Overnight bread and no-knead breads have been around for a few years, having been made famous in a New York Times article quite awhile ago. But almost every recipe that I have seen that falls into either of those labels use exclusively modern commercial wheat and not the Einkorn flour that I have grown to love and trust in my home.
Which is why I was determined to find, or figure out, a reliable overnight bread recipe that used at least a little Einkorn flour. In my case, “all purpose” Einkorn was fine, I wasn’t looking for a whole wheat bread, but rather an artisan loaf that required very little hands on activity but that still had a lovely browned and crispy crust with a soft and chewy interior using my favorite ancient wheat.
For my first few attempts at overnight bread, or no-knead bread (which is a misnomer in my case since I actually do knead the bread) I didn’t jump straight to 100% Einkorn wheat.
Rather, I started with mostly conventional all purpose flour with the addition of a little Einkorn, with the idea of slowly building up as I got more and more familiar with this bread.
I also wanted a recipe that allowed me to mix all of the ingredients together the day before I wanted to bake the bread so that all of my flour would ferment for as long as possible, within reason. To me, that meant one day, or overnight.
To clarify, I prefer calling this bread overnight as opposed to no-knead, because I do actually knead the bread, using my stand mixer. Many people go with the no-knead method, where you simply stir the ingredients together at night, and then let a long overnight rest do all of your gluten development for you.
I have found this method to be disappointing, as I continuously do a poor job of mixing and end up with large clumps of unmixed ingredients the next morning, which definitely interferes with a quality loaf of bread.
I also have trouble timing my loaf very well with this method and end up baking it earlier than I might have liked because I have trouble telling when the bulk fermentation is done, or overdone.
Instead, I take the four or five minutes it requires to thoroughly combine all of the ingredients using my KitchenAid, and mix all of those ingredients at night, and then let the entire bowl of dough rest and ferment overnight and into the next day.
So overnight bread is more accurate, and guaranteed that you won’t find any dry crusty clumps of unmixed flour and salt trapped inside your bread dough, with the added benefit of bringing all sorts of flavor and complexity to your final bread by allowing it rise and ferment for so long.
The biggest issues I have found focus around two separate areas involved in this process. First, how much Einkorn flour can I get away using before I interfere with producing large bubbles and a beautiful looking interior? And second, just how long should I wait from when I mix the ingredients together to when I should start fiddling with the dough getting it ready to bake?
Of course, the answer to my second question above depends upon my answer to the first question above! Which is to say, everything about bread depends… it depends upon what kind of flour you choose to use, how much water you use, what temperature your house is, etc…
I have settled on using 2/3 conventional bread flour and I swap out final third of the flour with all purpose Einkorn flour. I am normally not a fan of using conventional flour, but I do believe that letting the flour ferment overnight with a very wet dough breaks down a lot of the troublesome proteins that have been introduced into modern wheat over the past 50-75 years.
Which is why it is really important to me that I soak all of my flour overnight and not just a few hours before baking.
The night before I want my bread to be coming out of the oven, I mix all of my ingredients in my stand mixer or by hand. Literally under 10 minutes to get everything out, mixed and cleaned up. Unless you want to let your flour and water rest together for a bit, or autolyse, in which case this step may take an additional 30 minutes or so, still totally doable and not a huge inconvenience most nights.
After mixing all the dough, I place my container into the fridge, to help slow down the rise and fermentation process, and develop some lovely flavor, and then take it back out 10 hours before I want to eat it.
For instance, if I start at 7:00 or 8:00 pm on a Friday after dinner, then I’ll take the wet dough back out at 8:00 am on Saturday. Which conveniently sets up for fresh bread with dinner that evening around 6:00 pm, what a coincidence.
My dough is not very impressive at this point, it still looks puddled in the container, but has definitely spread out since I put the dough in the fridge and there should be all sorts of small bubbles throughout the dough, but probably none of those really large gassy bubbles that I’m really hoping for later in the process!
After pulling the dough from my fridge, I leave it alone on the counter for six hours, to give it time to come to room temperature and to develop those air pockets and bubbles we’re all looking for.
At four hours to eating time, I gently stretch and fold the dough five or six times while it is in the mixing bowl. The dough will be quite wet and soft and I’ll pull from underneath and bring dough up and fold into the middle of the dough over and over until the dough gets tight and doesn’t want to pull out anymore, maybe about 5 or 6 pull-and-folds. Then cover the dough back up and leave out on the counter.
At 3 hours to eating time, I repeat this process. And at 2 hours to eating time, I repeat this process.
90 minutes before eating time, I gently pour out the dough onto a floured countertop basically repeat the pull and fold method to tighten up the skin of the dough just a bit and then I slide my hands under the dough a few times so that it becomes a nice clean and smooth ball of dough just waiting to be baked.
