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-based sourdough starter (recipe is in my book) 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
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Whole Grain Einkorn Sourdough Bread
Ingredients
- 300 grams water room temperature
- 100 grams active 100% hydration sourdough starter
- 500 grams whole grain einkorn flour
- 10 grams sea salt
Instructions
- Add the water and starter to a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Add the flour and salt and stir with a wooden spoon or mix with your hands to form a shaggy dough. The dough will feel a bit stiff but will mix together.300 grams water, 100 grams active 100% hydration sourdough starter, 500 grams whole grain einkorn flour, 10 grams sea salt
- Set the dough aside to rest for an hour, covered with a tea towel and large plate.
- After an hour, you can begin stretches and folds. Complete one round of stretching and folding, then let the dough rest for 30 minutes before doing the next one. Do four total rounds of stretches and folds over the course of two hours.
- Line a proving basket with a clean tea towel and sprinkle with a bit of flour. Set aside.
- Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and lightly flour the top of the dough (do not flour the countertop). Rotate the dough as you usually would to form a boule with surface tension. Be careful at this point as the whole grain present can cause tearing in the surface 'skin' quite easily.
- Place the dough seam-side up into the prepared basket. Cover well and let it rise at room temperature for 2-3 hours, depending on the temperature, or until it's increased in size by about ⅓.
- Keep the loaf covered and refrigerate it overnight. It should rise more during that time to approximately double in size in total.
- In the morning, preheat a large Dutch oven or other heavy lidded pot in the oven at 230°C (450°F) for about half an hour.
- Once the oven is hot, gently turn the dough out onto a sheet of parchment paper. Remove the pot from the oven and carefully place the loaf into the pot.
- Bake with the lid on for 20 minutes.
- Remove the lid and bake for another 20-25 minutes, or until the loaf is as dark as you'd like it to be. It will be cooked through at the 40 minute mark.
- Remove from the oven and cool the loaf fully before slicing. If possible, you can take the loaf out of the pot to cool on a wire rack before slicing (if it's too difficult to do without burning yourself, simply let it cool in the pot). It will be gummy if sliced too soon.
- Store the bread in a paper or cloth bag at room temperature for several days, or freeze if preferred.
* For American cup measurements, please click the pink link text above the ingredient list that says ‘American’.
Nutrition
Nutrition is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate. If this information is important to you, please have it verified independently.
Mary Schoenberger says
Delicious, easy to make, and great directions! I will definitely make this again!