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.
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.
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”.
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!
After the bread had risen for 90 minutes, I put it in the oven to bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
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!
43 thoughts on “Baking Einkorn Bread”
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
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
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.
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.
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…. :/
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.
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.
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
What is your recipe for this bread? How much flour did you use?
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,
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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: 🙂
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.