May 29, 2014 - 5:57pm
Einkorn anybody?
My brother has asked me to experiment with emmer and einkorn. Didn't find any emmer yet, but did find einkorn which I'm grinding myself. I was wondering if anyone had experience with einkorn and could offer any suggestions. I'm thinking of starting out with a 50% einkorn/ 50% AP and about 65% hydration. Not sure if I should add some honey like a whole wheat bread or what special treatment it might need. Any suggestions?
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You might want to read this blog entry: http://tartine-bread.blogspot.com/2014/03/bolted-vs-high-extraction-flour.html
Einkorn discussion is in the second half.
I'm just getting ready to experiment with it myself, so I'd love to hear how your idea goes.
was all about Emmer (farro ) and Einkorn and other out of favor grains -or ancient ones.The entries for the Bread Olympics that ended on 26 May, with their formulas, will be posted soon at Mr Lutt's blog in Germany. You can find farro from Italy and the US at Whole Foods. It isn't in the bins anymore in Phoenix but it is in flour, pasta and macrobiotic sections of their stores
http://www.ploetzblog.de/
You will also find many of these fine breads using these grains featured on TFL by using the search tool too.
65% hydration is pretty low even for white bread.
Happy baking
Farro isn't necessarily emmer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farro It's not a very good article, but I think it makes an okay introduction.
Farro for the rest of us. They use additional sizedescriptors to narrow the field where we do not. Small kernal farro is Einkorn, medium is Emmer and large, kernel farro is spelt. They are quite easy to tell apart. All of the farro I have purchased in the USA for the past few years has been emmer and most of the farro sold worldwide is also emmer.
for several months now. I find that it does not hydrate as well as conventional hybridized wheat. I only bake boules, and only 100% Einkorn, yeast water and salt, nothing else. Typically I make my boules at 68% hydration and find the dough very difficult to work with (its rather loose and nearly impossible to stretch and fold) but last week I baked one at 75% hydration, it wasn't significantly better (Einkorn doesn't rise much and does not have a super open crumb, neither of which really changed for me at 75% hydration) and was rather soupy and nearly impossible to handle. It did form a gigantic ear which was entertaining but I'm going back to 68% because its almost stretch-and-foldable at that hydration. Slashing is also very challenging (its so loose that it heals almost instantly or so gooey that it sticks to the blades), which I do to get a bit more rise from it. Its taken me months of practice (and I still need more practice) but I now can slash it halfway decently and the loaves at least look like I'm trying to make a loaf of bread instead of a flying saucer. Good Luck!
Thanks for the comments. I sieved the flour down to a #30 and I'm letting it autolyse. I will eventually try a 100% einkorn, but for now, I want the comfort of the added gluten from AP and a milder taste as I've never tasted einkorn, so I'm still going to do a 50/50. I will follow cerevisiae's advice of a 68% hydration and it seems everyone suggests a 4 ingredient bread, so that's what I'll stick with. I'll keep everyone posted.
BTW, FWIW, out of 500 gm of berries, I extracted only 50 gm of bran at the #30 sieve, leaving 450 gm for my bread. I plan to use the 50 gm for dusting as also suggested by Cerevisiae.
to my starter and levain. Keeping the hard bits as wet for as long as possible; makes all the difference in a high % whole grain bread of any kind. The wee beasties love the low extraction part and you will notice a difference in starter and levain activity.
Happy baking