Fluffy Einkorn pancakes

This morning I decided to change the recipe a bit to make it a bit more moist. I love the flavor of einkorn flour, but my usual recipe was more dry than using King Arther all purpose flour.

1 1/3 cup einkorn flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
3 tbsp oil
1/4 cup kefir
1 1/2 cup milk
2 eggs

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the eggs, butter, oil and milk in another bowl. Combine and mix, but don't over mix. I cook the pancakes on my LG range, which has a nice non-stick griddle. The pancakes turn out fluffy and moist. With a regular frying pan, I have to use oil, but with my griddle no oil is needed. This produces a pancake that is light, not greasy and flavorful.

The combination of kefir and einkorn produces a rich flavor.

Einkorn scallion Loaf

Last nite I decided to try a scallion loaf with Einkorn flour.

3 1/2 cup einkorn flour (from Jovial foods)
1/4 tsp yeast
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 big bunch of scallion or 2 small bunches
1 3/4 cups water

Combine the yeast, sugar, salt, and flour in a bowl and stir a bit. Chop the scallions into small pieces. There's a couple of different kinds of scallion.

At my local Stop & Shop, they sell the smaller variety. My local Shaws sells the thicker Asian scallions, which have a much stronger flavor. I prefer to use the thicker variety and use 1 bunch. With the smaller variety, I use about 2-3 bunches. Once it's chopped, it should be about 1.5-2 cups.

Mix the chopped scallions with the flour. Add 1 cup of warm water and mix. Gradually add the remaining water until you get a nice wet no knead dough. Basically you want wet dough. Depending on the moisture of the scallions, you may need more or less water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise for 14 hours. I put the bowl into my oven to proof for 2 hours before turning it off for the nite.

One thing with using einkorn flour is the dough will be very sticky. Put plenty of flour on the surface before turning out the dough. Before you form the loaf, coat the mixing bowl with 2 tbsp of peanut oil. Any oil will work, but I prefer peanut oil over olive or corn oil. Form a round loaf and place it in the bowl. I turn the loaf over once to make sure it's got oil all around. This prevents the dough from sticking to the bowl too much. Let it rise for 1.5-2 hours in the bowl covered. 45 min before you're ready to bake preheat your dutch oven at 550.

Gently slide the loaf into your dutch oven. I use a rubber spatula to make sure it's not sticking any where. Bake for 30 min covered. After the 30 min, you can bake it uncovered for 5-15 min depending on how much crust you like.

Now that I've made several einkorn loafs, here's what I've learned so far. It takes a bit longer for einkorn dough to rise, so give it more time in the first rising and after it's made into a loaf. Bake it in a dutch oven instead of a loaf pan, baking sheet or stoneware. Cast iron dutch oven with a good lid helps to create steam and has higher thermal inertia. It weighs more than stoneware, but that extra weight helps to keep the temperature high. The heavy lid traps the moisture and helps it rise more during baking. Stoneware is lighter, but it has less thermal inertia, so it cools down a bit before it heats back up. When I slid the loaf into my dutch oven, I could hear the oil sizzle. That's how hot it should be.

For Challah and other loafs that don't fit in a dutch oven, let it rise 2-3 hours after shaping. If your oven has proof setting, proof the loaf until it has doubled, remove it from the oven to preheat and then bake.

Einkorn Challah

I decided to make a Challah with einkorn flour this morning.

5 cups einkorn flour
1 cup King arthur all purpose flour
1/4 cup honey
1 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp salt
2 eggs
4 tbsp butter
1 3/4 cup warm water

Mix honey, salt, yeast, eggs and butter in the water. Gradually add the einkorn flour 1 cup at a time. Since einkorn has less gluten, I kneaded the dough for 10 minutes. I used the proof setting to help it rise.

Once it's doubled, knead it and braid into a loaf. We made 1 4 braid loaf and the other a round loaf.

Bake at 375F for 40-45 minutes. I'm using convection bake, so it takes about 30 minutes.

Cinnamon Raisin Einkorn Loaf

I decided to make a cinnamon raisin loaf last night with Einkorn wheat to see how it works. I'm happy to report, it works great.

4 cups einkorn flour
1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup raisin
1 3/4 cup water
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon

Mix all the dry ingredients first, then gradually add the warm water. Since it was cold last nite, I used hot water to get things going. After it was mixed, I put it in my oven on proof setting for 2 hours. After that I turned the oven off and let it rise over nite.

A couple of observations. The einkorn loaf is more dense than King Aruther's all purpose flour. The crumb is still nice and chewy. It doesn't have the huge pockets like an all purpose loaf, but that doesn't bother me.

