Hi Manu,
I have no explanation other than the fact that I used very fine flour (Royal Lee mill on second to finest setting) and Emmer starter, plus overnight hydration. 100% whole grain freshly milled Emmer flour. Plus, the taste was much better than the oven spring shows!
Thank you! 
I must admit my flour is particularly finely ground! That could be a problem!
Tried this recipe with a rye starter. I have an electronic food scale with gram units, and followed the recipe precisely. The dough was unmanageable, way too wet. I probably added another 1/2 cup (minimum) flour during the stretch and folds. 6 hour first rise, 12 hour fridge proof, 5qt cast iron dutch oven. The result is delicious; very sour (with a long aftertaste) and good moisture.
Looks delicious. I’ve found emmer handles a lot like rye – in other words, it can be kind of unmaneageable. So using a rye starter probably only made it more so. But I’m almost always pleasantly surprised how well my loaves turn out despite having wrestled with them and nearly lost in the shaping stages. Almost always, lol.
I followed this recipe with variation provided by Dan (dst307), my Emmer flour came from Bluebird. I didn’t know using a small amount of starter was so key! I also used only 2 TBSP of honey. I aimed for 70% hydration and found still the dough very difficult to work with despite adding a large amount of flour during bulk ferment turnovers.
Another key was to soak the flour, water, and salt mixture first in the refrigerator, then taking out to warm overnight, and then innoculate with the separately developed starter. From just 1 tsp from my mother starter batch (plus several tsp emmer flour and water), I was careful to not let it go beyond 12 hours. In fact, I got concerned about too much time on the first starter batch (It would be 14 hours the next morning), I did a second stage with a tsp from the first before nighttime so it would be ready in the morning at 8 hours to merge with the warmed bulk mix.
A few hours into bulk, the mixture was very pliable and “window pane”-ing, I kept adding flour to make it easier to handle but to no avail, and 6 hours into bulk it had doubled in size, looked spongy, I tried to fold it, but it was still too wet to handle and I ended up deflating it instead. After 2 more hours of bulk ferment ( 8 hours total), I moved it to an oblong basket lined with rice flour and I wasn’t able to get much surface tension in forming since it was too wet to handle easily. I proofed for 3 hours in a warmed oven where it grew to just over double in size recovering the loss in volume. I put into an oblong covered baking clouch, slashed, removing lid per recipe until the final 10 minutes, measured 205F. I didn’t get much over spring, I figured I should have proofed 2 hours earlier? However, the crumb presented itself with a nice, tender web of holes and not too dense.
The taste ended up a bit nutty and not bitter like whole wheat flour. It resembles the Danish rye breakfast bread, but milder in flavor and more delicate texture and not so dark in color. My loaf had a distinct and strong sour flavor, almost as if sheep’s milk yogurt was spread on it. I would slice 1/4 inch thick pieces off, cut in half and enjoy without butter, cheese or jam! Of course, some feta cheese was nice too with it, but not necessary as the flavor of the bread with the sharp sourness was complex and delightful by itself. But with feta and enjoyed with my favorite tea, the nice aftertaste of the combined sourdough Emmer wheat bread and cheese would linger for hours in my mouth.
I attribute this strong and sour flavor to the unusual care I used for the starter, I usually just throw in directly from the mother batch from the refrigerator, but now I’ve learned to take only a teaspoon and develop it, and in my case using a 2-stage process to strengthen it before merging it to the bulk mix that has soaked overnight.
I will try again, perhaps cutting way back on the hydration and add water until it’s just barely manageable to handle. This is a nice change-up in sourdough baking to use Emmer flour instead of standard whole wheat, and I’m sure this territory can be explored further by varying processes and techniques to achieve some other unique bread characteristics. What fun this has been!
-Mathew S.
This looks delicious and your toast toppings sound so good. Now I have a hankering for emmer bread : )
Melissa, what do you think about adding diastatic malt and some form of vitamin C, like camu camu or acerola cherry powder, to a loaf like this? (Thinking of Mark Woodward’s recent Breadtopia article about baking with low-gluten flours.) Also, did you post the rye bread recipe you mention? Thanks!
I think using @mcw.mark 's strategies from his recent blog post would work with emmer, but I’m tagging him so he can chime in if he’s done it before and has tips.
