Einkorn may not be a household name today—but that wasn’t always the case. An ancient grain with origins dating as far back as 7600 BCE, einkorn has been around as long as wheat has been cultivated. In fact, einkorn wheat is simply the earliest variety of cultivated wheat, also known as triticum monococcum L., which is why it’s sometimes referred to as “original wheat.” It has a more developed root system than modern wheat, which enables it to uptake more nutrients—lutein, iron, phosphorus, potassium, thiamin, and vitamins A and E, to name a few.
Throughout history wheat has been cultivated and hybridized to increase yield, increase disease resistance, and develop desirable baking characteristics, such as increased elasticity in the gluten. As new varieties of wheat with these characteristics took over the market, the original einkorn wheat became less well-known.
The hybridization of wheat changed the genetic makeup of what was originally a simpler, more digestible version of the grain. Einkorn, for example, is what’s called a diploid (i.e., made up of two complete sets of chromosomes) and contains fourteen total chromosomes, while later varieties of wheat—such as emmer, kamut, and durum—contain twenty-eight. More modern varieties such as spelt, hard red wheat, and soft white wheat contain even more still, at forty-two chromosomes. This is significant for a few reasons: First, the more the genetic structure of the grain has been manipulated, the more likely that its proteins—such as the gluten and gliadins found in gluten—can cause intestinal distress. In the 2010 Springer Theoretical and Applied Genetics, for example, it was shown that modern wheat breeding practices may have led to an increased exposure to celiac disease epitopes (the part of the molecule that causes the body to attack it via an antibody). Second, the genetic changes that wheat has undergone have affected the way the plant takes up nutrients from the soil, resulting in less nutrients in the final product. This means that einkorn, being nonhybridized, has the distinct advantage of being both easier on the digestive tract, and more nutritionally dense.
There are many reasons we love cooking and baking with einkorn. First, as we’ve talked about, einkorn is the most nutritious of the wheat varieties and easier to digest than others. It naturally contains more protein and has a different gluten structure than other varieties of wheat. It is rich in beta-carotene, vitamin A, lutein, and riboflavin. What’s more, it lacks the D genome present in modern wheat, a factor that is of note since significant, potentially harmful structural changes to the gluten in wheat were introduced through the D genome. In addition, a 2006 study in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology showed einkorn lacked toxicity from one component of gluten, based on biopsies of the intestinal lining of celiac patients.
Beside its health advantages, we simply enjoy the taste of einkorn (and other ancient and heirloom varietals). Growing up, neither of us was exposed to many different types of grains or seeds, and now we find that these ancient and heirloom varieties are not only some of the most nutritious options available on the market, but also they are incredibly delicious. By using these varieties, we can better nourish our families, raise awareness about food diversity, and help preserve traditional foodways for future generations.
While einkorn is in the same family as farro, spelt, and traditional wheat, it does not behave exactly like any of these grains in baking and cooking. Cooked einkorn berries are slightly chewier, for example, and the flavor is deeper and richer. What’s more, the flour reacts with liquids differently than regular flour, absorbing less and generally more slowly. Our recipes take these differences into account, of course, but if you want to adapt your own recipes to using einkorn, try keeping these tips in mind and be forgiving if things don’t go as planned!
There are two main kinds of einkorn flour on the market today: whole-grain and white all-purpose. While both are made from the same einkorn berries, the whole-grain version retains all the bran and germ, while the white has had most of the bran and germ removed, allowing for a lighter product that keeps longer. Flour made at home, either by grinding berries in a grain mill or in another processor, is whole-grain einkorn flour. There is also sprouted einkorn flour, as well as the possibility of sprouting and then grinding your own flour at home (see page 14).
Note that recipes that call for whole-grain einkorn flour will be hearty, dense, and slightly nutty; recipes that call for white, all-purpose einkorn flour will be lighter and more delicate. It is always possible to swap one type out for the other using the same one-to-one weight, but results will vary, and recipes that call for yeast are especially sensitive. For this reason, we provide notations on recipes where swapping is particularly difficult.
For reference, here are the various weights of different types of einkorn flour. Note that sifted einkorn flour is whole-grain flour that has been run through a sifter, with the strained bran discarded, and then weighed.
Whole-Grain Einkorn Flour = 110 g per cup
Sifted Whole-Grain Einkorn Flour = 100 g per cup
White, All-Purpose Einkorn Flour = 125 g per cup
While some natural groceries carry einkorn, the current best place to buy einkorn berries or einkorn flour is online. See our Resources section on page 168 for a full list of our preferred brands.
