Basic White Einkorn Yeast Bread

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“In the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.” Woodrow Wilson’s quote accentuates the most basic of human behavior – eating. We’re generally not great at compassion, loving, listening, moving, or thinking when we’re hungry. Try skipping a couple meals. You’ll see. That’s why Snickers says “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs reiterates this concept. His theory is that humans have to have certain needs met in order to move on to others. The very bottom of his pyramid is physiological needs, and we need to take care of that before we can do much of anything else. So, eating is our most basic need, and bread is the basic of the basic. Almost every society has some kind of bread, and we all do it a little differently. In Spain, they eat a lot of artisan type bread that they buy every day. It’s common in the morning to see men walking with newspapers and warm bread tucked under their arms. The Indians prefer Naan, a flatbread that goes with everything. Mexicans use bread and tortillas made with corn flour as their staple. In the United States, for some weird reason, we like already-sliced, preservative-laden sandwich bread in plastic bags. But however you eat it, most everyone agrees that bread is the basic of a human diet and has been for a long time.
 
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Beautiful Loaves Ready to Slice
So, you can’t have too many bread recipes on a grain website. This recipe is unique because it’s made using our new einkorn all-purpose flour. We took a shot in the dark, and it worked amazingly well. It’s a white bread (I feel rebellious just typing that), but retains the digestive benefits of einkorn (shout out to my gluten intolerant friends). It rose perfectly and was soft and delicious. According to Maslow and Wilson, we need this bread to make us better people. Enjoy!
 
Einkorn basic white yeast bread loaf, sliced to show soft, airy crumb.

Ingredients

SCALE
  • 12 cup Einkorn All Purpose Flour Approximate
  • 1/3 cup Honey
  • 1/3 cup Avocado Oil
  • 3 cup Very hot tap water
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon Yeast
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon Real Salt

Instructions

1. Mix oil, honey, water, and 4 cups of einkorn all-purpose flour.
2. Add yeast, and 1/2 a cup of flour. Mix.
3. Add salt. Add flour a little at a time while mixing. Keep adding flour until it cleans the sides of the bowl (We added about 7 cups).
4. Knead in mixer for 10 minutes.
5. Let rest in bowl for 20 minutes. If dough is a little sticky, sprinkle about 1/2 cup of flour on top while resting.
6. Knead a couple times on floured surface. Shape into loaves (2 or 3 depending on desired size. If you choose to do 2, you will probably have a little dough left over. We made mini cinnamon rolls!).
7. Place loaves into greased loaf pans. Place in warm place (we used oven off) and let rise until doubled.
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Before Rising
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After Rising
 
 
 
 
 
 
8. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and brush with butter. Let cool a little before slicing.
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Fresh out of the Oven
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Ready to Eat

RELATED RECIPES

There’s something satisfying about using a single ingredient in so many different ways. Einkorn is incredibly versatile, and the recipes below make it easy to bring this ancient grain into your everyday meals. Here are a few to explore:

Apple Cinnamon Einkorn Pancakes

Whole Grain Einkorn Brownies

Einkorn Vanilla Wafers

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PRODUCTS IN THIS RECIPE
Meet the Author
Julie Koyle co founded and has been the driving creative force behind Grand Teton Ancient Grains, a regenerative organic family farm and mill nestled at the base of the Grand Teton foothills in eastern Idaho….

Reviews

112 thoughts on “Basic White Einkorn Yeast Bread”

  1. In a comment on June 6, you mentioned you generally use natural leavening. Do you have a recipe for bread using that instead of packaged yeast?

    Thanks!

    P.S. Just found your site and subscribed. Looks like a lot of great info. 🙂

    1. Tammy, it’s true. We do prefer natural leavening for a variety of reasons. You can find our sourdough bread recipe here. Be aware that the sourdough recipe calls for whole grain flour and the yeast bread calls for all-purpose. Obviously, both flours will work in both recipes, but if you’re using all-purpose in the sourdough recipe, you may want to watch consistency and adjust a little.

