Try The Old Ways Of Making Bread
Once youve grown and harvested the wheat, how you make your bread may aect its gluten levels, too. Throughout most of mankinds history, bread was made using a sourdough process based on lacto-fermentation. The process was slow, and results were uneven, so when modern yeast became available, sourdough breads became less common.
Now research shows us that lacto-fermentation of wheat has the potential to drastically reduce gluten levels. We found three studies along these lines. Our favorite study showed that sourdough bread produced with a particular strain of lacto-bacilli had gluten levels of 12 parts per million where anything under 20 ppm is considered gluten-free. Bread made with the same wheat but without lacto-fermentation had gluten levels of 75,000 ppm.Another cool thing about this study was that the Italian researchers lacto-fermented the our, then dried it and used it in a conventional quick-baking process, one that could be compatible with modern bakeries. We love it when someone discovers ways to incorporate the best of the old ways into todays realities thats what health through heritage is all about!
Einkorn Sheet Pan Pancakes
My kids are OBSESSED with sheet pan pancakes. Im 100% okay with this new breakfast meal obsession, because this pancake recipe is super easy to make, even on the busiest of mornings. Its a serious time-saver and a great food prep option that may be served for breakfast and/or a lunchbox food.
Favorite Sources For Einkorn Information
Again, my favorite cookbook is Einkorn, Recipes for Natures Original Wheat. This cookbook has great information on the history, structure and use of einkorn. While the many bread recipes from her region of Italy are the absolute best I have also enjoyed many of the other baked good recipes as I have gotten to know this new grain.
You can learn more about einkorn at these two websites. Einkorn.com and Jovial Foods Both of these resources were super helpful in my research for answers to the modern wheat problem.
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Where To Find Einkorn
Einkorn was lost in the hubub of modern wheat for a long time, so despite being a very old grain, its relatively new to the current market of wheat. You can check local health food stores, but online might be your best bet.
- I buy whole einkorn berries from Young Living because they have the cheapest price! Just $2.35 per pound.
- The second best price are these einkorn berries on Amazon.
- If you shop at Vitacost, einkorn berries are $4.49/lb.
- If you dont have a grain mill to grind your own flour , you can buy whole wheat einkorn flour. Thrive Market has it for $2.99/lb or .
- I also like all-purpose Einkorn flour , you can .
For some, switching to Einkorn might be difficult to fit into the budget. Remember this:
Including Einkorn in your diet wouldnt be ADDING to the budget. It would be REPLACING items you already buy.
Gluten-free mixes at $4 each or breads at $6 per loaf? What about the gluten-free flours and specialty starches and gums? If you are able to digest Einkorn, you wont have to buy any of that any more. Instead, youll be buying pure, unadulterated ancient wheat and making your own delicious baked goods from scratch.
If you dont struggle with gluten issues, but want to add Einkorn into your diet, remember all the other money saving strategies that help you afford quality foods:
Looking for more Einkorn recipes? Try these!
Tips For Baking With Einkorn Flour
Now that you know about einkorn, you may be curious about using einkorn in place of regular white flour. Jovial states, Einkorn may be substituted cup for cup with regular whole wheat flour in some muffin, pancake, cakes and cookie recipes. However, sometimes, the amount of liquid in the recipe needs to be reduced by roughly 15-20%.
For this reason, until you get used to working with einkorn , I recommend baking from a recipe that calls specifically for einkorn. The good news is that recipes are being written for einkorn, so its easier than ever to incorporate this flour into your lifestyle.
I havea bunch of einkorn recipes here on the blog. Jovial also shares recipes on their site and Carla Bartolucci, the founder of Jovial, wrote a cookbook dedicated to using this grain. In the book, she also dedicates a lot of time to making sourdough with einkorn. < This is something I have yet to do. Slowly Im getting there.
Naturally Ella is another great resource for einkorn recipes. Erin, the founder, is a vegetarian and has written several recipes using einkorn berries. Einkorn.com is another source for recipes. The recipe database isnt the easiest to search through, so youll need to do lots of scrolling to find what you want.