In terms of flour specifically, Jovial Foods (JovialFoods.com) offers all-purpose einkorn flour, a high-extraction flour with most of its germ and bran removed; this option results in a lighter texture and more delicate crumb in baked goods. Whole-grain einkorn flour, is available online from Breadtopia, Tropical Traditions, Simple Origins, GrowSeed.org, Einkorn.com, and others—and you can often find online coupon codes, free shipping deals, and bulk offers from these places in order to save money. It is also possible to make at home by grinding berries yourself in a grain mill. If you would like finer flour, you can sift your freshly ground flour with a fine mesh metal strainer to separate the bran.
As anyone who’s purchased grains in bulk can tell you, the way you store your grains is important. Without proper storage, both einkorn berries and einkorn flour can become susceptible to insect problems and/or rancidity. After learning this lesson the hard way, we’ve begun storing all our grains in sealed glass jars instead of paper or plastic. What’s more, we usually freeze our grains and flours if space allows.
Just as with most grains, einkorn benefits from soaking and/or sprouting. These processes not only boost the amount of available nutrients, but also help neutralize the anti-nutrient phytic acid, which is found in most grains (and nuts) and is a known culprit for causing gut inflammation and digestion problems. Soaking or culturing flour (such as in traditional sourdough) helps make the final product easier to digest, as the grain has essentially begun to predigest because of the good bacteria in the culture. Sprouting unlocks many of a grain’s nutrients as well, essentially allowing it to become a little plant.
Throughout this book, you will notice we always call for soaking einkorn berries and only occasionally call for soaking a flour mixture, due to our personal preferences. However, it is always possible and helpful for aiding digestion if you want to soak or sprout your einkorn each time; just follow the instructions below. Additionally, for more information on soaking, souring, and sprouting, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon is an excellent resource.
In a bowl, combine berries with enough filtered water to cover them and up to a tablespoon (15ml) of an acidic medium such as apple cider vinegar, whey, or lemon juice. Soak berries for 8 hours (and up to overnight). After soaking, strain and rinse the berries, discarding the water. At this point, they are ready to be cooked or sprouted (see below).
To make your own sprouted einkorn, follow the same process for soaking einkorn berries as above, but after soaking and rinsing, place the berries in either a strainer (covered with a plate), a glass jar, or a sprouter and leave it on the counter, rinsing every 4 to 8 hours. Within 2 days, you should start to see a little white bud appear at the edge of each berry; a tiny sprout is all you’re looking for (about 1/8 to 1/4 inch [3 to 6 mm]). As soon as this appears, berries are ready to be strained, rinsed, and cooked, or dried and prepared for grinding into flour (see below).
To make your own sprouted flour, sprout your einkorn berries as instructed above, then dehydrate at 150°F (66°C) or below until completely dry. Note that this can take from 12 to 24 hours, depending on your oven or dehydrator; bite down on a kernel to test for dryness—it should be crunchy.
Once done, process the berries in a grain mill or high-speed processor. Use the flour just like you would regular einkorn flour; the resulting consistency will be just like that of whole-grain einkorn flour.
Cooking einkorn berries is pretty simple. We always soak ours the night before cooking, but beyond that the process is quick and easy: Combine with water in a pot, bring to a simmer, cook until al dente. We’ve found we tend to cook our berries longer than most people would because we like them a little softer, but the doneness is up to you.
* In a medium bowl, combine einkorn berries, apple cider vinegar, and enough water to cover the berries by an inch (2.5 cm). Cover bowl, and let sit at room temperature for 8 hours or overnight. Afterward, rinse and drain berries and place in a 2.5- or 3-quart (2.5 or 3 L) stockpot with 1 1/2 cups (350 ml) of water. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat; reduce to a simmer; cook for 30 to 40 minutes, until al dente. Berries may be used immediately in soups, salads, or other recipes. They may also be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Yield: 2 1/4 cups (428 g) cooked einkorn berries
1 cup (200 g) einkorn berries
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
We’ve written this cookbook to be reflective of the way we cook in our kitchen and the ingredients we use, while also being adaptable to others’ needs and pantries. Here is a quick rundown of less common ingredients you can expect to see in our recipes, with short explanations of what they are and how you might replace them. Most of these products are available at natural foods stores or online. For more information, see the Resources section.
Coconut oil is a wonder product extracted from the kernel of mature coconuts, and it has many uses even beyond food. In this book, we use extra-virgin organic coconut oil to roast vegetables and as a fat in baking because of its stability as a saturated fat, its beneficial lauric acid content, and its healthful medium chain triglycerides (MCTs).
There are many brands of coconut oil on the market today, each with its own aroma, texture, and taste, so experiment to find which you like best. In general, we enjoy the light taste of coconut with vegetables, and find its flavor hard to detect in baked goods. In either case, it may be replaced with a different fat of your choice (olive oil, butter, ghee), though results may vary.
