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.

(Note: if you’re looking for the einkorn sourdough bread recipe, you’ll want to go here.)

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Stay tuned for my posts about einkorn tortillas and einkorn pita bread!

42 thoughts on “Baking Einkorn Bread

  1. Steve

    Has anyone with celiac tried this bread? My sister and her son have celiac and she said she would be wiling to try it herself to see what happens. I was thinking of getting some for her to try.

    Reply
    1. Frank Sally

      Steve,

      I was checking out Einkorn.com because I do alot of work mixing bread with Ancient Grains and I am always looking for new information. Einkorn flour, although not as strong as conventional modern wheat, is still wheat, and contains alot of gluten making it unsafe for people with celiac. I know you posted a while ago but I figured I’d write you anyway.

      -Frank

      Reply
      1. Storm

        It may be ok for Celiac’s disease people. It does contain gluten, but the type of gluten is very different then that of wheat. It has to do with the cross breeding of the wheat strains.

        Reply
        1. Rebecca

          I just recently came back from a Young Living Essential Oils convention; our founder has been researching einkorn since the early ’90’s and has been growing it the last several years on our farms in France and now on a farm in Utah. This year we came out with a pancake/waffle mix and spaghetti. He also has a book (available to distributers only as far as I know) called Ancient Einkorn. In it he shares the “why” of what makes true einkorn different from other wheats. Yes, it does contain gluten, but research is showing (as confirmed by the author of Wheat Belly) that it is usually not the gluten that is the problem; it is a protein called gliaden. This protein is not found in the original 12 chromosome wheat einkorn; it is found in all the hyrodized wheats that we have created in the U.S. since the 60’s. Our wheat of today in the U.S. contains 42 chromosomes; and THAT is usually the problem for most of us. The problem for us now is that too many companies out there are calling their wheat and products “einkorn” when they actually are not-Gary Young tested them and found them to be spelt and emmer, not true einkorn. I am glad to have found your site in order to continue to learn more and experiment with you!

          Reply
          1. admin

            I know what you mean about spelt and emmer. We’ve found the same in many sources, oh and we do supply for Young Living 🙂

          2. Kelly

            Rebbeca, I’m also a YLEO distributor, and as I was reading the comments, I thought of this same thing, and was tickled to see your comment. And then even more tickled, admin, to see yours!! 🙂

          3. Admin

            Hi Brenda, do you mean in comparison to other einkorn? How do we know our einkorn is pure? We obtained a small amount of seed from a farmer in Germany and have built it up ourselves, so we know exactly what it is. We’ve also had it tested and taken some painstaking measures to ensure it doesn’t mix with other grains. I hope that helps. Let me know if that doesn’t answer your question.

      2. B. C.

        I have a package of einkorn flour in my hand, there is a chart on the back. Whole wheat (today’s standard) has 9.92% gluten, einkorn has .53%, maybe that will help?

        Reply
        1. Glenna Haupt

          how tremendously helpful for you to go through that effort – many will benefit from your observation of regular gluten % versus einkorn %

          Reply
    2. Theresa

      My daughter has Crohns disease and she has no problem with the einkorn bread or pastas…she gets rather ill with traditional wheat products. Not sure about Celiac.

      Reply
    3. Anna

      My son and I both have sensitivity to gluten, mine is quite severe. Though I’ve never been diagnosed with Celiac disease, my rash only responds when I eat gluten. We went gluten free for a year then introduced einkorn wheat into our diet and we’re able to tolerate it very well, with no reaction at all. We’re also able to eat imported products made from wheat grown in Europe. A doctor told me that due to hybrid methods of growing wheat in America there is eight times as much gluten in American grown wheat versus most European varieties. So, it’s not that there is something ‘sick’ in our bodies, it’s that the food in our country is basically being poisoned by farming technology that only serves the bottom line.

      Reply
    4. Rochelle Mitterwald-Sanders

      I’m not celiac but have major gluten sensitivity and I have absolutely no reaction to this bread. I believe that celiac could be a sensitivity to processed wheat in the USA. I can eat imported wheat from Italy with no problem and from France. No issues. This is something I’ve researched and countless others say the same thing any wheat from Europe. Especially Italy and France.

      Reply
  2. Rock DeAugustine

    use less honey or more yeast if you want it to rise (more)- the sugars diminish the yeast. Also: stickiness might not be good for your pan, but the stickier a bread, the better the crust. Best idea from master bakers is to NOT put too much flour in to make it less sticky, but to keep it a little stickier/wetter than you think it should be…cheers- thx for the recipe, just had einkorn the first time tonight

    Reply
    1. Gail

      Cooking, baking or heating honey in any way , over 120 Degrees F, at all , transforms honey into a very , very toxic substance. This is well know in Ayurveda…the most comprehensive and long standing science of longevity and perfect health.

