If you’ve been around Live Simply for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that when it comes to baking, I lean towards using one particular flour: einkorn. I’m often asked, “What is einkorn flour? Is einkorn gluten-free? Can you sub einkorn for white flour?” This post is the ultimate guide to einkorn flour with the best recipes.
I’ll share everything you need to know to use this delicious, healthier, ancient grain in the kitchen with success.
What is Einkorn?
- Ancient Grain: Einkorn is a variety of wheat, known as the oldest variety of wheat, or the first wheat, making it an ancient grain.
- Grew Wild for Thousands of Years: This particular species of grass grew wild for thousands of years before it was intentionally planted and harvested.
- Einkorn is Not Hybridized: The wheat that’s commonly used today isn’t the same as the wheat our ancestors consumed for thousands of years. Regular wheat has been hybridized. Hybridization is the act of crossing two different species of plants with the goal of creating a new variety of plant. This changes the very makeup and structure of the new plant. As Carla Bartolucci explains, in Einkorn: Recipes for Nature’s Original Wheat, “During the Green Revolution from the 1940s to the 1960s, breeders created new high-yielding varieties of wheat with hybrid seeds that would carry better traits for large-scale farming.”
- Einkorn Has a Thick Protective Husk: Einkorn and other ancient grains (like emmer and spelt) have a thick husk around the very grain.
- Modern Wheat Has a Thin Husk: Modern wheat has a thinner husk that’s easier to remove. Modern wheat may seem like a better choice for production and profitability. But with the increased use of pesticides and fertilizers, is this thinner husk such a good idea? Plus, that thick husk naturally occurs on grains for a reason. Why mess with what nature intended as protection?
- Einkorn is Nutritionally Superior: Einkorn holds to its original properties and nutritional values. Einkorn has a much higher protein content (30% more than modern wheat) and less starch (15% less than modern wheat), along with a higher concentration of minerals and flavor. This makes einkorn distinctly different than modern wheat.
- Modern Wheat Lacks Nutrients: In our effort to make modern wheat “better” and more efficient from a production standpoint, nutrients have been lost. And when we look at the enriched white flour that is widely used today and milled from modern wheat, the nutrients are even further removed, which is why key nutrients (now in isolated forms) must be added back in.
- Gluten Sensitivity & Einkorn: Einkorn is also the only wheat that’s missing certain types of gluten proteins that some people are sensitive to. Einkorn doesn’t have less gluten than modern wheat. It actually has a similar gluten content to modern wheat. The difference is the gluten structure (in einkorn) is weak, making it remarkably different than our modern wheat. (This is a super fascinating video to watch for a visual.)
Top Benefits of Using Einkorn
Is Einkorn Gluten-Free?
Einkorn is NOT a gluten-free grain.
This means einkorn is not safe if you have celiac disease (an autoimmune condition). According to celiac.org, about 1 in 100 people have celiac disease. It’s worth repeating, if you have celiac disease einkorn is NOT an option.
Personally, as someone with a gluten sensitivity (I do NOT have celiac disease), I’ve found that I digest einkorn well, along with wheat breads and baked goods that have gone through the sourdough process (which makes grain easier to digest). This is why so many of the recipes on the blog feature this ancient grain.
Where Can I Find Einkorn?
- Regions: Einkorn is slowly gaining popularity, but is still grown in only a few regions in Europe and the US (some local farms in the US are now growing einkorn).
- Rustic Conditions: 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.
- Best Places to Find Einkorn: You can find einkorn at some Whole Foods and health food stores, Earth Fare, Vitacost, and Amazon. Definitely shop around as prices can vary based on the retailer.
- Best Brands: My favorite brand is Jovial Foods since finding their products is fairly easy, and I’ve come to respect this brand as a leader in the real food movement. Another fantastic source for einkorn (flour and berries) is einkorn.com.
The True Cost of Einkorn Flour
- The Price: A 2lb bag or pre-milled flour costs about $6-7. A 5-lb bag of einkorn berries (the whole grain, which you can mill yourself) costs about $30.
- Einkorn isn’t 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 aren’t cut.
