So true; so many variables. I’m thinking that I worked the dough too much trying to make it behave for me. It was SERIOUSLY wet. I mean, if I had baked it on a flat baking stone I would have ended up with a pizza crust LOL! I managed to flop it into my proofing basket (don’t know how I managed that!) so it took on the right shape to dump into my clay baker. That, at least corralled it into a loaf shape. I’ll try it again sometime when I finish off this loaf which will take a long time (I’ll have to freeze part of it) 'cuz no one but me likes it around here.
Annie,
Sorry it took me so long to come back to this. I hope your next loaf comes out better. Definitely reduce the water and perhaps the proofing time too. Good luck!
-Melissa
Hi again Tamara,
Maybe you figured things out already, but in case you didn’t: here’s a link to a very useful explanation of how to make sourdough more/less sour. Make sure you take a look at their part two as well.
All the best,
Dan
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Hi Dan!
Great articles. I appreciate the share and will continue to tweak.
You are correct, very useful indeed.
Best!!
Tamara
Hi, I have some emmer flour and I’m very excited to make my own sough dough bread, therefore very happy to find this recipe. My question is about the starter. Can I use emmer flour for this or what is recommended? I’m reluctant to use any other flour due to the problems with modern day flour. Thanks in advance.
Using an all emmer sourdough starter should be no problem at all. If you scroll up in this comment thread, you can see the loaf that dst307 made with an emmer starter - quite beautiful. He soaks the flour overnight. My starter gets fed all sorts of flours and does fine. White flour vs whole grain of any wheat will give it a more elastic (gluteny) texture, but the yeasts and bacteria are present in both.
If you’d like to focus on ancient or heirloom wheat varieties, here are some additional recipes you might enjoy trying.
(I’ve used the whole spelt recipe ratios with all rye flour with good results also, I just skipped the stretching and folding because rye is so sticky)
And here is a recipe that uses no wheat at all.
Most any recipe can be converted to a different flour, but you need to take the time to feel the dough, adjust the water, and develop what gluten structure the wheat can produce.
You might consider buying a mesh screen or buying bolted flour (see the breadtopia store, all organic flours) so that you can sometimes bake non-whole grain heirloom wheat breads. Bran “cuts” through gluten making a less airy, more dense loaf. Whole grain is wonderful but it might be fun for you to occasionally bake a lighter loaf.
Hope this all helps! Enjoy your baking. I’d love to hear how it turns out.
Thanks so much Melissa! I’ll let you know how it all goes!
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Hello Dan,
Congrats on your emmer loaf! How did you accomplish so much oven spring? Was it refined or wholegrain emmer?
I’ve never been a sour dough bread fan but son loves it. I’ve been mostly baking with yeast because it doesn’t take as much time and the first couple times I tried it, they didn’t turn out. I’ve been keeping up my starter for a long time now. I was laid off the middle of Nov and have finally had the time to try it. I used the basic no knead recipe using Emmer flour and the bolted bread flour I bought from Breadtopia. I have to admit I really like it. Its definitely isn’t anything like the store stuff. I’m going to try the 3 day traditional whole grain sourdough next week. I also made the oatmeal loaf with yeast. I think I’m going to freeze them so they are fresh when we want them.
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!
My first try with Emmer…
Delicious! Made with rye starter
I can’t wait to toast it!
Thanks for the recipe
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.
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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.
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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!