Einkorn Organic, SuperPail

Organic Einkorn Wheat Berries, 26.5 lbs.

Our einkorn wheat is certified organic, cleaned and great for baking & cooking purposes. Like all of Pleasant Hill Grain's whole grain products, it is GMO-free.

Einkorn, the oldest form of cultivated wheat, has been grown for thousands of years, making it an ancient grain. You can read much more about its unique history, and its uses, further down in this description.

Our grains are cleaned to protect your grain mill from any foreign objects. (Organic einkorn wheat berries that aren't sufficiently cleaned may contain small stones that will damage or destroy a grain mill... not to mention that you don't want rocks in your food!) Also, PHG does not sell any grains, beans, lentils, pulses or seeds sourced from China.

Convenient & safe storage

Our einkorn is certified organic and non-GMO, and comes in heavy duty buckets containing 26.5 lbs. net weight. When you store grain at home, it needs to be protected in a couple of ways. First, it needs to be protected from a variety of little critters who'd like to get to it before you do. Weevils and rodents, for example. You also need to protect your organic einkorn from picking up excessive additional moisture, which can be drawn from the atmosphere. The buckets our organic einkorn berries comes in provide full protection against these storage risks. They have airtight gasket-sealed lids, sealed Mylar liners, and oxygen absorber packets that remove the oxygen from the air in the bucket after the lid is put on. The O2 absorbers leave an atmosphere of nitrogen in the bucket, because air consists almost entirely of oxygen and nitrogen. (The oxygen absorber packets themselves are completely food-safe, being made of powdered iron and salt, which are kept separate from the grain itself.)

Our SuperPail buckets safely lock out pests, and biological processes are put "on hold" in the Mylar protected, oxygen-free nitrogen atmosphere, so your organic einkorn enjoys complete peace and quiet until you want to use it, even if that’s ten or twenty years from now. Note: If you don't already have a bucket lid removal tool, they make lid removal easy (see lower section of this Web page).

Shelf Life

Unopened einkorn has a shelf life of 10 years when stored in a cool, dark, dry environment. 

Einkorn Uses & History

Einkorn wheat hasn't been widely produced for many years because it’s more difficult to harvest and yields only one fifth as much volume compared to modern wheat. But interest in it has grown rapidly as awareness of its great nutritional advantages has spread.

The protein content of einkorn wheat is 30-50% higher than in modern wheats. In addition to its high protein content, einkorn contains large amounts of essential fatty acids, antioxidants lutein and beta-carotene, minerals phosphorus, iron, zinc, potassium and manganese, and vitamins A, B2 and B6. Einkorn also contains 30% less starch than modern wheat.

Einkorn is a diploid grain, meaning it has two sets of its seven chromosomes for a total of 14 chromosomes, whereas modern red and white wheats, and spelt, have six sets of seven chromosomes, for a total of 42 chromosomes. The simpler genetic structure of einkorn wheat makes it easier to digest than modern wheats. Many people who experience gluten sensitivities are able to enjoy baked foods made with einkorn flour, but since it does contain gluten it isn’t recommended for people with Celiac disease.

Einkorn berries can be cooked for a side dish or hot cereal, or ground into flour and used in a variety of baked goods. Whole grain einkorn flour can be used in place of any other type of wheat for breads, pasta, pancakes, biscuits and more!

Bread dough made with einkorn flour is less elastic than dough made with modern wheat, and because there isn’t a lot of elasticity to develop, einkorn dough can be fully kneaded in a very short time. Einkorn bread dough can easily be mixed and kneaded by hand. The gluten structure of einkorn is less strong than that of modern wheat, so to prevent falling while baking, it's important not to let the dough over-proof.

Einkorn flour absorbs less liquid and takes a little longer to absorb liquid than modern wheat flours do; this should be taken into consideration when substituting einkorn flour for modern wheat flour in yeast bread recipes. A good place to start when converting yeast bread recipes for einkorn is to use ⅓ less liquid than the recipe calls for (eggs and butter shouldn’t be considered a liquid).

Whole grain einkorn flour can usually be substituted in equal measurement for modern wheat whole grain flour in quick breads, pancakes, cookies and cakes, but generally you’ll need to reduce liquid by 10-15% in these recipes. Einkorn doughs and batters will be a bit stickier to work with than those made with modern grains, but baking results are not adversely affected. We recommend The Einkorn Cookbook as a great resource for tasty, wholesome recipes.

The word einkorn is German and means “one kernel”, referring to the single floret in a spikelet of einkorn grass; modern wheats grow 3-5 florets per spikelet. Einkorn is also known by other names including farro piccolo (Italian), shippon (Hebrew), and le petit épeautre (French).

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