      NEVER bake with honey. Eat only raw organic honey. Eating heated honey results in toxins in the body even harder to remove than PCBs

      Reply
      1. Suzanna

        Gail, I have never heard this. Thank you for this information. Since we cut out all refined processed sugar I had been baking with honey. What form of sweetener do you use to bake? We use stevia, coconut sugar and agave?

        Thank you for the information. I respect Ayurveda.

        Reply
    2. Judy

      I have been baking with Einkorn flour for over a year now. And Rock is right, if the dough is too firm, the bread will be dry. The flour takes a while to soak in liquid, so letting it rest is good until you can see how it has absorbed the liquid and keep it a little sticky. Also, letting it rise till double in the mixing bowl before punching it down and kneading it a little more, not much, and then shaping it into loaves, letting it get almost double and putting it into a cold oven to rise while it is heating to 350, my loaves rise very high. Don’t let them rise too much or the gluten will lose it’s rising ability and fall a little in the middle in the oven or go flat on top. Don’t knead very long either, or it breaks down the gluten and won’t rise very well.
      Hope this helps. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Heidi

    I haven’t been diagnosed as having a problem digesting gluten, but I’m trying a gluten free diet as a test. For work, I’ve volunteered to make pierogis as a food related fundraiser and would like to make some dough with einkorn for my own consumption since I think I have a problem at least with conventionally grown wheat. I don’t have a grain mill, but I do have a Vitamix with both types of containers (wet and dry) which can be used for making flour, or so I have understood. Would the Vitamix be suitable to making flour using the einkorn berries? If so, when grinding your own flour, how many cups (approximate) would I get from the 2.5 lbs of einkorn berries?

    Reply
  4. jujuschleg Post author

    George, you may want to try blending up dried dates and using that. I’ve never tried it before. Your better option is natural leavening, which will not require sugar. I’ll try to get my naturally leavened bread recipe posted here on the blog.

    Reply
    1. Lorri

      jujuschleg: Can you direct me to the naturally leavened bread recipe that you posted? Also, what did your bread recipe tweaking bring? Success?? 🙂

      Reply
      1. Paula

        I am so excited to find out about einkorn as I have developed a wheat intolerance and am so hoping for this to be a solution. I am getting so tired of gluten free breads with rice and bean flour… I have tried some with quinoa, corn flour and discovered Schar products but being able to actually use wheat will be so wonderful!!

        Reply
        1. Holli

          Paula, have you tried Spelt flour? It contains gluten, but it may not be the same strains as wheat. I mention it because I have an allergy to something in wheat, but I do fine with spelt. goodluck.

          Reply
  5. Donna

    I have made bread using Einkorn flour and following another’s suggestion I left the dough extremely sticky and wet., so much so that kneading was impossible – I just incorporated the flour fully using a plastic spatula. Leaving the dough so sticky was recommended to result in a better crust. The suggestion was a good one. The end result was a wonderful texture and flavor, however it was not a light fluffy loaf. We have been without bread for long enough that it was a delight.

    Reply
  6. Barb

    My sister-in-law made biscuits using Einkorn Flour so I tried that too. They were tasty. I even made some with the addition of raisins. A nice treat. I do my biscuits without rolling them but drop them as round and flat as I can – like a fat smiley face: 🙂

    Reply
  7. Pingback: My Einkorn Wheat Bread Experiment | Paths of Wrighteousness

  8. Sally

    Has anyone tried “soaking” the dough for 24 hours before adding leavening to make the bread fluffier and rise better? Put in everything except the yeast and add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice for every cup of liquid. Mix it all together, cover with a towel and let sit at room temp for 24 hours. then mix in the yeast. From loaves, rise and bake according to recipe. Should yield you a higher lighter loaf of bread.

    Reply
    1. Caine

      Hi-

      I was reading this blog to learn about einkorn (never tried it) and saw your question as well as the conversation about gluten allergies.

      I have been making bread with hard red winter wheat for years, but in a different way. I grind my flour, and then (using a Kitchen Aid with tbe batter blade) mix in the dry contents of a probiotic capsule (full of healthy bacteria). Once that is well distributed in the dry flour, with the Kitchen Aid still running, I add enough water to make a well-moistened dough. I let that sit out on the counter 8-24 hours with a cover on it. Then when you remove the cover and take a whiff, the most delightful nutty flavor tickles your nostrils!

      I then add a couple of tablespoons of coconut oil, a couple of tablespoons of honey, and mix very thoroughly. At that point, I add three tablespoons of aluminum-free baking powder and mix just enough to distribute evenly. Then put into a buttered pan and let it rise for 10-15 minutes. Then bake for about 45 minutes at 350.

      Why bother with the soaking and probiotics? It neutralizes phytic acid and other anti-nutrients, and makes the nutritional benefits of the wheat much more bio-available. Essentially, the bacteria are pre-digesting the grain for you.

