The Fresh Loaf

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100% einkorn honey bread

sam's picture
sam

100% einkorn honey bread

Hello,

Here is today's bake, a 100% whole einkorn flour (unsifted, milled at home), and honey.   This was my third attempt at a 100% einkorn bread.   My first attempt, I used no honey, used liquid levain, and cold-fermented the final dough for 24hrs.  Way, way too sour.   Then I got a request for a strong honey bread from a family member.   So, I tried again with a decent amount of honey (10% by weight of flour) and no long cold ferment.   I wasn't sure how to account for the hydration of the honey.  I did search here but I didn't find much (my search skills may be lacking).  Then I read the wikipedia article on Honey, and it specified that your typical honey is about 17% water.   So I factored that value into the hydration of the recipe.   *laugh*.   That attempt was far too underestimated for hydration content of honey.  It might be true, that honey is 17% water but not for the purposes of hydrating flour.   That 2nd attempt was the gloopiest, stickiest, most unmanageable dough ever.   It felt and handled more like a 78% or higher hydration.  I baked it anyway and it was a nice frisbee.   Unfortunately, it was also too sour, and I did everything at ambient room temps.

So, for this third attempt, I used 75% as my honey-hydration estimate, and lowered the hydration of my levain to 80% instead of 100% or 125% to see if it would reduce sour at all.   20% of the flour was mashed also.   So a lot of honey and a lot of mash.  The dough felt and handled about right in terms of overall hydration, and not too sour this time.   Just a little finishing tang.   Yay!  It tastes very good.    Will go best as a breakfast bread or a PB+J sandwich.

My scoring was a little off-center, but oh well.  :)  I wasn't expecting an open crumb, and so I was not disappointed when I found it wasn't.

Recipe and pics.   All weights in grams, all flour is whole einkorn flour.

 

Total Dough Weight: 1000
Targeted Total Dough Hydration: 70%
Total Dough Flour Weight: 588
Targeted Total Dough Water Weight: 412

Percentages:      
Levain Percentage: 20%
Levain Hydration: 80%
Starter Percentage: 10% of levain
Starter Hydration: 125%

Soaker Percentage: 58%  
Soaker Hydration: 80%  
Soaker Salt Percentage: 1%  
Mash Percentage: 35% of soaker 
Mash Hydration: 200%  
Final Dough Salt Percentage: 1.5%
Honey Percentage: 10%

Levain:
Flour Weight: 112
Water Weight: 87
Starter Weight: 12
      
Mash:
Flour Weight: 119  
Water Weight: 238  
Diatastic Malt Powder: 2

Soaker:
All Mash
Flour Weight: 222
Water Weight: 35
Salt Weight: 3
      
Final Dough:
All Levain
All Soaker/Mash
Flour Weight: 130
Salt Weight: 6
Honey Weight: 59  (estimated @ 75% hydration)

  

 

Happy baking!

 

Comments

Mebake's picture
Mebake

I can't get over the color of the crumb, gvz! its such a treat to look at.. beautiful bread, and a true testimony to your great efforts.

How do you describe flavor, compared to regular whole wheat that is?

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Very nice baking.  Your perserverence paid off.  I believe that the general rule for honey hydration is 50% (half water) - at least that is what I have on my spreadsheet when I looked it up. 

Happy baking 

sam's picture
sam

einloaf -- sorry I don't have it in cups/spoons but there are some internet web sites that can do some conversions.  

dabrownman -- thanks much!   After more subsequent trials, it seems for the honey I am using (raw, non-filtered), I've been using a ratio of 60% water in honey and it's pretty close to the mark in terms of how the final dough feels when hydrated with honey.  It's hard to say for sure what the exact hydration is, but yes -- your recommendation of 50% would also be a good one for this kind of honey.  Thanks.

 

cherub0110's picture
cherub0110

Hi, I've been baking and just learned through reading and following direction... I've been having problems with einkorn bread. Your bread really looks beautiful but what does this mean:

Levain Percentage: 20%
Levain Hydration: 80%
Starter Percentage: 10% of levain
Starter Hydration: 125%

Soaker Percentage: 58%  
Soaker Hydration: 80%  
Soaker Salt Percentage: 1%  
Mash Percentage: 35% of soaker 
Mash Hydration: 200%  
Final Dough Salt Percentage: 1.5%
Honey Percentage: 10%

 This terms are new to me.... is there anyone or maybe that could direct me to a link that teaches about bread baking language?  Also, what's the directions for this bread?   Thanks!