Discover the secrets to baking einkorn sourdough with improved rise. Enjoy a gluten-free hack for a perfect loaf every time!
Mastering the Art of Einkorn Sourdough: Tips for a Perfectly Fluffy Loaf with a Gluten-Free Twist!
Baking with einkorn flour can be a rewarding yet challenging endeavor. This ancient grain boasts a simpler genetic structure and more digestible proteins, making it a nutritious alternative to modern wheat. However, its weaker gluten structure often results in a less satisfactory rise and a fragile crumb in baked goods. This article explores an innovative approach borrowed from gluten-free baking that enhances the texture and rise of einkorn sourdough. By applying specific techniques designed for gluten-free recipes, bakers can achieve a softer, better-rising loaf that retains the unique qualities of einkorn.
The journey toward whole food, sustainable living often involves the transition from store-bought bread to homemade nutrient-dense loaves. Choosing einkorn wheat is a significant step in this direction, as it not only eliminates additives found in commercial breads but also provides a wealth of nutrition. Understanding the science behind einkorn’s gluten structure is crucial for successful baking. By experimenting with gluten-free hacks, bakers can improve the overall quality of their einkorn sourdough, making it easier to enjoy the health benefits of this ancient grain without compromising on texture or taste.
Unlock the Secrets to Fluffy Einkorn Delights: A Gluten-Free Twist for Perfectly Risen Loaves!
What if I told you a gluten-free baking trick that could totally transform your eorn sourdough? Starting to bake with something like iron corn flour can feel like stepping into a whole new world. It can feel really overwhelming and it might be ancient and really cool and it might be.
Super nutritious. But it can also be downright tricky. So I started wondering what if we borrowed a few tricks from the glutenfree world of baking and applied them to corn. Could that help us get a better rise and a better crumb? To bring you up to speed a little bit, over the past 5 years, our family have been slowly transitioning to a more.
Sustainable whole food way of eating. And one of the first things that I knew had to go, apart from the candy and the sugar, of course, was storebought bread. And I think it’s probably been about 3 years now since a loaf of storebought bread has crossed our threshold. At first I just was baking with what I had. So, I was using um standard allpurpose.
Flour and then I upgraded to the premium flowers and going to the different types of flour, organic flowers. And it was really I was really on a mission to avoid as many additives and preservatives as I could. But even then, something still wasn’t quite right. You see, I was also working through some of my own health challenges. And as I dug.
Deeper into the subject of wheat and how it’s grown and how it’s processed, I started to uncover something that I guess can be applied to all foods. And it really stopped me in my tracks because I just really hadn’t applied it to wheat. Well, the truth is that modern milling actually removes up to 95% of the.
Nutrition that wheat was meant to provide us as a food staple. So, even though I was baking at home to get rid of the junk, I realized that I was still working with a food that had been stripped of all of its nutrients. So, that was a bit of a wakeup call. If we’re going to be putting so much effort into all of this clean eating, you want.
It to make a difference. So, it’s not just about taking out what’s harmful in the food, it’s about making sure that you put back in what is going to be healing and actually feed your body. You know, when we think about the rise in all of the gluten related health issues, the penny sort of dropped for me and I it started to make more sense because.
Maybe the problem isn’t actually the gluten itself, but it’s to do with the way that we’ve been consuming it. And that was really what sort of led me to start investigating baking with eorn. So eorn is what’s called a diploid wheat. It has two sets of chromosomes and the genetic makeup of the wheat is a lot more simple comparatively to modern.
Wheat. It actually has a lot more protein. But because of the way that the proteins are actually arranged, it’s gluten structure is much weaker. So the network of air pockets that it forms just doesn’t work the same way as traditional bread. So, if you’ve tried making bread with eorn, you might have noticed that the dough, it doesn’t.
Stretch like you might be used to. It doesn’t bounce like traditional wheat. And it’s more like baking with a whole wheat or even gluten-free flour. Um, the rise is not as dramatic. And also, the crumb once it’s baked tends to be more crumbly. um it can slice it can fall apart when you’re trying to slice it. And when you put all that time and.