Here’s the rye recipe. Memory lane 
I have had many tasty rye bread variations since, but this was simple and lovely:
Photos of that dough that I posted later:
@cathy.elton and @Fermentada I actually haven’t tried to make a 100% Emmer bread, but I should think that the techniques I describe in the blog would work. I’m more skeptical about Einkorn, although I still need to try that again. But Emmer absorbs more water than Einkorn and seems a bit stronger (although still quite weak).
Thank you both! I bought Emmer and while my first attempt wasn’t great, I know I should keep trying. Will report back!
I have emmer at the moment too. I look forward to your updates and will do the same 
Well I followed the recipe, but with some changes. I pulled out every trick in the book to make sure the bread rose! That included:
Used apple kombucha in place of all the water (I used only a tablespoon of honey because the kombucha was quite sweet.)
Added 1tsp diastatic malt
Added a pinch (less than 1/8 tsp) acerola cherry powder - does the same thing as ascorbic acid or camu camu
Notes:
The dough was really wet and I had my doubts. But it worked! I did bake it in a pan with sides vs in my Challenger - I think it would have spread more in that.
The additions above sped up the fermentation by light years. Instead of fermenting for 6-12 hours after the stretch & folds it was super ready after 2 hours! Then I did 8 hours in the fridge.
It looks a little dense/gummy in the center. Over-hydrated? I baked it to 210 degrees so it’s not under-baked. Update: once I tasted it, it didn’t seem gummy or dense. The flavor is so incredibly unusual. I don’t know if it’s the flour or the kombucha or the combination!
Look at that tall loaf with an airy-for-emmer crumb. Successful experiment! Wow on the fermentation timing.
My recollection of emmer flavor is that it’s slightly sweet and nutty. But it’s been a long time since I’ve used straight up emmer. Less but still long time since using Ethiopian emmer.
Kombucha is very acidic at 3.5pH. I’m thinking swapping all the water for kombucha will have a negative affect on the gluten from the start! Sourdough starter does turn the dough acidic over time through fermentation but by the time it reaches close to 3.5pH it should be ready to bake. However if you swap all the water for kombucha it will be very acidic from when you mix the dough and the already poor gluten from the Emmer will begin to degrade.
P.s. Here’s another Emmer recipe from Bakerybits.
I hear you Abe, but does it look like the gluten suffered? I thought it looked good for Emmer! I actually got the idea from a UK bakery called Lovingly Artisan - it’s their signature bread.
Not sure Cathy. Emmer, at best of times, doesn’t have good gluten that is why I think it should be treated in a way to bring out its best qualities rather than trying to make it behave like a bread flour. Enjoying it for what it is. Having said that I think your loaf looks very good indeed! If it’s tasty and you’re enjoying it then that is what makes it a success. Logically, adding kombucha (being practically a vinegar), would have a detrimental affect on the gluten. As for Lovingly Artisan I couldn’t comment as I don’t know the full ingredient list nor method. Do they add anything else like baking soda, is it a quick bread, how much kombucha, which brand kombucha etc.
I purchased a couple of pounds of Janie’s Mill 100% Black Emmer last week and looked for a recipe with 100% Emmer – found this one! Thanks!
This is the third time I’ve made a sourdough loaf with:
100% “ancient artisan milled flour”
My own starter that’s about two months old now
I followed this recipe to the letter and found that the dough was extremely sticky and wet. I had to add another 100 grams of flour throughout the fermentation / fold steps to get the dough dry enough to bake.
Once ready to eat, the crumb was VERY dense but delicious! I’ll keep playing with this recipe but am wondering why mine turned out so very sticky at the start?
It is always better to hold back some water, and add it in later if the dough needs it, rather than adding in extra flour.
Emmer is not the easiest flour to work with especially when it’s 100% emmer to-boot. I did a 40% emmer loaf last week and it turned out lovely.
Recipe available if you’re interested.
Black emmer might be a little less absorbent than standard emmer, or have less gluten strength – I haven’t worked with it so I don’t know. But absorbency and gluten development potential are two aspects of a flour that impact how sticky it feels at mixing time. (Over fermenting is what I would diagnose if your dough started out strong and then became goopy and sticky at shaping time.)
