Einkorn sourdough bread recipe | Amazing ancient grain bread

When you bake a lot of bread, you get your favorites, but sometimes you need some variety. I am sure you have your favorite bread flour, which gives you a great oven spring and the crumb you love, but what about whole-grain flour? Do you have a favorite? Have you tried every single grain that you can buy? Well, I’m here to show you one you may have missed: einkorn. This is my einkorn sourdough bread recipe.

Einkorn is an ancient grain, along with the likes of Spelt, Emmer, Khorasan (called Kamut in Denmark), and Ølandhvede. Along with Emmer, Einkorn was one of the first strains of wheat to be domesticated. There’s clear evidence that Einkorn was domesticated around 10,000 years ago in archeological sites in Southern Turkey. Remains of einkorn were found with the mummy Ötzi, dated to 3100 BCE, that’s over 5,000 years ago.

If you are just here for the recipe, you can press the button underneath to be automagically transported to the recipe:

Jump to Recipe Jump to Video

The dough in this einkorn sourdough bread recipe

Vitals

Total weight	1400 grams
Pre-fermented flour	9.1%
Hydration	80%
Yield	2 small loaves

The dough

I’ve made the dough in this einkorn sourdough bread to contain 70% bread flour and 30% whole grain einkorn flour.

Because of the high amount of einkorn, which is low in gluten, you will need to use strong bread flour. If you can’t get that, I recommend lowering the hydration. If you use all-purpose einkorn flour, you will probably need to lower the hydration as well.

The inoculation, meaning the amount of starter, is 20%, and the amount of salt is 2%. This bread gets a lot better with more salt, 3% seems to be perfect, but I know a lot of people worry about their salt intake, so I’ve gone with the regular amount and let it be up to you to change it.

The dough is no-knead, with shaping, retarding, and then baking. Expect to be able to bake in the evening if you start in the morning. It follows my no-knead sourdough method, except it uses two-stage baking to help you bake two loaves and save electricity simultaneously.

Weight	Ingredient	Baker's Percentage
490g	bread flour	70%
210g	einkorn whole-grain flour	30%
546g	water	78%
140g	starter (100% hydration)	20%
14g	salt	2%

If you want to play around with the formula: change hydration, quantity, inoculation, and many other things, you can do that here in my Bread Calculator.

The conclusion of this einkorn sourdough bread recipe

When the bread is in the oven, a delicious smell enrobes your entire kitchen. When the bread comes out of the oven it is even more apparent. This is something special.

The taste is, of course, mainly wheat, but there are some super delicious nutty and even toasted notes. That’s without toasting the bread, of course.

The crust is crunchy, and the crumb is soft and chewy. Just how I love my sourdough. I achieved a surprisingly open crumb in my bread. Your results may vary depending on the bread flour that you use.

I can only say that you need to try to use einkorn in your baking. This is a keeper.

Please share this einkorn sourdough bread recipe on social media

Ad links! The links for equipment and ingredients in this recipe are affiliate links, which means I will receive a commission if you purchase the product.