If you want to branch out and experiment on your own, Jovial has a fantastic resource on their site for troubleshooting how to do this.
Ive been using this scale, which we originally purchased for making coffee , for a few years now.
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Is Einkorn Flour Paleo
It depends. People who eat strict Paleo probably pass on einkorn. But thats assuming that you should avoid all grains on a Paleo diet.
This assumption stems from the belief that early humans did not eat grains. Instead, ancient humans were hunter gatherers.
However, there is some overlap of einkorn cultivation and the Paleolithic era. The Paleo era ended roughly 12,000 years ago. Einkorn cereal is believed to have been harvested at least 17,000 years ago.
In light of this, if einkorn is good enough for latter Paleo man, its probably not going to give you a wheat belly.
Have You Heard Of Einkorn
Have Your Heard of Einkorn?
Einkorn wheat
Modern wheat is less nutritious. The Broadbalk Wheat Experiment was a long running study to determine the health impact of wheat in our diet and the differences in the varieties of wheat. The study began in 1843 in which scientists had grown different strains of wheat and analyzed various factors which included nutrient composition. What they discovered was that the nutrient content did not change much from 1843 to 1960. However, from the year 1960 when modern wheat was created, the nutrient content started to decline. For example, Zinc, Copper, Iron and Magnesium were found to be 19-28% lower in the years 1968-2005, compared to 1845-1967. Another 2008 study compared the different varieties of wheat and found that the older wheat varieties contained significantly higher levels of Selenium than the post 1960 wheat varieties.
One such study compared the effects of Einkorn wheat and modern wheat on intestinal cells in Celiac patients. Compared to modern wheat, Einkorn did not show any harmful effects in patients with Celiac disease. In another study of 12 patients with Celiac disease, gluten from Einkorn caused significantly less adverse reactions than Gluten in modern wheat and was better tolerated then rice- a Gluten free grain.
A better choice would be to consider Einkorn wheat. What makes it different?
DIRECTIONS
ADDITIONAL TIPS
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You Must Bake With Einkorn Differently Than Wheat Flour
Gluten-free baked goods are difficult to master because of the lack of gluten in the flours. Gluten is the sticky in bread dough, the component that creates structure in the loaf, that holds everything together. It automatically has the balance of starch and protein needed for modern baking recipes.
Einkorn has a different gluten structure, and as we already established, it also has more protein and less starch.
For most recipes, you cant just drop in an equal part einkorn flour for your wheat flour and be rocking and rolling.
The founder of Jovial Foods has been working with einkorn flour since 2009, and she has developed recipes to perfection with the ancient grain. Over 100 of them are now collected for the first time in the Einkorn Cookbook, an indispensable resource for anyone wanting to experiment with einkorn.
It includes basics like sandwich bread, pizza dough and crackers as well as pies, pastries and even a whole section on street food culinary adventures around the world like chimichangas, kibbeh, tabbouleh, crepes, churros and more.
Recipes that stood out to me include:
The cookbook also instructs on the finer points of einkorn. If you like to geek out on science a little, youll love stuff like this:
The cookbook is available at Amazon. Grab the book and some einkorn and be ready for baking season! Get American grown einkorn here!
Quantitation Of Protein Fractions
2.4.1. Extraction of Gliadin and Glutenin Fractions
Fractions of albumins/globulins , GLIA and GLUT were extracted stepwise from 100 mg of wholemeal flour according to Thanhaeuser et al. . In brief, flour was extracted two times with phosphate-buffered saline for 10 min at 22 °C , three times with 60% ethanol for 10 min at 22 °C and two times with GLUT extraction solution 1-propanol, 2 mol/L urea, 0.05 mol/L TRIS-HCl, pH 7.5, 1% dithiothreitol ) for 30 min at 60 °C under nitrogen. The suspensions were centrifuged and the corresponding supernatants were combined, diluted to 2.0 mL with the respective solvent, and filtered through a 0.45 µm membrane. Three separate extraction experiments were carried out for each flour sample. The ALGL fractions were discarded and the GLIA and GLUT fractions were analyzed by the Bradford assay. GLIA and GLUT fractions of selected samples were divided into two parts for both RP-HPLC analysis and Bradford assay.
