There are so many types of bread flour out there, the mind boggles. I have an entire rack in my kitchen which holds around twenty different bags of flour, all from various millers and producers. Some of them are just variations of normal wheat - different extraction rates and different millers - and some are interesting varieties of grain, all with their own unique properties.
So I was super nerded-up to find that Doves Farm are really getting into bringing back ancient grains for bread baking. I'm a huge fan of ancient grains. Spelt and Kamut flours are already making a huge comeback for their high nutritional value and unique flavours; and I always find it fascinating to bake with the same flour the Ancient Romans or Egyptians would have used.
Einkorn is one of the newest (or oldest, depending on how you look at it) of these ancient grains. Grown over twenty thousand years ago in the Middle East, it's even older than spelt. The Romans let Einkorn die out, as their newer grains grew faster and yielded larger crops. (A classic example of history repeating itself when spelt went into obscurity because of the high yields of our modern wheat!)
Einkorn makes a very dense, rustic flavoured bread. At 8.8g of fibre per 100g, it's reasonably high in fibre - and an Italian study showed that Einkorn has more carotenoids than other grains.
It's quite heavy on its own, so I mixed it 80-20 with white flour to lighten it up a little, and used a white leaven to raise it. The result was great - a satisfying, nutty, dense loaf. I'll be using the rest of the bag to try it out as a pizza base, as Doves recommends.
Einkorn flour from Doves will be available over the summer, but only in smaller healthfood stores, and not the big supermarkets (the best place to buy your flour from anyway!). Or you can order it online on their website.
