As the deadline for the Nourished Kitchen Cookbook draws closer and closer (only a few more days until I turn in the manuscript), we’ve been relying more and more on quick meals at home. Sure we make plenty of soups and stews as they’re blessedly easy and quick, but my favorite meal has been a simple sourdough einkorn pizza.
I’ve been testing recipes not only for the cookbook, but also for our upcoming trip to Tuscany – where we’ll settle in with several Nourished Kitchen readers for a beautiful, culinary adventure visting markets, farms and cooking up a stunning array of sumptuous local, traditional foods. And this simple einkorn pizza is on the list, only we’ll bake in a wood-fired oven and serve it with good Tuscan wine, and local charcuterie (you can see the full list of workshops here).
A Real Food Culinary Getaway to Tuscany
My family is so looking forward to the trip over to Italy, to seeing the local markets, visiting regional farms, and connecting with good people in good time. I’ve posted about the trip before, but I wanted to give you a gentle nudge to let you know that there’s only 5 spots remaining. It’s a very special getaway, and though we may be sipping wine, and eating under the sweet Tuscan evenings, it is also a very family-friendly, real food vacation.
You’ll stay in an 18th century Tuscan villa, and your first evening will feature traditional Lucchese cooking catered by a local chef. I’ll teach you three workshops on traditional cooking, and we’ll all prepare supper together on the final night. Our getaway will also include farm visits, and there’s plenty of free time to explore the countryside. And, yes, children are welcome – there’s even a sitter for hire if you need one. Click here for more information or to book.
Enter to Win $25 off Einkorn Goodies and Get a 15% Coupon!
Even if you can’t attend, Jovial Foods is celebrating the trip by giving away a $25 gift certificate to their store – good on flour, einkorn berries, pastas, cookies and more – every day for the month of March. PLUS, just for entering the giveaway, you’ll get a coupon for 15% off. Check it out here.
Sourdough Einkorn Pizza
One of the many foods we’ll prepare on our little getaway will be Sourdough Einkorn Pizza, and if you can’t make the getaway, you can certainly prepare it at home. You simply need a lively sourdough starter (follow this tutorial), einkorn flour (you can get that here), good olive oil and a smattering of herbs and spices.
| Sourdough Einkorn Pizza Dough | Print |
- 6 cups high-extraction einkorn flour (find it here), plus extra to work the dough
- 2 teaspoons unrefined sea salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons unrefined, cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil (Find it here)
- ¼ cup Sourdough Starter (Learn how to make it here)
- Pizza toppings, as you like them
- Dump the flour into a large mixing bowl, and whisk in the salt, oregano, basil, and crushed red pepper flakes until they're evenly distributed in the flour. Form a well in the center of the flour, and pour in the olive oil, sourdough starter and 1½ cups water. Mix it together by hand to make a shaggy dough, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let it sit on your kitchen counter until doubled in bulk, about 12 hours.
- Flour your working surface, then scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto your floured surface. Knead the dough for 10 minutes or so, incorporating just enough flour to make the dough workable. Form it into a ball, then cover it with a large bowl, and let it rest for 15 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 425 F.
- Separate the dough into 2 balls. Roll them out onto a baking sheet or baking stone until ¼ inch thick. Then bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove the crusts from the oven, top with your favorite sauce, toppings, cheeses and herbs. Return to the oven and bake a further 10 to 12 minutes, or until toppings are done to your liking. Slice and serve.
I have tried to enter your contests but they never work. I’ve tried in Chrome and Explorer.
When browsing Nourished Kitchen. it’s best to have your browser updated, javascript enabled and adblockers disabled. Almost all issues you might have will be linked to one of these three things. That said, I’m not conducting a giveaway at this time.
The Jovial Rafflecopter is broken, it sounded like a nice contest!
My son gave me a packet of dried sourdough starter for Christmas. Thanks for the reminder to crack it open and start playing.
I’m wondering why the 1 1/2 cups of water is not in the list of ingredients? I’ve been looking for a good pizza crust recipe so cannot wait to try this one.
Since water is readily available, it’s generally not included as an ingredient.
I love the new book, it is a TREASURE trove! This recipe looks amazing as well but I wanted to just add that I have about a dozen cookbooks and they all list every single ingredient in the list, even water. It makes it easier for prepping and if left out can be a tad confusing.
Just wondering what you mean by “high extraction Einkorn”?? Looks oh so deelish!
High extraction flour is whole grain flour that has been sifted multiple times to remove some of the bran, the resulting flour contains about 20% of its natural bran.
Can another flour be subbed in this recipe? $90 for 20 pounds of flour is a bit steep for my budget … that’s a wee’s worth of groceries! Blogging must be VERY lucrative!
Einkorn can be bought for much better prices through food co-ops or natural food stores. I pay $58.00 for a case of 10 32oz pkgs at my food co-op.
. . . . and I just so happen to have some einkorn flour in the freezer. Thanks for this recipe, Jenny!
