbler.
To make bread, I put 3 Cups of hot tap water and 5 Cups of einkorn flour into my Bosch and mixed them until smooth. I then stopped the mixer and added 1/3 Cup of expeller-pressed coconut oil, 1/3 Cup raw, unfiltered honey, 1 1/2 Tablespoons of yeast, and then 1 Tablespoon of sea salt.
Mixing Ingredients to Make Einkorn Bread
After mixing all the ingredients together, I kept the mixer running and gradually added 5 1/2 Cups of einkorn flour and let it sit for 20 minutes. After this brief rest, I started the mixer and slowly added more flour until the einkorn dough was no longer sticking to the sides of the mixer bowl. I learned that making einkorn bread does require more flour than I thought it would but eventually it did stop sticking to the mixer bowl. read more…
A note from the school of hard knocks: if I wash my mixer bowl in my dishwasher, it will always stay sticky – no matter how much flour I add or what type of flour I am working. I have to hand wash my mixer bowl to avoid perpetual “stickyness”.
Added Flour Until Einkorn Dough Stopped Sticking to Mixer Bowl
Next, I cut the dough into the right size for my loaf pans, oiled my pans, and I put the dough in the pan to rise. Even though einkorn does have far less gluten than modern bread wheat, it does rise!
Einkorn Dough Rising in the Bread Pan
After the bread had risen for 90 minutes, I put it in the oven to bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Freshly Baked Einkorn Bread Sliced
Einkorn bread has a savory and nutty flavor. It was delicious! We had two loaves so everyone got to try a few slices and it was a hit! Go here for the full recipe.
I’m still working on the recipe…I hope to get it to rise better and fluff up. Also, after making einkorn pita bread, which has no oil in the recipe (I’ll post that recipe as soon as I can), I realized that the pita was light and fluffy and so I may not need to use as much oil as I do with modern bread wheat. Next time I make einkorn bread, I’m going to try using 1/4 Cup expeller-pressed coconut oil instead of 1/3 – or even no oil.