Effort in, that can be really frustrating. But I have some good news, which is why you’re here. And I stumbled upon it by accident. Really, my journey had already taken me through this world of gluten-free baking. And when Einorn started to present its own challenges that were similar to gluten-free baking, I started wondering, well, what if I.
Just combine what I’ve learned, these sort of uh tricks from the gluten-free world and combine that with the eorn recipes and see if the results will help the eorn flour out. Well, the results have been amazing and I am really excited to share this with you. Now, just a quick note for this recipe, I am using storebought allpurpose eorn flour,.
And the brand is from Jovial. Jovial say that they only remove about 10% of the wheat germ, so it is still a decent option. But if you’re milling your own berries at home, of course, that’s even better. And either way, you’re about to bake a beautifully gut friendly loaf of bread. Let’s get going. And it’s got those air pockets, so it’s a little more.
Fluffier and so it’s turning away. It’s not crumbly. So, I’m going to walk you through the ingredients and then we’ll jump in. I will put all of the ingredients and the link to my blog in the show notes below. I’ll also put some Amazon links there for those of you who want to buy the exact brands that I’m using. So, the.
First thing that I have here, and I have a different YouTube video on feeding my starter. This is an e corn starter. I do feed my starter with freshlymorn. I grind my own berries. You don’t have to. You can use um storebought allpurpose uh e corn flour to feed your starter. I find that a starter does respond better to a whole wheat. Um so that’s why I.
Feed mine that way. But anyway, you need some starter. I’m corn. The next thing you want is this. Now this is going to be the magic in your loaf. This is actually psyllium husk. It’s whole psyllium husk. So it comes as a powder and literally all you do is you take the powder and dissolve it in boiling water. And then you need to let it cool down.
For about 10 to 15 minutes so that it doesn’t go and kill your starter when you add it into the dough. And then the last thing that you’re going to need is your flour. So this is just an allpurpose e corn flour that is storebought. I, as I said, I order mine off Amazon. Now today I am making two loaves. So, I have double the amount of.
Flour in here. And it’s really important when you’re baking to get consistent results, you want to use a digital scale. I will give you the rough amount in cups. Uh, but I find that when you’re using cups, it’s just the end result can be inconsistent if you haven’t measured the same way each time. So, that’s all we need and a little bit of salt. We’re.
Going to get started. So, for one loaf, you’re going to want 475 gram of your corn allpurpose flour. And then you’re going to boil 1 and a3 cups of water. And into that 1 and 13 cups of water, you’re going to dissolve 15 g of whole psyllium husk. And then once that has dissolved and cooled, you’re just going to add it in to your.
Flour. So, I’m just going to get that started. into my jug. I’m going to measure. You want 100 g of starter. I’m measuring 200 g because I am doubling the recipe. I keep my starter pretty thick, so the hydration is quite low. You’ll find that with eorn flour, it doesn’t absorb liquid as fast as regular.
Flour. And then you’re also going to want two teaspoon of salt. I’m using Himalayan salt. You can use Mediterranean sea salt, whichever salt you prefer. And again, I’m adding double. So, I want four teaspoons for two loaves. Now, you might think when you first start out that you’ve got not enough liquid. Um, but that’s only.
Because the angorn flour is slower to absorb liquid than you’ll be used to with traditional flour. However, do not be tempted to add more liquid because as you work with it, you will find that it actually um absorbs all of that flour and you’ll probably even find that it feels a little sticky. But trust the recipe, trust the measurements, trust.
The process. I promise you, it’s going to work out just fine. Once you have your shaggy dough together, you’ll also find that when you let it rest for that first 20 minutes that uh the flour will also start to hydrate and when you come back, it’ll be a lot more moist than it was when you left it. The other thing with iron corn flour is that because the.
Gluten is a lot weaker than with traditional flour. You want to be gentle with the dough. You don’t want to knead it vigorously or for very long. And you also won’t get that same stretch that you’ll be used to with traditional flour because the gluten again is not going to hold the grains together like you’d be used to with traditional sourdough. So.
