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Einkorn & Amaranth Porridge Sourdough Bread
Adding amaranth porridge to sourdough imparts a mild earthy flavor and makes for a cool waxy crumb. It is delicious and it stays chewy and intact under wet toppings or when dipped in soup. Moreover, amaranth increases the nutritional value of the bread because it is high in protein and fiber, as well as several minerals and amino acids.
Like bran, amaranth seems to hinder the formation of a strong gluten network, making this sourdough an exercise in applied bread-baking techniques. In developing the recipe, I tried several versions: all bread flour, 40% conventional whole wheat flour, and 40% whole grain einkorn flour. I also tested 250 grams of porridge (1 cup) but eventually brought that down to 175 grams (a little more than 2/3 cup) because of crumb issues.
The einkorn loaves had the least oven spring, but this is the version I used for recipe because I felt einkorn’s aromatic complexity complemented the earthiness of amaranth quite well. But all versions of the bread were really tasty, and all required an autolyse stage and a series of stretching and folding.
One thing I learned in my experimenting is that amaranth porridge hides significant water which tends to manifest over several hours. Also, in making this bread and Breadtopia’s Sourdough Beer Bread in the past (wherein I substituted einkorn for the suggested red fife), I discovered that einkorn does not absorb as much liquid as some other whole grain flours.
For example, when I used 40% conventional whole wheat flour, my dough was easy to handle with 375g of water and 200g of amaranth porridge.
In contrast, when I used 40% einkorn whole wheat flour, I had a very wet dough with 320g water and 175g of amaranth porridge.
A few years after writing this recipe, I revisited it, using fresh-milled amaranth instead of porridge. You can find that non-porridge recipe here: Einkorn and Amaranth Sourdough Bread Revisited.
About Amaranth
Amaranth is a pseudocereal, cultivated since about 6,000 B.C. and comprising a large part of the Aztec diet before European colonization of Mesoamerica. It is still used to prepare holiday drinks and foods in Mexico, and worldwide recognition of its nutritional value and availability as a gluten free option is growing.
Amaranth is high in protein and fiber (about 20% DV in 1 cup cooked), as well as folate, B6, manganese, magnesium, iron, and selenium. Click here for more nutritional information on amaranth and here for a 2013 National Geographic article about combating obesity in Mexico with amaranth.
About Einkorn
Einkorn is one of the earliest cultivated forms of wheat, most likely domesticated around 8,500 B.C. in southeast Turkey. It has 14 chromosomes rather than the 28 in emmer, durum, spelt and khorasan wheat. Einkorn is low-yielding but can survive on poor soils where other varieties of wheat do not. In fact, in 2012 Australian scientists succeeded in breeding the salt-tolerance feature of einkorn into durum wheat, which may help people in regions vulnerable to sea-water flooding.
Einkorn wheat has more protein, lutein, vitamin A, essential fatty acids, phosphorous, potassium, and beta-carotene than conventional wheat. Click here for more nutritional information.
Einkorn & Amaranth Porridge Sourdough Bread
Amaranth porridge sourdough bread tastes amazing and has a cool waxiness, that makes it ideal to pair with olive oil and tomatoes. Or simply slather with butter to complement the slight leafy-greens flavor imparted by the porridge.
Ingredients
Porridge (for two loaves OR one loaf and 1+ cup of porridge)
Bread
Banneton or Tea Towel
Instructions
Porridge
Bread
Shopping List
Below are pictures of other versions of the recipe, including a lovely spiral boule with a failed crumb from skipping steps that would have helped the formation of stronger gluten strands around the amaranth seeds. Of note, I’ve used the same proportion of einkorn flour in a boule with sprouted wheat berries and the no-knead technique worked well.
Einkorn & Amaranth Porridge Sourdough Bread