Ingredients
- 300 grams einkorn levain instructions below
- 700 grams water
- 1000 grams einkorn flour
- 24 grams salt
Levain:
- 15 grams "grandmother starter" ie. active starter that is bubbly and ready for use
- 150 grams water
- 150 grams whole grain einkorn flour
Methods
For the einkorn levain:
- mix 15 grams grandmother starter with 150 grams of water and 150 grams of whole grain einkorn flour. Cover and let it ferment at room temperature for 6 to 10 hours. l usually do this last thing before bed and let it ferment overnight. It should get bubbly and smell nice and be ready to leaven your bread.
- The night before you're going to bake, make a levain as described above (or see book Mama Bread page 29). Let it sit overnight to become active and ready to leaven.
Making the Dough:
- In the morning, mix the levain with the water and stir it around. Don't worry if the levain is not totally dissolved in the water, just break it up a bit with your hands. Add the flour and salt and mix until there are no pockets of flour. This IS probably going to seem dry compared to your normal bread mix. You'll notice it has a little less water. Don't get lured into thinking it's too dry; wait and see what happens because einkorn is a funny fellow. Just when you get lured into giving more water, it seems to spit it back out and make sticky mess. I made that mistake a while: back and thought that 100% einkorn just wasn't for me Recently I had a few conversations with bakers that made me feel emboldened to give it another go. Wow- am I glad I did! With these loaves, notice I don't wait to add salt. I tried it both ways, and adding the salt from the get-go seems to work best with einkorn.
- Now you're in bulk fermentation. Fold every 30 minutes, give or take, during this stage. Wet your hands thoroughly because einkorn sticks to anything and everything and water is the only thing that seems to keep it from doing so. When folding this dough, you should be able to stretch pretty extensively, which is good because this stretch is what will develop the structure, It feels a little more putty-like than most wheat doughs, but just go with it. After about I to 2 hours, it will be ready to shape.
Shaping the dough
- Use a lot of water to keep everything slick. Cut the dough in half they will be about 1000 grams each), and preshape into a rectangle. Give the loaves a brief rest while you butter the inside of two loaf pans. The dough is ready to shape when it starts to look like it's turning into a puddle on the counter. This will happen pretty quickly. Water your hands and form the dough into loaves by rolling them up, jellyroll style. Plop them into the prepared pans, seam side down, and cover. My favorite pans for these loaves are pullman pans with a lid that slides on and off. I often proof at room temperature and bake when the loaves fill the pans a little more than halfway, but keep a close eye because they proof quickly. If you start to see bubbles come to the top, it's time to get them in the oven. You can also proof overnight in the fridge.
- When ready to bake, heat the oven to 450°F. I do not slash the tops of these loaves and they always finish with a shiny, smooth top. Bake 30 minutes covered; Uncover and bake an additional 30 minutes. Let the loaves cool completely before delving in.
- Savor with ancient delight and all the current gratitude you can muster.