For me, it is always exciting to get a new grain, mill it, and use it. But this week I got ahead of myself, milled emmer, and still didn’t have a 100% sourdough recipe for emmer. After days of research, I found one on a German site called Emmer Our Ancient Grain that was simple enough that I could follow.

Though I lived in Germany for two years and studied the language later in college, my German has gotten pretty rusty in the last 50 years. That makes this recipe a double challenge, one to translate its steps into English for our readers and two, to succeed using this grain. 

The reason for the second point was that other sourdough bread sites I usually study, all added bread flour to boost the gluten content in the dough. For example, PH Kosel at The Fresh Loaf warned:

“This is a low-gluten flour that behaves differently from my usual bread flour.  Emmer dough seems stickier than dough made with King Arthur flour and doesn’t seem to gain ‘elasticity’ from kneading/mixing.  Labeled protein content is almost identical to King Arthur bread flour as is labeled protein content of King Arthur All-Purpose flour, which I find confusing.  I think 60% hydration is better than 67% to reduce stickiness.  Pan loaves should only be baked in a thoroughly greased pan.”

Each of Kosel’s loaves was “made using 450g flour, 0.5 tablespoon instant yeast, 0.5 tablespoon salt, and either 300g or 270g water.” Of course, I was not about to use instant yeast. His recipe was close enough to the German one, which called for a preferment that I could adapt using “real yeast” (sourdough starter) instead of fresh.

My German recipe called for yeast too but in a poolish (preferment) with 100% hydration. From past experience, I have found that a heaping teaspoon of active starter mixed with 1¼ cups (150 g) of flour and ⅔ cup (150 g) water overnight would make a good poolish. With a poolish, the German site promised additional flavor to the final loaf, “a taste that would not be achieved without the poolish” they stated.

The German recipe also said that using freshly milled emmer would deliver longer freshness, a more “durable loaf,” more elasticity during the bulk ferment,  and a softer and more tender crumb.

However, they warn this bread takes a long time to make. One day for the poolish to develop and another for the long ferment making this a two-day project. I got mine done in 36 hours with careful preplanning

Sunflower Seeded Emmer Sourdough Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Poolish

  • 1¼ cups (150 g) freshly milled emmer
  • 1 rounded tsp (5 g ) sourdough starter
  • ⅔ cup (150 g) lukewarm water

Poolish

  1. Combine all the listed the ingredients for the poolish in a bowl
  2. Mix until there until it is a batter consistency
  3. Cover and leave in a warm place for about twelve hours

Bread Dough

  • 3 cups (360 g) freshly milled emmer
  • 1¼ cups (300 g) purified water
  • ½ cup (75 g) sunflower seeds
  • 2 tsp (10 g) vegetable oil
  • 2 tsp (11 g) salt

Bread Dough

  1. Mix all other ingredients, i.e. emmer flour, water, sunflower seeds, oil, and salt.
  2. Gradually add to the poolish.
  3. Knead everything into a smooth dough.
  4. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place.
  5. During the first two hours, stretch and fold the dough 3 sets of times.
  6. Then set the dough into the fridge for a long ferment of 8–12 hours
  7. Because this dough may very sticky, you may need to pour the dough into a parchment-lined loaf pan. If however, you are accustomed to working with high hydrated doughs, you may be able to shape and tension the dough.
  8. Leave covered for another hour and preheat the oven 395°F (200 °C) and bake the dough on the middle shelf for about 50 minutes until you get in an internal temperature of 200 °F (95 °C)
  9. Cool completely before slicing to avoid gumminess.

Report on Sourdough Bread

The other baking sites were right, this dough is very sticky and a bit tricky to handle. I took it from the fridge early this morning and was delighted to see the gas bubbles in the dough, but as soon as I inverted the bowl onto my work surface for the bench rest, it degassed. Nonetheless, I went forward shaping it and was glad the dough was cold, it is so much easier to handle cold. I got it into a cast iron loaf pan and popped it into the oven.

395°F (200 °C) is not a hot oven and without steam all I could was hope.

I must admit, as I took this out of the oven, I thought that I had an emmer brick and not a loaf of bread. This was as dense and heavy as predicted by other the bakers, but I could not wait I cut right in and buttered a slice as you can see in the feature image at the beginning of this post.

It tasted great and immediately carried me back to my days in Germany. For lunch, when the bread was cool I made a traditional Mittag Essen with asparagus, eggs sunny side up, cheese, ham, and this amazing bread. (Click here for The Bread Omelet Egg Sandwich: Popular Street Food from India(Opens in a new browser tab  which you may also enjoy.)

My taste buds were screaming for more and so for dinner I made Abendbrot. Germans tend to eat a bigger, hot meal at 1 PM  and have a lighter dinner of opened faced sandwiches packed with veggies and eaten with a knife and fork. Mine included mixed greens and thinly sliced radishes fresh from our garden, smoked turkey, pickle, sliced tomatoes, spicy brown mustard, homemade cranberry jam, and of course, Emmer Sunflower Seed Sourdough Bread.

I can’t travel by air anymore, but I can take my taste buds back to Germany. Danke! Emmer Unser Urgetreide und guten appetit!

Author: Darryl Alder lives with his wife in Riverside Lodge, which is their home along the Provo River in Utah. He is a retired career Scouter and outdoorsman who spent many hours over a campfire using a Dutch oven and loves sharing recipes for the kitchen and the campfire alike. You can read many of his recipes on this site by searching for Sourdough Saturday or Recipes on the top right-hand side of the blog