This pizza looks so good! Any idea what amount of gluten is contained in a recipe like this? I know sourdough is and eincorn are both naturally lower than conventional flour. My daughter and I both have gluten sensitivities so I don’t know how well we could tolerate it but I am very tempted to try!
I love learning about new healthy foods, and this recipe with einkorn flour looks not only delicious, but especially nutritious. I have somehow missed hearing about einkorn flour, and need to get some and try it out. Wish I could join you in Italy, wow! Does that sound like an exciting trip.
Please help.. I’ve made your challah bread and we love it. Just put this together and I am very confused. It is sooooo dry. I dont see how I will ever be able to roll it out. Is there really only 1/4 c starter and 1 1/2 c water for liquid? Thanks.
Are you using einkorn flour or did you make a substitution to the ingredient list?
Einkorn flour.
mystery solved….My Husband admitted to dumping spelt into my Einkorn bin so its a mixture. Wow. major difference. I just rolled it out and although it did not really double it seems to be ok. I am sure it will taste lovely. Thank you for getting back to me.
Do you think I could use the dough hook on my kitchen aid mixer rather than knead this by hand?
Thanks!
Hello Jenny& Everyone! I made the Sourdough starter and the Pizza….what a difference to the usual shop bought yeast, I’m never going back there again! Nor will I ever buy Coconut milk again!! Thank you Jenny X Susan!
SO glad you liked it!
If you want to make this for dinner and it needs a 12 hour rise, I am wondering how to do this without starting it at 4 or 5am…..could you start it the night before, say at 9pm, then at 9am put it in the refrigerator until the time to prepare it for dinner arrives? (Giving it time to come to room temperature if necessary….)
thanks so much!
I was wondering the same thing just now and looking through the comments for an answer… did you receive an answer to this question? Or did you try what you suggested?
If I use white flour instead of einkorn should I kneed it for 10 min? I imagine it changes a lot about the recipe to use a different flour…
Jenny, I purchased einkorn berries that I sprouted, dried and milled would that be ok for the high-extraction einkorn flour? What make flour high extraction?
Hi Jenny,
Like Lisa, I too am wondering if you could start this dough the night before and put it in the fridge In the morning , then pull it back out when I’m ready to bake in the afternoon? I’m new to sourdough so I’d love your advice. Love your book and the blog!
Does this call for “active/fresh” starter or would refrigerated “discard” work?
I see now that you wrote “lively” in the description so I’m assuming active. 😉
I appreciate your sourdough einkorn recipes, Jenny! You are such a talented cook! I’m very new to sourdough, or any dough for that matter, so I attribute all my challenges with this recipe to ME, not you. We made this tonight but I had a really hard time kneading, as the dough was so wet and sticky. (As a newbie, it’d be helpful to know generally how much extra flour that is needed to make the dough “workable.” I was scared to add too much, but maybe I could have been more liberal if I had a rough estimate to work from.) Also, our crusts weren’t cooked through all the way, so next time I’ll need to increase the initial bake time. Thanks for sharing your recipe though!!
I am wondering what the correct texture of this dough would be after the mixing? Should it be smooth and dense? Coarse and crumbly? When I had finished mixing it was coarse and crumbly so I added a bit more water and starter and now it is smooth and dense. Wondering if I should add a touch more water? What is generally your texture? It did wipe the sides of the bowl clean while mixing, I always count that as a good sign, no?
We love having these on hand, ready for a quick meal. I make a half recipe, roll them into 4 crusts that will each fit into a gallon-sized ziplock freezer bag, bake, cool, and freeze. When ready to use, just remove one from the freezer, put on the toppings, bake and enjoy!
So is the high extraction einkorn flour still a whole grain? When you go to the jovial website it says an all purpose flour which usually means a refined flour?
Hi Quianna,
No, high-extraction flour is not whole grain, and, no, all-purpose flour doesn’t mean refined. High-extra turn flour is sifted, also called bolted, to remove some of the bran and germ. This is a traditional practice that has been used throughout the world for thousands of years, and it readies flour for storage. We recommend using freshly ground whole grain flour, and high-extraction flour (store bought).
Jenny what if you want to make less, like if you just have about 2 cups of flour (a third of what you use in above). do i still use 1/4 cup starter or do i use a third of that? ie. 1/12cup? thanks.
Hi Vandana, I’d recommend following a different recipe.
It says to let sit for twelve hours, but how can I make this work so that it is ready for dinner without having to get up at 4 in the morning?
Consider serving dinner later. You’d probably be okay with an 8 hour rise, or add a bit of instant yeast and it’ll rise in no time.
This is a great recipe – thanks!
The first time I made it I didn’t let it rise long enough and it we had pizza crackers!
I got brave and tried again and let it rise longer, until it was double or more – I found 12 hours to be awkward, so I make it in the evening and then let it rise overnight and then for another 8 hours or so and make the pizza the next day. We love it now, it bubbles in the oven and everything :).
Of course today I decided to try to make pizza tonight, so I guess we may have pizza crackers… lol…
Definitely want to give this a try. Did you use the all-purpose or whole grain einkorn flour for your dough?