Starting an Einkorn Sourdough Starter

Einkorn is understandably the hot and trendy ancient-grain flour for sourdough bread baking right now! In this short post I’ll explain why.

Here, I’ll give you instructions for converting an existing starter to einkorn and a recipe for how to create your own einkorn sourdough starter from scratch. You’ll also get links to all the resources you need to keep your new starter healthy, active, and ready for your sourdough projects!

If you already have an einkorn sourdough starter and you want to learn more about baking with 100% einkorn flour, check out my guide: A Guide to Successful Sourdough Baking With Organic Einkorn Wheat

• Highest protein grain
• Lowest gluten grain
• Easy to digest
• Nutritious
• Flavorful
• Unique
• Traditional
• Ancient grain
• Non-hybridized
• A healthy challenge to work with.

Read more about einkorn’s amazing qualities here.

Building an Einkorn Sourdough Starter From an Existing Sourdough Starter

The easiest way to start an einkorn sourdough starter is as simple as taking a small portion of your existing sourdough starter and feeding it with einkorn flour. 

To do so, take 10 grams of active sourdough starter and feed it with 100 grams of einkorn flour and 75 grams of water.

This will give you enough starter to make your first loaf of almost 100% einkorn bread immediately. See the bottom of the post for a recipe.

After several feedings, the remaining flour from your original starter will be negligible.

You will want to keep your new einkorn starter at 75% hydration for best results.

Keep your einkorn starter separate from your original starter, and only feed it einkorn flour from now on.

Starting an Einkorn Sourdough Starter From Scratch

In the same way that you would build any from-scratch sourdough starter, start with flour, water, and wild yeast. Wild yeast will come directly from the flour itself (preferably organic whole grain), from adding a piece of yeast-covered fruit (like blueberry, plum, or grape), or from your environment.

Starting a sourdough starter from scratch is, at least, a two-week commitment. You may start to see activity within your starter and you may even be able to use it prior to the two-week mark, but always be realistic about how long it will take to develop a truly balanced and functional starter.

There are some key differences when using einkorn flour to start a starter.

• Organic einkorn flour is four times more expensive than regular organic all-purpose flour. For this reason I would advise you to keep a much smaller starter during the initial development.
• Einkorn flour ferments better at a lower hydration. Keeping a thicker starter at 75% hydration will benefit the starter’s growth, activity, and balance.
• Einkorn flour ferments more quickly than white flour. This is especially true with whole wheat einkorn flour, so you will need to feed your starter more often.