  2. Looks fantastic! A couple questions:
    1. when you say you let rise in oven (off), do you leave the light on for added warmth?
    2. approx. how long should it take to double in size?
    3. what do you recommend for storing? how long does it keep? can I freeze one loaf–will it affect the bread?

    Thanks–just subscribed.

    1. Debbie, thanks for your great questions.

      1. Yes, you can (and we often do) leave the oven light on to add some warmth.
      2. To double in size, it varies depending on normal baking factors, but 1 to 2 hours is probably a safe bet.
      3. This bread behaves pretty much like any other homemade bread. At room temperature, a loaf would probably last up to a week, but it depends on the humidity of your climate and the temperature of your home, so just keep an eye on it. But yes, you can freeze it without significantly affecting the bread.

      Hope this helps!

    1. Karen, we’ve never tried that. It might work if you have a setting that can keep it from being over kneaded. We’d love to hear how it turns out.

    2. Karen, I was wondering if you tried the bread recipe in a bread machine. If so, did it come out ok? Thank you- Tiffany

      1. Sorry I didn’t address you but I am not sure who I am talking to but what I want to ask is how much flour do you kneed in to the dough on the counted I am learning from beginning so I have read many recipes one said not to add much flour when youo kneed so I idid very little (kind of a dusting) but your recipe looks like the one I want to fallow but when youo say kneed a couple of time does that mean fold it over a couple times or does it mean kneed for three to five min it is not clear to me I thought it would help me if I knew how much flour I was kneeling in. Thank you so much for your help Nora olaso one of your costomers

        1. Hi Nora, just sprinkle the counter with a little flour and fold the dough a couple times. We don’t recommend overkneading einkorn dough. I hope that helps!

  3. Hi,

    First time baking with Einkorn so I want to halve the recipe. I will use half amount of ingredients but during step 2, do I still add 1/2 cup of flour or reduce to 1/4 cup? Also is the honey essential or only to sweeten? I ask because we are limiting sweeteners as well as gmo wheat.

    Thanks in advance!

    1. Jill, you would reduce the flour in that step as well if you were going to half the recipe. The honey is kind of important because the yeast needs something to feed on in order to grow. You could try reducing it. If you eliminate it all together, it will still probably work but will not rise as well.

    2. Modern wheat is hybridized, not GMO. There has never been any GMO wheat on the market anywhere in the world at this point in time.

      The honey is essential as it feeds the yeast and aids in the leavening process. It adds a better flavor to the bread than regular sugar would as well, so that’s a plus.

      1. It is not gmo that is the problem with modern wheat, it is the glyphosate from round up that is the problem. Wheat is genetically engineered to work with roundup. It also contains gluten.

    1. Sandra, in the recipes where we do use yeast, we use saf-instant yeast. But we generally use natural leavening.

    1. Stephen, that should work just fine. Coconut oil may make it slightly different as far as consistency but it shouldn’t be a problem.

  4. hello, I would like to use wild fresh yeast and make one loaf to start. Is it safe to cut the recipe in half?
    thanks

        1. We haven’t noticed much of an overmixing problem with this recipe so I definitely wouldn’t overthink it. Once it has pulled away from the sides of the bowl, just let it mix in the kitchenaid for 10 minutes and that should be fine. If it were overmixed it may get sticky to the point of being unmanageable, but it’s not that temperamental. Overmixing shouldn’t be a problem if the directions are followed.

          1. Annique Fenlason

            What about kneading by hand? I messed up my first loaf because it was SO wet and sticky that I kept adding more flour, not realizing it was supposed to be that way. Then it didn’t rise like I thought it should, however, I think my yeast was dead because it never got foamy. So I replaced the yeast, but I haven’t had the chance to make another loaf.

          2. Jennifer Schlegelmilch

            Hi Annique, yes, that’s a common mistake with einkorn. I don’t really knead einkorn by hand. If I’ve added enough flour for it to not be sticky, I’ve overfloured it. I knead it with a mixer or not at all. For my regular whole grain sandwich bread I don’t knead it. It’s a VERY wet dough.

      1. Recipe says: 4. Knead in mixer for 10 minutes.
        I have a WonderMix mixer (similar to your Bosch). Would I still mix it for 10 minutes?
        Thanks!

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