Einkorn Sourdough Sandwich Bread – Sourdough Brandon

This 100% Einkorn Sourdough Sandwich Bread is extremely flavorful and soft, with a hint of sweetness. It’s sturdy, golden, nutrient-dense, and easier to digest than most wheat breads.

Einkorn flour can be challenging to work with, but this einkorn sandwich bread is easy and the recipe includes lots of tips and photos to help you make a great loaf with this ancient grain.

To achieve the softness for this bread, I use the tangzhong (roux) method. This simple scalding technique gelatinizes the flour and denatures the proteins in the milk to create an extra soft loaf with higher hydration.

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🌾 What is Einkorn Flour?

Einkorn is an ancient grain that’s been cultivated by humans for thousands of years. In fact, it’s often considered the oldest wheat and hasn’t been genetically altered as other modern wheat varieties are.

Einkorn is cherished for its nutritional benefits as an “ancient grain,” alongside spelt, emmer, rye, and buckwheat. With easier-to-digest gluten and higher protein levels compared to modern wheats, it has gained popularity among health-conscious consumers.

Einkorn berries are usually freshly milled to make einkorn flour that you can incorporate into recipes like my Beginner’s Einkorn Sourdough Bread recipe. However, you can also cook the whole berries, treating them like rice, to enjoy them as a wholesome whole grain in recipes like my Einkorn Salad with Radicchio & Oranges.

🔍 Tips for Making Einkorn Sourdough Sandwich Bread

• Einkorn will act and look very different than you may expect from other wheat flours. This recipe is 100% einkorn flour, so it will tear more easily, won’t mix as easily, and will appear sticky and dense at first.
• Einkorn typically ferments faster than other wheat flours, but the bulk fermentation will not give the same indications of being done as other breads. Use the poke test to know when your einkorn bread is properly proofed.
• For a sandwich loaf with straight sides, I use this 9″x4″ USA pullman pan without the lid. It’s the same pan I use for Sourdough Brioche Bread to achieve a tall bakery-style loaf.
• Use tangzhong to achieve a softer einkorn bread that allows for a higher hydration in this loaf.

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👨‍🏫 Baker’s Percentage Table

I include a baker’s percentage chart to scale a recipe up or down easily. With baker’s percentages, the total weight of all flour in the recipe is 100%.

I also include the prefermented flour and water from the levain in the flour weight (45g each). The total hydration for this loaf is about 76%, which is about the max for einkorn flour before it becomes extremely sticky and unmanageable.

If you want to learn more about baker’s percentages, the King Arthur website has a more detailed reference page on why and how they’re calculated.

Ingredients	Weight	Baker’s Percentage
Einkorn Flour	700 grams (includes 45g for levain* and 46g for tangzhong)	100%
Whole Milk	230 grams	32.9%
Sea Salt	13 grams	1.9%
Sourdough starter	45 grams (all for levain)	6.4%
Water	306 grams (includes 45g for levain)	43.7%
Sugar	55 grams	7.9%
Unsalted Butter	85 grams (6 TBS)	12.1%

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Click the links below for my favorite tool recommendations.

• Baking Scale
  • Flour and sourdough starter can weigh differently from person to person, so weighing your ingredients will help you be more consistent and get a better result!
• Bread Loaf Pan
  • My favorite loaf pan is the small USA Pullman Pan that’s 9″x 4″. The tall, straight sides help your loaf bread rise tall and give you a professional-looking loaf. I don’t typically use the lid. The heavy-duty bread pan bakes evenly and has a natural non-stick coating so you don’t have prepare the pan!
  • Alternatively, use a greased 9×5″ bread loaf pan.
• Stand Mixer (recommended)
  • This einkorn sandwich bread is sticky. A stand mixer with a fitted dough hook attachment is helpful for mixing.
  • However, you can mix by hand if needed and use a dough whisk which can help prevent dough from sticking to your hands.
• Brød and Taylor Folding Proofer (optional, but helpful)
  • My home tends to stay cool, so I proof all of my breads in this convenient proofing box that can also act as a slow cooker.

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🛒 Ingredients Needed:

Click on the links below for my ingredient recommendations.

• Einkorn Flour
  • You can use all-purpose einkorn or freshly milled einkorn flour for this recipe.
  • There are many great places to purchase einkorn flour and I always recommend supporting a local flour mill if there is one nearby that makes einkorn flour. Some of my favorites to purchase online are Hayden Flour Mills or Grand Teton Ancient Grains.
• Salt
• Whole milk
  • I always bake with whole milk for the most flavor and richness. It’s scalded with the tangzhong, so it denatures the proteins, which leads to a softer bread.
• Sourdough Starter
  • I don’t use commercial or instant yeast with this sandwich bread, but you can add a pinch if you like to ferment the loaf faster.
  • If you don’t have an active sourdough starter, learn how to make one in a week following my how-to guide. Don’t use sourdough discard for this recipe unless you add instant yeast to the dough. See my top sourdough starter tips.
• Water
• Sugar
  • I add about ¼ cup of sugar to this loaf, which helps bring out some of the natural sweetness in the einkorn flour and enrich the loaf like most sandwich breads.
  • However, you can eliminate the sugar completely if you prefer or substitute half the amount with honey or maple syrup.
• Unsalted butter, room temperature
  • Butter enriches the loaf and helps make it softer with an amazing aroma as it bakes.
  • Substitute with plant-based butter, olive oil, or another neutral oil if you prefer.
  • I also brush melted butter on top hot out of the oven for a shiny crust.

