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Einkorn and Amaranth Sourdough Bread Revisited
A few years ago, I wrote an Einkorn and Amaranth Porridge Sourdough Bread recipe. While porridge adds a wonderful waxy-damp hydration to the crumb of a bread, sometimes I want a more simple process: no porridge making and no step of adding the porridge to the dough during the second stretch and fold.
In this new recipe, I milled the amaranth in my Mockmill and changed up the ratios of the flours and water. I was amazed at the fresh aroma and delicious flavor that came through with the fresh amaranth flour at only 16% of the flour weight. The einkorn flour, also fresh-milled and 16% of the flour weight, complemented the amaranth with a sweeter and nuttier fragrance.
Amaranth is an ancient “pseudo-grain” or seed, originally cultivated in Mesoamerica. It’s high in protein and relatively drought resistant. Einkorn is an ancient wheat, likely the first grown by humans, almost halfway around the world in Mesopotamia. It’s also high in protein and it has more cancer-fighting carotenoids than many grains. Check out the original Einkorn and Amaranth Porridge Sourdough Bread recipe for more history and nutrition information.
I mixed all of the ingredients together at once and I didn’t autolyse the dough, but I did perform aggressive gluten development maneuvers. I actually laminated the dough twice in a row about an hour after mixing. It was very slack and tolerated this fine, but had my schedule permitted, I would’ve laminated at the 30- and 60-minute marks with a rest in between. After the second lamination, I let the dough rest a half hour before doing three rounds of coil folding at 20-40 minute intervals. Here are videos of laminating and coil folding:
If you decide to skip the laminating steps, which take place on a clean wet surface, add 10-20g more water during mixing.
Given the high percentage of bread flour in the dough (68% of the total flour weight) and the good gluten development, the dough bubbled nicely toward the end of the bulk fermentation (photo on the right). In a warm-lit oven, this dough fermented about 4 1/2 hours.
I started this dough on a snowy morning and was excited to bake that same day to warm up my house, so I let the dough proof at room temperature for about 70 minutes. Then to stiffen the dough for an easier transfer to the baking vessel, I put the proofing basket in the freezer for an additional 20 minutes. (You can see the beginning and end of the final proof in the photos above.)
The resulting bread smells amazing and tastes great too. This dough was a little dryer and more manageable than the porridge recipe dough, making for a slightly tighter crumb and lovely bloom to the score.
Einkorn and Amaranth Sourdough Bread Revisited
Amaranth and einkorn add fresh and delicious flavors to this sourdough bread, along with extra protein, minerals and carotenoids. The aroma of the dough is captivating and doesn't fade away when the bread is baked, giving you a tasty new bread experience.
Ingredients
Instructions
Mixing, Gluten Development & Bulk Fermentation
Pre-shaping, Bench Rest, Shaping
Final Proof
Preheating & Baking
Shopping List
Einkorn and Amaranth Sourdough Bread Revisited