Einkorn grains
Hello,
Inspired by a recent bread by codruta with Einkorn flour, and chapter 1 of the Handbook of Dough Fermentations (which is a history lesson on grains), and since I have a home grain mill, I decided to buy a bunch of Einkorn from einkorn.com. 22 lbs of it. :) Why not? Today it arrived. Thought I'd post pics with comparison of what it looks like vs. organic hard red spring wheat from Bob's Red Mill.
The main shipping box it arrived in was undamaged and was thoroughly wrapped in tape. Inside, the grains were packaged in several vacuum-sealed plastic bags. Visually, the grains appear to be of good quality. I have not yet tried to make bread from it.
Here is a pic of the Einkorn after transferring to my container:
For comparison, here is what hard red wheat is like.
The Einkorn is slightly darker in color (or lighter, depending on the lighting conditions), and shorter than hard red wheat.
Finally, a closer look. Einkorn is on top, hard red wheat on bottom.
Cheers!
[Edited to fix TFL-member reference. Apologies again.]
Never thought they'd look like that, Einkorn.. They look unique. Um, and it was corduta that blogged about the flour, not lumos.. :)
22lbs!! they must have cost you a fotrune! are they organically grown? i understand why you'd buy in bulk .. it would be cheaper, no?
awaiting your bake using Einkorn.
Oops. My apologies for the mixup -- sorry! :-)
From the Handbook, chapter 1:
"Some early varieties of wheat, particularly einkorn (Triticale monococcum), appear to have been especially suitable for porridge. They generally do not function well in breadmaking, and also tend to have a smaller relative starch content and a higher protein level than either emmer or bread wheats."
For me, I'm mainly curious how it tastes. It is supposedly healthier for you than hard red wheat but healthy is not necessarily a goal for me. :-)
Will be interesting to see how it goes, either with a 100% whole einkorn flour bread or a 50/50 with some white/wheat flour.
I'm quite happy getting mixed up with Codruta, actually. She's such a talented baker and, possibly more importantly, she'd much younger than me! :p
Interesting pics of Einkorn, gvz. First time for me, too.
Look forward to your report on how it tastes like. :)
lumos
Hi gvz,
I baked a couples batches of einkorn sourdough breads back in January. I really love einkorn flavor compare to spelt, kamut. teff (very good for injera and goes well with curry), or other whole grains flours. I was very lucky enough that my friends send me some of the grains as my birthday gift. Here is one of the pictures(60% freshly milled einkorn flour + 20% freshly milled rye flour + 20% BF ;for the hydration I started with 70% and then slowly increase the water as needed(not sure how much I added), I did degas my dough really well and shape them tight (prefer no holes for my case) since I want to make a grill cheese sandwich later on ):
I’m excited to see your future bakes.
Kimmy
That picture looks excellent.
A couple of evenings ago, I tried a mash with some einkorn flour, and it was very tasty. Probably the best tasting mash yet. I did 55C for 90 mins, 60C for 30 mins, 65C for 30 mins, and finally 70C for 30 mins. As you probably know, Einkorn flour has a lovely light golden color when mixed with water. It darkens a little after mashing, as all flours I've tried do, but still very nice. The flavor was the most sweet I've tried.
The einkorn flour has a different consistency than any of the other grains I've milled at home. It is hard to describe exactly, even though it was milled very fine, I want to say it is "thicker" or "more substantial". I am currently working on my first einkorn bread, a 50/50 einkorn+white at 73% hydration. We'll see how it comes out.
Cheers!
Hello,
Someone pointed out to me that I was incorrect (as usual) when I was retyping the passage from The Handbook of Dough Fermentations (page 2).
The correct thing should have been: "Triticum monococcum", not Triticale monococcum.
Jeeeze, I really screwed up this post. :) First I confused codruta and lumos. Then I mistyped the species of the einkorn.
(Sorry..)