Place that shaped dough into a well floured proofing basked, or a bowl lined with a very well floured dish towel or tea towel with the seam side of the dough facing up.
Preheat your oven to 450 or 500 degrees. My oven runs a little hot, plus I use convection bake, so I preheat to 450 degrees. Remember to put your cast iron dutch oven in the oven while preheating so that it gets super hot!
After another 30-45 minutes or so, when it appears your dough has really grown quite a bit and it is nice and gassy and bubbly, it’s time to bake your bread!
Pull the hot dutch oven out of your oven, carefully, and place next to your dough. Either be super careful not to burn yourself as you place the dough in the dutch oven, or use a sheet of parchment paper to lift and place the dough to be a little safer.
Either way, turn the dough back over, seam side down and place the dough in your really hot pot, score the top of the loaf using scissors for ease or a lame or razor for artistry, place the top back on, and then back into the oven with the whole thing!
Bake for 15 minutes and then take the lid of your pot off, and bake for another 25-30 minutes, give or take, until the bread is as dark and crusty as you had hoped it would be!
Overnight Artisan Bread With Einkorn Flour
Equipment
- dutch oven
Ingredients
Artisan Bread Dough
- 3 cups all purpose flour I'll use either All Purpose here or Bread Flour, either one will work
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose Einkorn flour
- 2 cups water warm
- 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp yeast
Instructions
- Mix all of your ingredients together thoroughly
- place into a container and cover with plastic wrap and place into your fridge overnight
- 10 hours before you want your bread to be done, remove the dough from the refrigerator
- 4 hours before you want your bread to be done, uncover, pull wet dough from bottom up over itself using a wet hand and repeat until dough starts to resist being pulled and tucked
- 3 hours before you want your bread to be done, uncover, pull wet dough from bottom up over itself using a wet hand and repeat until dough starts to resist being pulled and tucked
- 2 hours before you want your bread to be done, uncover, pull wet dough from bottom up over itself using a wet hand and repeat until dough starts to resist being pulled and tucked
- 90 minutes before you want your bread to be done preheat oven to 450 degrees F with Dutch oven and lid inside
- 90 minutes before you want your bread to be done turn dough out onto well floured surface and tuck and fold and gently roll dough into its finished shape and place seam side up in a bowl lined with a well floured cloth
- 45 minutes before you want your bread to be done carefully remove hot Dutch oven from oven, remove lid, and place next close to dough on a suitable surface and very gently and very carefully place bread dough into hot Dutch oven with the seam side down
- using sharp kitchen shears or a bread lame slash or cut one or two lines across the top of the dough, about 1/2 inch thick all the way across, place the lid back on the Dutch oven, and all of it back into the oven
- after 15 minutes, remove the lid from the dutch oven and bake another 25 minutes, give or take, until the bread looks as brown and crusty as you would like it to, but err on the side of a bit too much time in the oven to make sure the interior is cooked all the way through and won't be wet and doughy when you cut into it, should be around 190-195 with a probe thermometer inside
- let rest on a wire rack for at least 15-30 minutes if you can handle waiting
- slather on some butter, and a bit of salt, and enjoy!
Hi, Greg! Thanks for the recipe! Before giving it a try, can you clarify whether you keep the dough on the parchment paper as you bake it or whether you release the dough from the paper and bake it directly in your Dutch oven?
I use the parchment paper to lift the dough into the Dutch oven, and then use it to take the finished bread out at the very end!
The recipe calls for bread flour and Einkorn flour. Since you don’t specify, is the bread flour the regular wheat kind? If so, why not make the bread with all Einkorn flour instead of using bread flour?
Thanks!
Sorry for the confusion, but yes, I’ve been using conventional bread flour, normal off the shelf stuff. The reason is two fold, first, I haven’t yet been able to put together a satisfactory loaf using only Einkorn flour, it’s too dense and doesn’t rise enough to achieve what I am looking for. And second, my understanding, and hope, is that by using an overnight bulk rise many of the worst aspects of modern wheat will be negated by the fermentation process of a 12+ hour rise. But I’d still like to find a good recipe using only Einkorn flour!
I’m wondering if there is any possibility of using Gluten Free 1 to 1 flour in combination with Einkorn? TY
I don’t have any experience with Gluten Free flour, so do not know how that would work out. My worry would be that the resulting bread would be super dense as Einkorn doesn’t rise as well as conventional flour and my guess is that gluten free flour also won’t rise well because… well, it has no gluten. But I’d be interested to hear if you try it out!
Looking forward to trying your recipe. Do you happen to have the metric equivalent for your ingredients? Thanks!
Oh, that would be a good idea! I don’t have that on hand but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are all sorts of online conversion calculators available.
As I write this note my first loaf of your recipe is in the oven. The unbaked loaf was still very wet on the inside and did not hold its shape very well when handled. The parchment was essential as I don’t think I could have transferred the dough to the pot without it going all over the place! I will surely use a thermometer to check internal temp before removing. Is the dough supposed to be that wet? Do you use flour with each folding process? I will report back after it comes out of the oven and I have cut into the loaf.