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⏰ Sample Baking Schedule

The chart below is a sample baking schedule for this 100% einkorn sourdough sandwich bread that works decently for my schedule. Many steps are flexible, depending on your own day-to-day schedule and temperature of your home.

For example, you can make the levain the night before by using a smaller amount of starter and higher ratio of flour and water. You can also proof the dough overnight in the refrigerator for up to two days to bake on your own time.

Steps	Time
1. Make Levain	9:00am
2. Make Tangzhong	1:30pm
3. Mix Dough	2:00pm
4. Bulk Fermentation	2:10pm-7:10pm (4.5-5 hours)
5. Overnight Cold Proof	7:10pm-up to two days
6. Shape	Next day, 8:00am
7. Final Proof	8:00am-1:00pm (5 hours)
8. Bake	1:00pm-1:45pm

Reminder that proofing is very dependent on temperature. Einkorn tends to proof slightly faster than other flours, but if your home and dough are cool, it will take longer to proof.

I always proof my breads at 78º-80ºF for consistency in my recipes.

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👨‍🍳 How to Make Einkorn Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Follow this visual and detailed recipe guide as you make the best 100% einkorn sourdough sandwich bread.

1. Make the Levain

Mix 45g of sourdough starter, 45g of einkorn flour, and 45g of water in an empty jar.

If you’d prefer to skip making a levain, use 135g of active sourdough starter instead (can be regular or an einkorn sourdough starter if you have one).

Cover and set it in a warm location (75-80ºF) for about five hours until it’s almost doubled and bubbly. An einkorn starter or levain will not rise as tall as a typical starter and will be denser.

2. Make the Tangzhong

About half an hour or so before the levain is ready, make the tangzhong. That ensures it has time to cool some before mixing it into your dough.

In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add 46g of einkorn flour and 230g of whole milk. Whisk continuously as the mixture heats until you have a mashed potato-like consistency.

Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl to cool to just warm or room temperature before mixing into your dough.

Because einkorn has different gluten properties that are shorter and more brittle, the starches may take a minute or two longer to thicken into a paste than other tangzhongs if you’ve done this method before.

3. Mix the Dough

When the levain is ready, add all of it, along with all of the tangzhong, flour, sugar, salt, room temperature butter, and water to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment.

There’s no need to autolyse this sandwich bread dough since the gluten that it does contain is quite brittle.

Mix the einkorn sandwich bread dough on low-medium speed for about five minutes. Due to the einkorn flour, this dough will not pass the windowpane test and will be stickier than typical breads. This is normal with 100% einkorn flour!

4. Bulk Fermentation

Cover and place in a warm location (around 80ºF ideally) for bulk fermentation. A warm ambient temperature will help the dough proof faster.

Ferment the dough for 4.5-5 hours total, or until it rises at least 50% in size.

Einkorn typically proofs slightly faster than other flours, especially if you’re using whole grains or freshly milled flour.

5. Overnight Proof

Place the dough into the refrigerator to continue proofing overnight and up to two days.

The dough likely won’t grow too much during the cold-proof, but it will develop more flavor and continue to ferment slowly in the refrigerator.

The cold-proof will also help with shaping.

6. Shape

The next day, or baking day, remove the cold dough from the refrigerator, and punch down the dough.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and use your hands to stretch it into a rectangular slab about a foot long. It doesn’t have to be exact as the dough will fill in as it proofs.

Then, use floured hands to roll up the dough into a log.

7. Final Proof

Transfer the dough to an oiled or greased bread loaf pan, seam-side down.

Cover and proof in a warm location for 4-5 hours, or until the dough rises about to the top of the pan or at least doubles in size. It rose to about ½ inch below the top of my pullman pan as seen in the images below!

To test when the dough is finished proofing, you can use the finger-poke test. Take a floured finger and poke the dough. If the dough springs back quickly and it feels very dense, then it’s underproofed. If the dough feels very lighter and leaves an indentation, then it’s ready!

Einkorn breads will always feel denser than typical loaves, but you should still feel some visible lightness and gases in the dough.

8. Bake

Preheat the oven to 375ºF (191ºC).

Bake for 45-50 minutes.

Bake until the crust is dark brown (tent with foil if it’s getting too dark) and the interior temperature reads at least 190ºF (88ºC) when an instant-read thermometer is stuck into the middle.

Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes. Then, turn out the hot bread loaf from the pan and cool on a wire rack for at least an hour until completely cool.

While hot, brush with melted butter for a shiny top crust.

If it’s underbaked or sliced too early, it’ll be gummy inside.

Finally, slice and enjoy!

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How to Store

The tangzhong and enriched ingredients help preserve the loaf for longer than most sandwich breads, while remaining soft and easy to slice.

You can store the einkorn sandwich bread covered at room temperature for 3-4 days. Once sliced, and the longer it sits, the bread will begin to dry out some. This can be remedied by reheating in a toaster oven for a couple of minutes.

To store in the refrigerator, you can keep the bread covered for about a week.

How to Freeze

After baking and completely cooling, slice the bread and place the slices into a freezer-safe bag. Freeze for three months.

To reheat, simply place the slices in a toaster oven or oven at 350ºF (177ºC) for a few minutes until warmed through.

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❓ FAQs:

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Other Enriched Bread Recipes You May Enjoy:

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