- When you buy einkorn, you’re supporting smaller farms and high quality food. You can also support smaller famers and high quality food when buying other varieties of wheat.
How To Use Einkorn
Einkorn, as a whole grain (the actual berry), can be cooked like rice. Enjoy it as-is or tossed with veggies to make a salad. I recommend following this recipe when cooking the berries.
18 YUMMY USES
Whole wheat and all-purpose einkorn flour may be used to make any baked good you would traditionally make with “regular” wheat or all-purpose flour. Here are just few of my favorite ways to use einkorn flour.
- chocolate cake
- carrot cake
- vanilla cupcakes
- muffins: master recipe, banana muffins, pumpkin spice muffins, banana sourdough muffins, lemon poppy muffins, cinnamon swirl muffins, chocolate zucchini muffins
- scones: blueberry or pumpkin
- pie crust (great for sweet pies like chocolate cream pie, maple-sweetened pumpkin pie, or savory pies like skillet chicken pot pie)
- sandwich bread
- chocolate chip cookies
- oatmeal cookies
- pizza dough
- pancakes: like sheet pan pancakes, mini pancake muffins, and traditional pancakes
- waffles
- dumplings for chicken soup
- Holiday cookies: snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, jam thumbprint
- flaky biscuits
- cinnamon rolls
- flour tortillas
- cornbread
Can you Substitute Einkorn for Wheat or All Purpose Flour?
Yes! You can substitute einkorn for whole wheat flour, or even all purpose 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 all-purpose flour, you can generally substitute 1:1 in most recipes.
Pro Baking Tips
Knowing that einkorn is different, with a different texture and taste than modern wheat, is important to successfully use this flour. Here’s what to expect when baking with einkorn..
- Einkorn is a slow riser. When you use ingredients like milk and butter or eggs in an einkorn dough, don’t expect the dough to rise quickly as it would with modern all-purpose flour. Instead, give the dough extra time to rise.
- Einkorn absorbs liquids slowly. Give the einkorn batter or dough time to absorb the liquid ingredients. I find that it’s helpful to let a batter, like muffin batter or pancake batter, rest for 10 minutes after whisking and before cooking. After this rest time, you’ll notice the batter is thicker, as the flour has slowly absorbed the liquid ingredients. This is also a good time to determine if you need more liquid when converting a recipe from modern wheat to einkorn flour (which you can do with most recipes).
- Einkorn dough is sticky! Yes, this is normal; nothing is wrong with the recipe. Einkorn dough is much stickier than dough made with modern wheat due to its weaker gluten structure. This is to be expected when working with formed dough, einkorn bread dough, cinnamon roll dough, or pizza dough. Flouring a work surface and your hands is the best way to keep the dough from sticking to you and the counter. When rolling out dough, you’ll need to flour the dough surface so the dough doesn’t stick to the rolling pin. The more you work with einkorn dough, the easier it gets. Also, einkorn doesn’t like to be messed with, so over-kneading or over-working einkorn will result in less than desirable results-even stickier dough!
- Yeasted einkorn dough doesn’t rise like modern wheat dough. This is particularly true with einkorn bread. Don’t expect big, fluffy dough during the initial rise. Yeasted einkorn dough does not double in size like modern wheat yeasted dough. This can also be expected when baking the dough. You’re not going to end up with huge loaves of bread or massive cinnamon rolls. Einkorn tends to make more compact baked goods when it comes to yeasted breads.
What’s the Difference Between All-Purpose and Whole Wheat Einkorn Flour?
- Whole grain or whole wheat einkorn means that nothing has been removed.
- All-purpose einkorn resembles more of a white flour, while whole grain or whole wheat einkorn looks whole wheat flour.
- All-purpose means that some of the bran has been removed. It’s the easiest flour to digest since some of the bran has been removed (the hardest part of a grain to digest). All-purpose einkorn is also lower in phytic acid.
- Whole wheat einkorn is ideal for most rustic breads (quick breads or yeasted sandwich breads), pancakes, or waffles.
