A wholesome, flavourful loaf of bread, einkorn sourdough is an excellent addition to your baking rotation. Einkorn has a wonderful flavour – a bit nuttier than spelt, more like hazelnut – and the whole grain options are usual quite coarsely milled which is very nice. It’s not as strong of a taste as rye but holds up very well to any variety of strong toppings.

This is another fairly beginner-friendly ancient grain sourdough recipe with a lower hydration level than typical bread flour-based recipes. If you have only ever baked with industrial wheat flour, there is a difference, and I recommend ignoring much of the experience you may have working with conventional high gluten wheat as the process is different.

I almost always use a rye sourdough starter and that adds another little boost to the flavour profile here. This bread is a bit denser than my spelt sourdough, as that’s made with light spelt, but more open than a dark rye.

If you love ancient grain breads as much as I do, you might also like to try khorasan bread or my most popular recipe, simple spelt bread. If you would like to try einkorn but prefer to bake with yeast, you can make this einkorn bread.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Einkorn flour: I have not tested this recipe with light or sifted einkorn flour, only bagged or freshly ground whole grain. If you choose to try a mix of other flour types, you will have different results.
• Starter: this should be 100% hydration sourdough starter at its peak. The starter needs to be at least a couple of weeks old at absolutely minimum (not a brand new baby starter) to be really effective.
• Water: some bakers swear by using filtered or other special water. I use the regular tap water now but in Canada I used filtered.
• Salt: plain fine grain sea salt is ideal. If you only have coarse salt, that’ll work too, but can affect the rise slightly if it doesn’t incorporate as well.

Step by Step

Step 1: mix the water and starter together, then stir in the flour and salt to form a shaggy dough.

Step 2: let the dough rest before doing four rounds of stretches and folds.

Step 3: shape your dough into a boule, creating surface tension by rotating the loaf.

Step 4: place the dough seam-side up in a lined proving basket. Let it rise for 3-4 hours at room temperature.

Step 5: refrigerate the dough, well covered, overnight. If it looks a bit dry give it a light spritz with water.

Step 6: gently turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper.

Step 7: place in a preheated Dutch oven.

Step 8: bake for about 40 minutes, or until a dark golden brown.

Recipe Notes

This is a fairly low hydration loaf, which is my preference for lower-gluten ancient grain sourdough breads. It is not the incorrect amount of flour and has been extensively tested – but it will feel different if you’re used to baking sourdough with commercial white flour. The stretches are a little more difficult and the dough will seem stiff, but it will relax as you continue.

Note that this is also a whole grain recipe using a lower gluten flour and not made with ‘white’ einkorn flour so you will not end up with an extremely open crumb and lofty loaf. It is a slightly dense, hearty loaf in line with typical German breads.

How to Store

Storage: keep in a paper or cloth bag on the counter, in the oven, or in a bread box at room temperature for up to 4-5 days. If it dries out a bit, simply toast the slices before serving. Refrigerating sourdough will cause it to spoil more quickly.

Freezing: freeze the whole loaf or individual slices in an airtight container for up to two months. Slices can be popped directly into the toaster from frozen.

Expert Tips

• Give it enough time: the timeline provided is a guide rather than hard and fast directions. If your home is cold, the starter is a little sluggish, your flour is old, or there are additives in the water, your dough may rise more slowly and will need extra time to ferment before baking. Sourdough needs patience and a little knowledge.
• Score, or don’t: I never score this loaf and let it crack open as it will. It suits the bread and you won’t get a fabulous ear no matter how expert you are at scoring.
• Make it without a banneton: the whole time I’ve been in France, I’ve been baking sourdough without a proving basket. I simply line a round mixing bowl with a tea towel and use that instead. Read our info about sourdough tools for some advice on this.

More Ancient Grain Sourdough

Overnight Dark Rye Bread
Spelt Sourdough Bread
Honey Oat Sourdough
Sourdough Rye Bread