Coconut sugar comes from the sap of coconut blossoms and is high in potassium, zinc, magnesium, and iron. It is best known for being lower on the glycemic index than other sugars. What’s more, unlike agave nectar, which is high in fructose and often highly processed, it is mostly sucrose, a fructose-glucose combination.
Used in baked goods, coconut sugar imparts a slight caramel flavor and a light brown hue. If you prefer a different option, swap in Sucanat (unrefined cane sugar) or traditional sugar if you like.
Ghee is also known as clarified butter—essentially, straight butter oil with all the milk solids removed. The purest ghee is actually casein free and lactose free so it is typically safe for those with milk allergies. Ghee is excellent in baked goods or for high temperature cooking as it has a high smoke point due to the milk solids being removed (which normally would cause butter to burn). Ghee that comes from pastured cows is rich in fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K.
Kefir is a fermented milk drink made from culturing milk with kefir grains. Featuring a tart flavor and slight effervescence, it has the consistency of a drinkable yogurt. We often use kefir when soaking dough such as in our pizza crust recipe (page 130), as it helps make the final product more digestible. A good replacement for kefir would be organic, full-fat yogurt; just note that results may vary.
When we use maple syrup, we’re using what is sometimes called Grade B organic maple syrup and other times, Grade A Dark/Robust Taste. Whatever maple syrup you use is generally fine, just make sure it’s the real thing and not imitation.
In our kitchen, we use raw goat’s milk, straight from our farmer in Tennessee. Local raw cow’s milk or pasteurized whole cow’s milk can also be used in our recipes, depending on what works best for your family, or you can swap in whatever type of dairy milk you prefer. Using alternative milks such as almond or coconut is another option, but note that results may vary.
Sucanat stands for sugar cane natural (su-can-nat) and is unrefined cane sugar (i.e., sugar with its minerals still intact). It is an easy one-to-one swap for coconut sugar or traditional sugar if you like. Its taste is reminiscent of molasses, though a little more muted than that of coconut sugar.
Made from the sorghum plant, sorghum syrup (also known as sorghum molasses) is a natural sweetener created by processing sorghum juice. Thinner and more tart than molasses, it is rich in phosphorous, magnesium, thiamin, and omega 6 fatty acids. Primarily available in the American South, it is also available online. We like it over pancakes or in cookies, such as our Rosewater Sorghum Shortbread Cookies with Chocolate Drizzle on page 154. If you can’t find sorghum syrup, substitute maple syrup instead.
When we use yogurt in a recipe, we are always using full-fat organic yogurt. You may substitute with the yogurt of your choice, but results may vary.
The right tools make any task easier—and that’s as true in the kitchen as it is anywhere else. Below are the key kitchen tools you’ll see used and highlighted in our recipes, along with reasons for why we like them.
When you mix or knead dough on your counter, the sticky dough will often stick to the counter like glue, making it both hard to work with and hard to clean. That’s why a dough scraper becomes your best friend. It easily gets beneath sticky dough and makes it easier to wipe up your mess, and counter.
Our food processor is one of our most invaluable kitchen tools. From puréeing pesto to quickly forming pasta dough, it simplifies cooking and speeds up kitchen work.
A grain mill makes it possible to grind einkorn berries (and other grains) right in your own home, creating flour that is fresh and whole. By grinding the berries fresh for each use, you can ensure that you are getting all the bran, germ, and endosperm from the grain and all the nutrients they contain, including the delicate natural oils. Unlike whole-grain flours that sit on store shelves and risk going rancid due to this exposure, home-ground flour is the most nutritious product possible.
We always use a pastry cutter to cut butter into flour, whether it’s in a pie crust or a pastry dough. Made of narrow metal strips or wires affixed to a handle, this tool shortens and simplifies the dough-making process.
A good pizza stone is useful for more than baking pizza—we also use ours to bake sourdough bread (page 66) and pitas (page 59), for example. Thanks to its ability to heat up with the oven and create a wider surface area on which foods can bake, a pizza stone helps give bread and other baked goods a strong, crisp crust.
One of the most respected high-powered blenders on the market, the Vitamix is in constant use in our kitchen. And there’s more to this blending tool than morning smoothies—in this book, we use ours for everything from creating unrefined powdered sugar to creating an oatmeal-like consistency in Cream of Einkorn (page 41).
We know that cooking with a new grain can be daunting, but the good news is, it won’t feel that way for long. All that’s necessary to increase your comfort with einkorn is, as with any other new thing, the willingness to try it out. Once you do, you’ll learn quickly that einkorn is truly unique in its structure, nutrient density, texture, and quality. What’s more, in cooking, it can be very forgiving—lending itself toward easy adaptations and preferences. That’s one of the reasons we put together this book. Let us see you through the introductory phase of using einkorn, and we’re confident you’ll see what we have: Einkorn offers a rich heritage and a lot of possibilities. So grab your apron and have fun!