- All-purpose einkorn lends itself nicely to lighter baked goods like muffins, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, and chocolate cake or vanilla cupcakes.
Use a Scale When Baking
My cup of flour may not be same as yours. In fact, it’s probably not. There are too many variables involved with volume measurements. This means that my results may be different than your results and vice versa.
When it comes to baking, I recommend weighing the most important ingredients. Plus, weighing ingredients is much easier; just keep adding ingredients to the bowl until the scale essentially tells you to stop. Trust, me it’s easier and way more precise!
This is particularly important when making cookies and cakes, which require precise measurements!
If you’ve ever made a (baked good) recipe and it didn’t turn out quite right (and the recipe is solid), it’s probably because there was too much flour added.
I’ve been using this scale, which we originally purchased for making coffee (weighing coffee beans), for a few years now. You can find a digital scale for under $20 at any home store or on Amazon.
What Does Einkorn Taste Like?
Einkorn has a sweet and slightly nutty taste. It doesn’t have a gritty or rustic taste like you feel and taste with modern whole wheat flours.
Due to the high amount of carotenoids in einkorn, baked goods have a slightly golden color. You can enjoy einkorn for more just baking, too. Try these delicious ways of eating einkorn…
- Einkorn berries are also delicious to make like cooked rice for risotto or a porridge (oatmeal). And you can buy einkorn pasta for spaghetti and meatball nights.
- We love einkorn sourdough crackers, from Jovial Foods, for snacking with cheese (one of our favorite 31 healthy and easy snacks).
How Should I Store Einkorn Flour?
- Einkorn is a staple in my real-food pantry, but I don’t store the flour in the dry pantry.
- It’s best to store the whole grain (berries) or the milled flour in an air-tight container in a cool place.
- The berries and flour will keep this way for about 6 months.
Listen to My Einkorn Podcast Interview With Jovial Foods
I recently asked Carla, from Jovial Foods, to come on the podcast to share all about einkorn. In this episode, we talk about the origin of this ancient grain, the importance of variety within a diet, and how to use einkorn. It’s worth listening to if you want to learn more about einkorn.
My Favorite Einkorn Recipes
Here are a few of my favorite recipes that are easy to make when you’re just getting started with einkorn. These recipes will help you get used to the feel of einkorn, in both a batter and dough form. If you want more recipes, check out 10 All-Time Best Einkorn Flour Recipes.
1. Pancakes
This recipe uses either whole grain einkorn flour or all-purpose flour. The pancakes are one of the easiest ways to experiment with einkorn flour.
I also love to make einkorn sheet pan pancakes or turn the pancakes into mini muffins for dunking in maple syrup.
2. Muffins
Muffins do require a bit more effort than pancakes, but they’re still easy to make. This master recipe will give you a feel for how typical einkorn batter looks and feels. If you’re looking for a savory muffin recipe, try this fun variation on pizza.
Other favorite muffins: chocolate zucchini muffins, banana-maple muffins, pumpkin spice muffins, and cinnamon swirl muffins. And if you want to try sourdough, sourdough banana muffins.
3. Pizza Dough
Pizza dough is a great way to get a feel for yeasted einkorn dough. This recipe calls for active dry yeast. You could certainly substitute this ingredient for a couple tablespoons of sourdough starter and extra resting time. You’ll notice that this recipe calls for very little kneading, something you don’t generally find with a wheat-based recipe. Remember, yeasted einkorn dough is much stickier than wheat dough, so flour the surface (parchment paper) and the dough before rolling it out.
4. Cookies
Is there anything like a fresh-from-the-oven cookie? A great introduction to the delicious flavor of einkorn flour is to make einkorn chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies (with raisins or chocolate chips, if you’d like), or sugar cookies.
5. Dumplings
This chicken noodle and dumpling soup is my favorite recipe to make during the fall and winter months. The dumplings are what make this chicken soup AMAZING and they’re made with einkorn flour.
Best Einkorn Recipe Sites
- I have a 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.
- 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 isn’t the easiest to search through, so you’ll 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.
