How to Bake With Einkorn Flour Easily

How to Bake With Einkorn Flour Easily is foolproof, forgiving, and so satisfying. It is not only delicious, but also very nutritious. You can thank me later!

How to Bake With Einkorn Flour Easily

My journey with Einkorn began in 2023, when I tried substituting einkorn flour for all-purpose flour in the recipes I was using. Not knowing anything about einkorn and its structure, I failed miserably. Today, I have a completely new understanding of einkorn, and I am so excited to share it with you.

Ancient Grain Kamut

My bread journey began in 2021, when I was inspired to start making sourdough bread. I was a complete beginner, but found my tutoring through the food nanny site.

Lizzy and Ashley taught me how to perfect the all-purpose bread loaves that I made. I was using an ancient grain that Food Nanny sells, Kamut. Kamut is nice to work with, too. It creates a buttery, yellow, soft bread that is familiar to our modern-day taste buds, but way better for you.

The Difference Between Ancient Grains

Einkorn, I learned, is the mother of all wheat: “All wheat is a descendant of wild einkorn…”¹ and is the only wheat to have never been hybridized. It is recorded as the oldest and first grain.

This video by TRUE FOOD TV demonstrates and explains the difference between four different types of ancient grains: Khorashan wheat (Kamut), Emmer, Spelt, and Einkorn, and how they bake.

How to Bake With Einkorn Flour Easily: The Health Benefits of Einkorn

The health benefits of einkorn are beyond today’s modern wheat profile.

The husks on ancient grains “protect the inner seed from mycotoxins, spores of dangerous fungus that develop on the exposed kernels.”² Therefore, einkorn is protected from this fungus, has better flavor due to retained nutrients, and is easier to digest.

“Einorn contains roughly 30 percent more protein than modern wheat and more protein than any other grain, while having 15 percent less starch, translating to fewer carbs.”³

Amazingly, the surplus of nutrients gives einkorn its nutty, earthy, and delicious flavor.

Sourdough and Our Health

While using Kamut in my sourdough recipes, my husband was in a rough patch with his skin and gut health. It was confusing because sourdough and fermented foods were supposed to be nourishing for gut health!? At the time, I was making water kefir sodas, sauerkraut, and fermenting all kinds of fruit.

I stopped all fermented cooking: making sourdough bread, and using sourdough discard for treats like sourdough bagels and naan bread entirely. My husband (who has a histamine intolerance) wasn’t feeling good with any of it.

I was disappointed but also relieved secretly because it was a bit overwhelming.

Sourdough Overwhelm

The process of feeding the sourdough starter every day became stressful. I was a new baker and wasn’t making bread every week… so the feeding and excess started, and I didn’t know how to keep up. I would end up forgetting to feed the starter and feel bad about it. It would accumulate the greyish liquid on top called hooch. Which means it’s still alive and well, just hungry.

We ended up doing what was not only convenient but also satisfying for my husband’s health.

He gravitated to sourdough einkorn bread from our local baker. It was so delicious, and we felt good about eating it.

How to Bake With Einkorn Flour Easily

Currently, everything just clicked for me. I found the einkorn sourdough sandwich loaf recipe we bought back in CA, and now I’m making it myself for my family.

My husband loves it, and now that I know more about this ancient grain, I am excited to incorporate it more into everything.

Dry Sourdough Starter

But this time, using Einkorn Flour with a dry sourdough starter as seen in Einkorn the Cookbook. The einkorn cookbook is from Carla Bartolucci, founder of Jovial Food and Bionaturae.

My life has changed. Truly, this is the easiest way to do sourdough—no more forgetting feeds or ruining another starter.

But don’t worry, if you have a wet sourdough starter that you feed daily and want to lessen the feeds/maintenance of a wet starter, you can switch it to a dry starter.

Learn more about converting a wet starter to a simpler dry starter here.

How to Bake With Einkorn Flour Easily: Feeding Your Dry Starter Recipe

This is my go-to recipe for refreshing/ feeding my einkorn starter weekly.

This recipe will show you how to feed a dry/stiff sourdough starter. It is easier to maintain and will allow a more flexible baking schedule.

Ingredients and Instructions:

2 teaspoons (10 g) Einkorn Sourdough Starter
2 tablespoons (30 g) warm water at 100ºF
1/2 cup (60 g) all-purpose einkorn flour or 1/2 cup (48 g) whole grain einkorn flour

• Place the starter in a small bowl.
• Add warm water to the starter and mix with a fork until it is smooth.
• Add the flour and knead to form a dough ball in your hands.
• Store in a clean, large container so the starter has room to expand for 6-12 hours.
• Refrigerate the starter until you refresh it again

Where to Buy Einkorn Flour:

I am currently buying my Einkorn Flour from Azure and Thrive Market. I bought Azure’s whole-wheat unifine Einkorn to make my whole-wheat einkorn sandwich loaves.

I make sure to buy Jovial’s brand too. This flour is consistent with the book I use for my recipes.

1. Bartolucci, Carla. Einkorn: Recipes for Nature’s Original Wheat. Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2015.
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2. Bartolucci, Carla. Einkorn: Recipes for Nature’s Original Wheat. Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2015.
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3. Bartolucci, Carla. Einkorn: Recipes for Nature’s Original Wheat. Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2015.
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