      The result? My wife, who USED TO have serious inflammatory bowel issues and still has white-flour gluten sensitivity, can thoroughly enjoy this bread without ill effect. Give it a try!

      so now i want to move away from the highly hybridized wheats and try better ones such as einkorn. Continual improvement, don’t you know? 😉

      Caine

      Reply
    2. JeffreyJ

      Sally, how did your “soaking” method turn out? Do you just sprinkle the yeast over the dough? I don’t see how it would mix well since its not dissolved.
      Thanks,

      Reply
  9. Susan

    Don’t use any honey that is not light in color. Darker colored honey has amylase in it and will cause bread to not rise and be heavy. I made einkorn bread using sugar and it was awesome, then made bread using recipe on the jovial flour bag….it was an oversized hockey puck…. :/

    Reply
    1. Linda

      Susan, can you post your recipe for the bread you made with sugar and also, did you make your bread in a bread machine? I would like a good recipe to make in the bread machine. I just ordered some of the Einkorn flour (10 lbs.) and would like some good recipes so I do not have to use trial and error and waste the flour since it is not cheap. Also, have you ever made cookies with this flour? Can you use the flour in regular recipes with good success? Is there anything you have to change when using regular recipes? Thanks for any help you can give.

      Reply
  10. M

    I’ve learned that adding the salt last, after the yeast has had time to mix in, allows more rise. Salt kills the yeast, so you don’t want to add it at the same time or in the same place.

    Reply
  11. Leila Deurell

    I made bread with einkorn yesterday and loved it. I found a recipe from jovial that said you do not even need to let the bread rise. I experimentd with that one. I used honey. I like the feel of the dough, it said not to over knead. All I did was get it to feel as if it was all blended. It has a very soft feel to it. Different. Well, it came out good enough for me. It did rise some, was a little heavy but i like that. I was alone, you know what that meant. I ate too much of it. Heaven. I also want to make einkorn bread crumbs. so, I made healthy bread without waiting for it to rise and barely kneeded it???????????? that’s a new one. Rolls out so easily, would make great pita bread. I was quite surprised. I couldn’t wait to try this flour.

    Reply
  12. David

    Please do not use hot water out of the tap for cooking or drinking it has high levels of zinc from tubes in the tank to prevent the corrosion of the tank . I use filtered water and heat it in the micro wave

    Reply
    1. Beth

      Only use water that has been heated by a heat source not microwaving . Microwaving is dangerous to your health go on snoops.com and click the microwave, then click the plants you will quickly see by microwaving water and letting it cool and watering the plant, also taking purified water boiling it letting it cool and watering the plant after nine days the plate with the microwave water has died. Just remember you are a living thing as well as that plant and microwaving is absolutely not safe for any human being . Beth

      Reply
  13. Barbara Montford

    I have just discovered Einkorn flour in my local health food shop. As I am trying to cut modern wheat I thought I,d give this a try. Here in the UK we have a few artisan suppliers and I have tried the Einkorn loaf which tasted good but was a bit dense. I then used a conventional recipe for cheese & chive scones (biscuits). They were great. So was the fruited soda bread I made next.

    I think this flour makes lovely tasting baked goods but I haven’t revisited the yeast mixture yet. Will try allowing hydration time and making the dough more sticky as suggested. Also might try just one rise & straight to oven. Any more success stories would be helpful.

    Reply
  14. Angel

    I made bread with eikorn for the first time yesterday, with the recipe on Jovial’s flour bag (also on their website). Just mix it, let it rise, shape it, let it rise, and bake. I should have let it rise a little longer, I think, the bottom of the loaf was still a little dense, but other than that I’m happy enough with it. Not too dense, but would be even better if I could get it a little lighter. The dough was very sticky, I’m glad it doesn’t need much kneading! As it was, I already felt like the tar baby.
    Will try again; might try next with sugar instead of honey, and might try soaking before hand.

    Reply
  15. yavuz

    Siyez Einkorn flourishes where most other wheat can’t survive. This variety of wheat, indigenous to Turkey, survived through three months of snow and thousands of years of human history.The soil is poor and the winters are harsh in Kastamonu, a northern province of Turkey, bordering the Black Sea. But people have cultivated the land there since the Bronze Age, sustaining themselves on a nutrient-dense variety of wheat known as siyez einkorn.But with the average land holding for farmers in Turkey still between ten and twelve acres, many farmers in Kastamonu continue to practice subsistence farming.

    Because it is not generally cost-effective to turn the tightly bound grain into flour, siyez einkorn is commonly processed into bulgur for local human consumption or animal feed. Communal harvest festivals have celebrated the harvest of siyez einkorn for generations and traditional production methods are still employed to process the wheat, though the mills are now powered by electricity.

    Reply

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