Hi
I get very confused reading contradictary stuff:
Einkorn absorbs liquids slowly. Give the einkorn batter or dough time to absorb the liquid ingredients. I find that it’s helpful to let a batter, like muffin batter or pancake batter, rest for 10 minutes after whisking and before cooking. After this rest time, you’ll notice the batter is thicker, as the flour has slowly absorbed the liquid ingredients. This is also a good time to determine if you need more liquid when converting a recipe from modern wheat to einkorn flour (which you can do with most recipes).
elsewhere i have read that leaving the batter to stand weakens the leavening agent.
I have actually tried leaving it as i couldnt bake the muffins all in one go but it was much denser and didnt taste light and airy at all?
many thanks,
Hey hana brand, I would experiment as you’re baking and see what you like best. Personally, I always have the best success with einkorn when I let the batter rest so the flour can absorb the liquid for a few minutes.
Recently learning about einkorn, I have made a deep dive into baking all sorts of stuff with it. I have had a number of failures as I learn about the properties of this remarkable grain. I purchased a Mockmill 200 to make my own flour, and a superfine sieve to turn whole grain flour into all purpose with just a few minutes of added effort. I am finally realizing that adjusting the liquid in recipes when substituting einkorn for modern wheat is the key rather than increasing the flour. So this will actually make future experimenting easier.
Einkorn probably won’t replace all flour in all my baking, but it is beoming the flour of choice. I love the taste, which can be enhanced with a little egg and/or sugar. Next round of experimentation is artisan whole grain einkorn rye bread. Should be fun along the way as I get to the right blend of flours, leaven, and liquid. Will also be buying whole grain rye to make my own flour.
That’s awesome, Max! Thank you for sharing. Excited to hear what you make.
The article says the gluten structure is weaker, but at the same time states that it can be substituted cup for cup. This seems counterintuitive since the final product won’t have the same structure. Also, the article recommends weighing the flour, but offers no conversion of how much to weigh instead of one cup. Then the article and Q&A proceed to discuss in cups instead of weights. So, can I expect my cornbread to stay intact or will it fall apart? Will my pie crust be too tender and crumble? How much flour should I weight per cup of flour? Thanks.
Hey Donna, Most recipes, like what you mention, that call for all purpose flour do just fine with substituting 1:1 with all-purpose einkorn four for the weight/cup measurement. Here are more tips for substitution that you may find helpful: https://jovialfoods.com/einkorn-baking-tips/ Where it can get a bit tricky is with delicate baked goods, like cookies or yeasted breads. The gluten structure just means you don’t want overwork the dough as this can cause issues.
Also, I have an einkorn cornbread here: https://livesimply.me/easy-homemade-skillet-cornbread/ and pie crust: https://livesimply.me/how-to-make-a-pie-crust-einkorn-spelt-whole-wheat/
Do you bake sprouted einkorn the same as unsprouted?
Hey Vicki, For sprouted flour, it can be a bit more dense when baking (particularly whole wheat sprouted einkorn). So in these cases, you may want to decrease the flour by about 1/4 cup.
Thanks for this excellent introduction to Einkorn flour.
hey Kristin
I ve been reading your blog and trying out your cleaning recipes for a few months now and really love what I’m learning. Your blog is so beautifully presented. I tried out the pancake recipe this morning using the einkorn flour and they were amazing!!!! My 3 year loved them. Thank you so much for sharing all your wisdom I am very grateful you do.
Thank you so much! Glad you both love them. 🙂
Is this free of Synthetic Folic? MTHFR friendly?
There aren’t any synthetic ingredients in this flour.
Hi Kristin,
I am super excited to try Einkorn. I am planning on trying your bread recipe but I have a pumpkin muffin recipe that my family already loves so I was wondering how best to switch my all-purpose flour out for einkorn. I saw on here and on Jovial.com that I would have to reduce the liquid content but do I reduce all liquid ingredients bu 10 to 15% or just one. The recipe i use has orange juice, coconut oil, and eggs. Thank you for input and your website!
Hey Jenna, I would reduce all the liquid by that much, then you can add more if needed. Excited for you try einkorn, too.