Oh no, obviously wet dough on the inside is less than desired! This is one of the issues I have had when trying to increase the amount of Einkorn flour I use in a recipe, it is much more difficult to work with than conventional flour! If I feel the dough is wetter than I’d like it, then yes, I will use flour when working the dough on the counter, and may even add in an extra “pull and tuck” kneading to help build the gluten. And if you are running into this problem, for sure don’t cut your cooked loaf of bread until it has cooled down to room temperature!
Greg, sorry for the late reply to your reply. My bread turned out fantastic!! This recipe is a keeper. I think next time I will use a little less water but the ultra-wet dough didn’t seem to have any adverse affect on the loaf other than some difficulty in the “pull and tuck” part. Before I made this, I ordered a set of those scraper tools you use in your video and they helped a lot. I increased the initial bake time a little before uncovering the loaf. Then when it was time to remove from the oven, I checked the internal temp. to be sure it was done. It was perfect! One question .. do long ferment times (24 hours+) make this a sourdough bread? Thanks!
That is so great to hear, thank you for coming back to let us know!! I have found the wet dough allows me to get a better crumb or openness to the loaf, so it isn’t quite as dense. Hard to ever go wrong with checking internal temperature, smart move! I don’t know that a really long ferment would equal a sourdough, but I do find that I like the flavor more if I plan ahead well enough to let a really long ferment take place.
Bread was so good! I ended up doing two stretch/folds per recipe after taking it out of the fridge, then sticking it back in the fridge for a couple hours due to an unexpectedly busy day. Took it out and found it properly proofed based on window test and poke test. Baked it on a floured pan under tented aluminum foil w/a pan of hot water at bottom of oven. The bread more than doubled in size (altitude-related maybe? I’m in Colorado) and was perfectly done after 40 min, I only baked it uncovered for about 7 minutes, it browned nicely under the tent, which was loose. My only questions now are 1) why did it rise so dramatically in the oven? And 2) how do I store it so that the crust stays nice and crispy?
Wonderful to hear! I’ve found that it’s really hard to go wrong with extra time or an extra fold or two. Sounds like you have really worked out some of the kinks, I’m kinda jealous!! I would also guess that your altitude had something to do with your bouyant rise, and I’ve never kept my bread around long enough to worry about proper storage techniques, I eat it too quickly, sorry I don’t have a great answer for you!
I agree that it’s probably the altitude making it rise so aggressively. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it baked even without a Dutch oven. Tried wrapping it in aluminum foil but alas, the crust went soft. Next time I’ll keep it unwrapped for a day and then see if covering it still affects the crunch. Thanks again for the great recipe, it’s a keeper!
I do not have a Dutch oven. Would it be worth getting one? What size would that be?
My initial reaction would be to say “no”, you can probably figure out a work-around. But if you want one and can easily afford one, they aren’t bad to have around! If you don’t have one, but you do have an oven proof pan of almost any kind, I would probably start with that, even if it is a saute pan or omelette pan, simply to make getting into and out of the oven much simpler and you aren’t putting all of your trust into developing a great skin or tension on the dough to completely hold its shape without the help of a container of some sort.
Found this after making dough with 100% einkorn. Expecting a flat, dense loaf now. Just putting dough in frig for night. Would adding regular bread flour during folding process tomorrow help any?
I have found Einkorn to be more difficult to work with and yes, usually get a loaf that doesn’t rise as well as modern wheat. Adding some regular bread flour might help with the rise just the smallest amount as I imagine you aren’t talking about adding a whole lot of flour, but then you won’t have a 100% Einkorn loaf anymore, so might depend upon what your top priorities are. Fingers crossed for a successful bake!
Did you use instant or active dry yeast? Also, can this recipe be easily doubled? Thanks for the recipe. I’ll be making a loaf or two as soon as I hear back from you. Cheers 🍻
I almost always use Active Dry yeast, just because that is what I normally have on hand, I really can’t tell the difference between using either one, I am too lazy and treat them both the same! I have never doubled the recipe, both because I don’t eat that much bread and because I don’t a pan or pot big enough to cook a double loaf! I already have trouble with the dough because it is so wet and sticky, doubling it would scare me but I would bet a more practiced baker would be able to do just fine.
I haven’t tried this yet but plan to do so using fine semolina flour (semolina rimacinata) for the bread flour. The semolina is made from grain grown in Italy and is almost as good as Einkorn for being gentle on sensitive stomachs. Thanks for sharing your experience with this recipe.
Great recipe! I use semolina rimacinata for the bread flour and it works really well. But what size Dutch oven do you use? The loaf was too flat for my 6 quart but don’t know if a 4 or even 3 quart pan would work better.