Overall, I like the flavor better than all purpose flour. The flavor is richer with a nice nuttiness, even with strong flavors like raisin and cinnamon.

Einkorn Currant Lime Loaf

Last nite I started a einkorn loaf with currants and lime.

4 cups einkorn flour
1.75 cups warm water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp lime juice
1 cup currant
1/4 tsp yeast

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix. Add the warm water and mix until you have a wet dough. Let it rise for 12-14 hours. Form a loaf, let it rise for 1-1.5 hours and bake covered in a dutch oven.

Einkorn pancakes

I've been experimenting with einkorn flour from jovialfoods.com. The pancakes turned out great all three times. I used the new griddle on my LG range.

1.5 cup einkorn flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1.5 cups milk
2 tbsp butter

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the eggs, milk, and butter in a separate bowl. Pour wet into the dry. Fry the pancakes.

Einkorn loaf

Last nite I couldn't wait to use my new oven, so I started a einkorn loaf.

2 cups King Arthur all purpose
2 cups einkorn flour
1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
2 cups water

After 12 hours, it was ready to bake. I noticed the texture is different than all KA flour. It was less stringy, which makes sense. Einkorn flour has less gluten. The aroma of the loaf is quite different than KA flour. Usually with KA, the smell of yeast is the dominant aroma. With einkorn, the aroma is less yeasty and more fragrant. It's hard to describe.

After shaping and rising for 1 hour. The nice thing about the new LG oven is it has a delay function. I set the time to start preheat and it does the magic for me. Before I would just preheat the dutch oven for 1 hour, which isn't necessary. It also uses more gas, so the LG is more efficient simply because it has a delay feature.

The color of the loaf is more yellow than pure KA loaf and the aroma is nice. I can't really describe it, but I plan to make a pure einkorn loaf in a few days to see and compare.

The flavor of the einkorn loaf is more complex. The best I can describe it is it has a nutty flavor and the crust is more crunchy. For this loaf I didn't bake it uncovered. I just baked it 32 minutes covered at 450F. I put some cream cheese on it and it goes very well.

New LG Range

I bought my first range this week and it arrived today. I've been wanting a bigger flame for woking, center burner for griddle and bigger oven for Challah. I spent several days researching and found one that I really liked. It is the LG LRG3095, which has a big 17,000 BTU burner, 5.4 cu ft oven and proof feature.

My old GE range served me well for 13 years, but the burners were only 9,500 BTU. Honestly I didn't think 17,000 BTU would make much difference compared to 9,500, but it does. I also have a Eastman Outdoor Big Kahuna I use during the summer, which puts out 55,000 BTU. On the Kahuna, stir fry is literally less than 90 seconds for most veggies. For 2-3 lbs of meat, it's usually less than 5 minutes. In comparison, on my old GE range 2-3 lbs of meat would take about 10-15 min assuming it's completely thawed at room temperature.

I started a plain no knead loaf tonight with half King Arther and half einkorn flour I got from Jovial Foods. One thing I noticed immediately is the aroma of the einkorn flour was fragrant. King Arthur all purpose flour is good, but it doesn't have the aroma of einkorn flour.

The reason I decided to try einkorn flour was mainly due to the author of "Wheat belly". Before I watched the video, I hadn't really thought about modern wheat and how it differs from einkorn. After reading up on it and looking at people's response to einkorn, it got me thinking. I've had a chronic sore shoulder due to a high school volleyball injury. Basically I dislocated it a few times in volleyball and now I'm paying the price. When the weather gets cold, both shoulders snap, crackle and pop. It's not terrible, but I definitely feel it when I reach for things in the upper cabinet.

It's an experiment, I don't know if it will make any difference, but it's worth a shot. Assuming Gliadin protein really does what Dr Davis says, eating einkorn could make a difference. Some people report their arthritis went away after switching to einkorn. The down side though is that it's hard to avoid modern wheat. It's in every processed food product and most restaurants use modern wheat. Luckily we generally don't buy processed foods and try to focus on a balanced diet of rice, veggies, organic milk and meats. It's more expensive, but I prefer to eat foods that don't have artificial hormones and other junk in it.

I can't wait to bake the loaf tomorrow morning and see how einkorn tastes. If the aroma is any indication, it's gonna be good.

Scallion Loaf

One of my favorite things to eat is scallion pancakes, so I decided to experiment with a scallion loaf.

3.5 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp yeast
1.5 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
2 bunches of scallions
1 1/2 cups water

Make a no knead loaf and let it rise for 12 hours. Form a loaf and bake for 30 min covered and 4 min uncovered.

The loaf tastes a lot like scallion pancake, savory and fragrant.