May 4, 2020 - 1:38pm
Sprouted Einkorn - Why so little spring?
Hey there,
I just did Tartine #3's Sprouted EInkorn Recipe. Used 85% hydration and did the bulk fermentation at 74 degrees for about 3 hours (6 folds every 20 minutes or so) and final proof at 72 degrees (only about 2 hours).
I'm wondering why there is virtually no spring to this loaf - I've had this happen a couple times before with these loaves and it's starting to irritate me especially since the proofing times are so short.
I also made sure to add steam for the beginning of the bake.
Any thoughts or tips on this? Part of me is wondering if I'm just proofing them in the wrong baskets and that made I should go with something more circular but I'm open to any advice here.
Otherwise, bread tastes incredible!
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Einkorn has little gluten, so unless your hydration and fermentation times are just right, it loaf will have ussues with holding together.
I appreciate the quick response - so beyond the sprouted einkorn there was only 200 additional grams of whole grain einkorn. The remaining flour was 400 grams of bread flour and 400 grams of whole wheat (2 loaves total)
Do you think there is any way to get a larger spring than the one I got?
Huh, that looks awfully dark for 60% white flour bread.
From page 112:
400 g high extraction wheat flour (not "whole wheat"). This is approximated/kludged by 50/50 whole wheat/bread flour, as per page 24. Or approximated by sifting coarse ground WW, but it doesn't work by sifting finely ground WW.
400 g medium-strong wheat flour (white bread flour, per page 24.)
200 g whole grain einkorn flour.
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If you used the "kludge" method for the "high extraction" flour, the formula can be rewritten:
200 g whole wheat flour,
600 g medium-strong wheat flour (bread flour).
200 g whole grain einkorn flour.
If you actually used 400 g whole wheat plus 400 g bread flour, (instead of 200 g whole wheat plus 600 g bread flour), the "extra" whole wheat would have also contributed to a faster and slightly excess fermentation. (whole grains ferment faster than white flour.)
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I'm also unclear if you used sprouted einkorn _flour_ or sprouted einkorn _berries_. If the former, you would have over-fermented the dough. And over fermented dough does not have oven spring. The whole berries would not have added as much enzymes to the dough as ground flour. Enzymes super-charge the fermentation.
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If any of your whole wheat flour, or whole einkorn flour was freshly-milled (home milled), that would also super-charge the fermentation, and would need to be compemsated for by reducing the amount of levain.
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I also enlarged the photo, and the crumb does look like it might be over-fermented. And it looks like you could bump the hydration down 2%.
I know how you feel, I started playing with Einkorn over a decade ago and still cannot get any decent spring with it.
That is just the nature of Einkorn, I just bake: at high hydration (which makes the dough very runny, its just an oozy mess) and then at 500º F in a preheated dutch oven with the hope that all that water, in the volcanically hot ditch over will puff to up to a reasonable level.
I don't take the lid off the dutch oven at all, to try to maximize how much spring I get and my latest Einkorn loaves do have more spring than all my early loaves, but not as much as when I use a conventional wheat.
Einkorn is an ancient wheat so it does not make all the gluten strands that modern, hybridized, dwarf wheat does, so mechanically, Einkorn just cannot get a to of spring because it doesn't have all that springy material to give you decent spring.