Once I’ve got all of the flour actually incorporated, that’ll be the point where I will leave it as a shaggy dough to just sit and absorb the moisture. I can feel the parts of it are becoming a little sticky. So there, if I hold it up, you can see there’s nothing really left in the in the bowl. Um, but all the flour is not quite hydrated. But I’m.
Going to let it sit, cover it, and let it sit for about 20 minutes now. Okay, so the timer just went off for the first stretch and fold. It’s not really going to stretch the same way as you’d be expecting with traditional flour. So, I’ll show you what it looks like. So, you can see that the flour has now really absorbed the water. When I go.
To stretch it, you’ll find that it just comes apart. It’s It’s very short. So, don’t get discouraged. This is exactly what happens. You just sort of want to gently turn it over. I still follow the four stretches. So, I fold each of the four corners on in and I sort of flip it over. And you will feel that it is sticky, but don’t.
Add any more flour. And then I just kind of work it through my hands a little bit. And that is all I’m going to do. I’m going to cover it again and then I am going to set the timer for another 20 minutes. Okay, we are ready for stretch and fold number two. There is not a whole lot of difference uh with the dough, but um I’m going to stretch it as.
Best as I can. By now with a traditional wheat flour, the dough would be stretching all the way up here. And that really does show you the difference in the genetic makeup of this flower, this wheat that we’re dealing with. What I found fascinating during my research was to learn that modern wheat has been hybridized so many.
Times that it now contains 42 pairs of chromosomes compared to eorn wheat which having had its genetics preserved for thousands and thousands of years um has 14 pairs of chromosomes which is a vast difference when you think about the genetic makeup the actual DNA of this uh grain. It stands to reason why modern wheat is just so much more indigestible.
Than when you compare it to something like eorn because you’re having to deal with so much more complex proteins. Um the DNA structure of the modernday wheat protein is a completely different thing compared to what it used to be. Okay, so the timer just went for the third time. So that has been three lots of 20 minutes. So we are an hour now um with.
Our hydrating the dough. So I’m going to gently stretch this and fold it four times and then I am going to let it rest on the countertop for the rest of the afternoon where it’s going to do its bulk fermentation. So, if you are familiar with the window pane test for um working with traditional sourdough, you’re not going to get anywhere near.
That with the corn dough. So, it’s it’s stretching better than it was, but it’s it’s going to tear. It’s not going to give me that window pane test. So during the bulk fermentation is where the psyllium gel is really going to do its magic. That gel is going to allow pockets of air to fill it and help to.
Improve the structure of the bread compared to if you just used water without the gel. Um psyllium husk being a whole food also adds more fiber to the recipe. So where this is not a whole wheat bread because we’re using an allpurpose flour, we’re actually adding some fiber back in by using the psyllium. So it turns into a really.
Lovely loaf that is uh very nutritious and also has a lovely soft elastic feel. Very easy to slice. After about 6 to 8 hours, your dough will have doubled in size. So, this is where you can shape it and just put it into a bison basket or I’m just using pasta bowls here. The dough is still a little bit sticky, so I use cling wrap.
To put over the top just to stop it from drying out in the fridge. And it’s going to stay in the fridge overnight. And I generally bake it the morning afterwards. So in the morning, you’re gonna remove your cling wrap. And you can see it hasn’t really risen much. Um, what I do then is just score it the same as I do with regular.
Sourdough. Now, I don’t use a Dutch oven for baking my sourdough loaves. I simply put them on a cookie sheet. I place them on the wire rack and add a cup of water to steam the bread as it cooks. I set my oven to 415° for the first 25 minutes. And then I repeat with the water after the 25 minutes and set the timer for another 20 minutes at.
400°. This helps the loaves to expand without going too crispy. And they come out just beautifully exactly the same way as when you use a Dutch oven. We really enjoyed how the psyllium husk adds a lovely texture to this eorn sourdough bread. Thanks for watching, guys. I’ll see you in the next one.
Delicious.