2.4.2. Quantitation of GLIA and GLUT Fractions by RP-HPLC
Fractions of GLIA and GLUT were analyzed by RP-HPLC according to Geisslitz et al. . Injection volumes were adapted for each species and protein fraction to fit the calibration curve: GLIA of common wheat, 10 µL GLIA of the other wheat species, 5 µL GLUT, 20 µL.
2.4.3. Bradford Assay
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Einkorn Is Visually Different
The first thing I noticed when I ground einkorn into flour for the first time was how much smaller a grain of einkorn is compared with a grain of modern wheat. They are about half the size!
In addition, the telltale crease on one side of a grain of modern wheat is absent from a grain of einkorn. The reason for the differences is that over the centuries, the genetics of wheat gradually changed due to human cultivation practices.
Year after year, farmers selected the seeds at harvest time that suited the goal of higher yields and more gluten. This worked best for big farms and larger-scale agriculture, production, and distribution of wheat products.
But There Was More To Learn
But, what we didnt learn at that time was that modern wheat has some drawbacks. The wheat we eat today isnt like the wheat that was eaten a few thousand years ago.
First, it is very high in gluten and it is very hard on the gut and even inhibits mineral absorption. This can lead to bone density loss, migraines, weight gain, cavities in our teeth and many other diseases, especially auto-immune diseases. In short, modern wheat is creating a lot of big health problems and it was affecting our familys health also.
There has been a huge push in recent years from health professionals to move away from wheat for these reasons and many more. With the rise of gluten sensitivities many people have abandoned wheat for less nutrient grains and grain alternatives that were gluten free. This bothered me because most of these have little value to add to the diet.
I decided there had to be a better way, and this led me to begin more research on the subject. That is when I learned about einkorn wheat. Wow! Was I excited to learn about this most ancient of grains. Let me tell you now why I use einkorn wheat for all my baking.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission to support this blog at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
Where Can I Find Einkorn
Einkorn isnt the easiest grain to find. Einkorn is slowly gaining popularity, but is still grown in only a few regions in Europe and the US . Einkorn can be grown in very rustic conditions, making it ideal to grow in many different places. Hopefully this will encourage a rebirth of this grain and make it easier to find.
You can find einkorn at some Whole Foods and health food stores, Earth Fare, Vitacost, and . Definitely shop around as prices can vary based on the retailer.
My favorite brand is Jovial Foods since finding their products is fairly easy, and Ive come to respect this brand as a leader in the real food movement. Another fantastic source for einkorn is einkorn.com.
Einkorn isnt the cheapest option. The food industry has a way of producing food in a way that cheapens our view of the actual cost of growing and raising food, making it hard for us to see the true cost in producing something when corners arent cut. When you buy einkorn, youre supporting smaller farms and high quality food. You can also support smaller famers and high quality food when buying other varieties of wheat.
Im a big believer in variety, from both a health perspective and budget approach. This means baking with more than just einkorn. In my own kitchen, I also love almond flour , oat flour , and spelt .
Einkorn: Wheat For The Gluten Sensitive
As an avid baker, Ive spent years in pursuit of mastering all types of breads, pastries and other savory, comfort foods that include wheat as a major ingredient so you can imagine how I felt upon realizing that my digestive problems seemed to coincide with consuming products made with commercial wheat flours.
I do not believe that I have celiac disease or a gluten allergy but think I reside in a sort of in between place along with so many others my body is just intolerant of hard to digest grain s wheat in particular. Out of a reluctance to give up wheat completely, I embarked on a mission to learn all I could about traditional methods of preparing grains that render them more digestible as well as the different types of wheat: hard red, soft white, emmer, kamut, spelt, etc.
Our ancestors knew the value of soaking legumes, sprouting grains, and sourdough fermentation. But in our modern society which values instant and convenience above all else this knowledge has fallen by the wayside. It is fascinating to examine through the lens of science the difference it can make to take some extra time to prepare foods properly.
