SOURDOUGH BREADS WITH EINKORN FLOUR

Sourdough Breads with Einkorn Flour image

Here are three options for using einkorn wheat, a delicious ancient grain, in artisan-style freestanding sourdough breads. Try the whole grain bread recipe or one of the two recipes with refined flour, or give your own variation a try.

Provided by Melissa Johnson

Categories Recipes

Time 1h15m

Number Of Ingredients 18

Ingredients

Whole Grain Einkorn and Yecora Rojo Wheat Flours
230g whole grain einkorn flour (1 ¾ cups)
230g whole grain yecora rojo flour (1 ¾ cups)
330g water (1 1/3 cups + 1 Tbsp)
75g sourdough starter (¼ cup)
9g salt (1 ½ tsp)
Whole Grain Einkorn and Bread Flours 50:50
230g whole grain einkorn flour (1 ¾ cups)
230g bread flour (1 ¾ cups)
300g water (1 ¼ cups + 1 tsp)
75g sourdough starter (¼ cup)
9g salt (1 ½ tsp)
Whole Grain Einkorn and Bread Flours 30:70
300g bread flour (2 1/3 cups)
130g whole grain einkorn flour (1 cup)
300g water (1 ¼ cups + 1 tsp)
100g sourdough starter (1/3 cup)
9g salt (1 ½ tsp)

Steps:

If making a 100% whole grain sourdough bread is your goal, prepare your sourdough starter by feeding it with whole grain einkorn or yecora rojo flours. I fed my starter einkorn flour for the first two recipes, and for the third recipe, I used a mix of all my ripe starters (60g rye starter, 40g all purpose starter).
Combine all the ingredients in a medium size bowl and mix until well incorporated.
Cover the bowl or transfer the dough to a straight-walled bucket and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes. Then do 2-3 rounds of gluten development with half-hour rests in between.
Let the dough continue to rise until it's 40-50% larger than its original size. All of the recipes reached this point in about 4 hours in a warm summer kitchen. Depending on the room temperature and your starter strength, your dough may need longer for this bulk fermentation.
Scrape your dough out onto a floured countertop and shape it into a boule, batard, or oblong loaf, depending on your proofing basket and baking vessel shape. I did a pre-shape and bench-rest on the 70:30 dough only because I had struggled to get it out of the dough rising bucket, and I wanted it to be a uniform oval when I shaped it into a batard.
Transfer the dough to a well-floured proofing basket and cover it.
Let the dough proof 30-60 minutes at room temperature, possibly longer in a cold kitchen, and then refrigerate it for several hours to overnight. Or do the entire final proof in the refrigerator or at room temperature for 1-2 hours, again depending on your kitchen temperature and the dough's appearance. See the photo galleries below for target dough expansion in the basket.
Preheat your oven and baking vessel for 30 minutes at 500°F.
Flip your dough out of the proofing basket onto parchment paper and score it.
Transfer the dough to your baking vessel, cover, and bake for:
20 minutes at 500F with the lid on
15-20 minutes at 450F with the lid off
When the bread is done, the internal temperature should be over 205°F and the bread should sound hollow when you knock on the bottom of the loaf with your fist.
Let the bread cool at least 2 hours before slicing.