I’m continuing my experiment with Einkorn. This time, I made a basic whole wheat bread using freshly milled Einkorn flour and an overnight sponge. You can also make this bread with regular whole wheat or spelt flour if you prefer.
Einkorn was the first wheat to be cultivated by man over 12,000 years ago. It is starting to make a come back because of its high protein content and the fact that it grows easily on marginal land and in adverse conditions. Einkorn has a creamy color and a light, rich flavor. I really like it!
Einkorn Bread with Sponge
Makes:
1 Small Loaf
Adapted from: Bread Science by Emily Buehler
Ingredients:
Sponge:
- 187 g (1 2/3 cups) Einkorn flour
- 140 g (2/3 cup) water (50 to 55 degrees F.)
- 1/8 tsp instant yeast
Final Dough:
- 210g (~1 3/4 cups) Einkorn flour (plus more for kneading)
- 327g Sponge (all of it)
- 140g (2/3 cup) water (60 to 65 degrees F.)
- 1/2 tsp instant yeast
- 2 tsp salt (~8 grams/2%) or less if desired
Directions:
Mixing the Sponge:
Mix the sponge 12 to 15 hours before you plan to make the dough. If the temperature is cooler in the house, then use warmer water, if it is warmer in the house, then use cooler water. Final temperature should be about 65 degrees F.
Cover the sponge and let it rest at room temperature for 12 to 15 hours. This is the sponge after 12 hours. It’s ready to be used in the dough.
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Mixing the Dough:
Mix all of the dough ingredients, including the sponge, until it forms a dough.
I used a Danish dough whisk to mix the ingredients, but you could also use a wooden spoon.
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Kneading the Dough:
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it is soft and supple. This was a very sticky dough so I let it rest (autolyse) on the counter for about 15 minutes before kneading to help the gluten structure develop.
Bulk Fermentation:
Place the dough in a bowl and cover it with a kitchen towel.
Let it rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about one hour.
When the dough has doubled in bulk, punch it down, fold it, and let it rise again, covered, until doubled in bulk again, about one hour.
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Shaping and Final Proof:
When the dough is fully risen, shape it into a boule (ball) and place it smooth-side-down in a floured banneton basket or a bowl lined with a towel heavily dusted with flour. Make sure the bowl is large enough to allow for expansion, but small enough that the sides of the container support the loaf. Cover with a towel so the outside of the dough doesn’t dry out.
Let the loaf proof until it is soft and full of gas. The dough will be ready when you poke it gently with a wet finger and the indention remains.
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Scoring the Loaf:
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. (for about an hour) with a pizza stone on the middle rack and a steam pan underneath.
Carefully flip the loaf onto parchment paper and score it. My loaf stuck to the basket in one place so I had to coax it out of the basket. It got a little bit smashed, but overall looked okay.
Baking the Loaf:
Slid the loaf (on the parchment paper) onto the hot baking stone. Carefully add a cup of hot water to the steam pan. Spray the inside walls of the oven, using a spray bottle, 3 times at 30-second intervals, then immediately lower the temperature to 450 degrees F. Bake 20-25 minutes until the loaf is browned and makes a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom. Remove the parchment paper partway through baking to ensure the bottom gets baked through.
Cooling the Loaf:
Cool the loaf completely on a wire rack before slicing.
Slice and enjoy!
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This Einkorn Loaf has a distinct and nutty flavor. Definitely wheat, but different from regular whole wheat. This formula did not include any sweetener, but I think honey might be a nice addition. Even so, I like it.
Happy Baking!
Cathy
Thank you, thank you, for working with einkhorn and sharing your recipe!!! I’ve been baking with einkhorn for about a year and have just used my own sourdough starter, so far with good success. BUT this recipe looks awesome. Am trying it today!
Hello Villarosa, thanks for visiting my blog. It’s nice to meet another Einkorn bread baker. Let me know how your bread turns out. I’m experimenting with a different method right now and will post the results soon.
A beautiful loaf indeed! I am sure I will like it too!
Just baked my first loaf using Einkorn flour. Great bread. Looking for additional recipes. Will try yours with the sponge. Thanks!
I love working with Einkorn. Happy Baking!
Cathy I’m so happy to have found you I have celiac disease and have missed good sourdough bread for 15 years I found einkorn about a year ago and have been playing with it i can eat it with no problems its wonderfull i love this flour I have problems with it thou I could use your help I have a year old rice flour starter and a potatoe starter I haven’t baked with regular flour in years and have forgotten the kneading techniques my problem is with stickyness and a wet texture help!and how long about do you kneed ? Thank you so much cathy Christine
Hi Christine, I’m glad you can tolerate Einkorn. Einkorn is weaker than regular bread flour but it is extensible and very absorbent. For this particular bread, it helped to let the dough rest about 10-15 minutes before kneading and then I just had to feel the dough. It was still a bit tacky. If you find that you’re having to add too much flour during the kneading, you might want to just let it ferment longer in the bowl to develop the gluten.
I am completely new to making bread. What if you don’t have a pizza stone?
Hi Rhonda, you can bake this loaf on a baking sheet. It just won’t be as crusty on the outside.
Hi Cathy,
I made your bread yesterday. I used the One Degree Organic sprouted spelt flour in place of the einkorn and am happy to report great success!
I used 2 tsp of salt which totaled 6 grams, but I thought the bread tasted a little too salty, so I will reduce it to 4.5 to 5 grams next time. I did add 1 tbsp of honey to the final dough, not the sponge.
The dough was sticky as you wrote. To avoid adding too much flour, I oiled my hands with organic olive oil. I read about that trick somewhere.
The end result was an airy, chewy, thinly crusted marvel of a loaf. I was so proud. I will be doubling the recipe and making it again this week.
I am unlikely to ever make bread again without either pate fermentee or a sponge as it makes a huge difference in the quality of the bread.
I love your blog! Thanks for the great recipes!
Hi Sybil, thanks for sharing your experience making this bread with sprouted spelt. Oiling your hands and the work surface works well if you don’t mind incorporating a little more oil in the bread. I’m so glad your experiment turned out for you. I really like using perferments myself; however, with sprouted flour, supposedly it isn’t really necessary because the sprouting process takes care of that. However, I tend to use them anyway.
Is it just this recipe that you found to be too salty? Or, do you think that you need less salt when using sprouted flour? The ratio of salt is 2% which is about right, but that’s with regular flour, not sprouted flour. Just curious what your thoughts are on this. I would think that 4 grams would be good especially for 1 loaf.
I have made the mini baguettes with khorasan flour multiple times and the 7.5 grams of salt work well for that recipe.
But when I made the Kamut Pain de Mie with the sprouted khorasan flour (all my flours are the One Degree Organic), we did find it too salty. Also, it didn’t rise as well, I think I needed to add more milk. I will try it again.
I made spelt bread last year, without a sponge (different recipe) when I was completely new at it, and the loaf was good, but very dense (more the texture of rye bread of my youth), so I much prefer the sponge method.
I will try the 4 grams next. I am preparing the sponge for a double batch today. I’ll let you know.
This is now my third time making this bread and it is wonderful (I actually made in a loaf pan this time to use for sandwiches). I added 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and sugar to recipe this go around – yum, again.
Thanks so much for a great recipe.
Thank you for sharing your experience with this loaf. I’m glad you’re able to customize it to your liking.