These Olive Oil Anise Einkorn Loaves, made with a mix of all-purpose Einkorn and whole grain Einkorn pastry flour, are infused with honey, lemon zest and anise seeds to produce a slightly sweet, and mildly spicy flavor reminiscent of licorice.

I brought a version of this bread to a family function several years ago, and everyone enjoyed it so when I was trying to come up with a special bread for Mother’s Day, this one came to mind. This time, however, I decided to adapt it for use with Einkorn and utilize a different method to generate heat and steam. Instead of baking the loaves on a stone, I used my ceramic Emile Henry Bread Cloche.

On Mother’s Day, I served these Einkorn loaves for lunch with white bean and kale soup. The bread and soup went over really well. My sister, who isn’t a bread lover, said she liked it because it was soft. Even though the outside was crusty, the inside was soft and delicious because the dough is enriched with eggs. I think it also helped that it had some sweetener in it. Although this is an enriched dough, it is made with olive oil instead of butter which gives these loaves a unique texture and taste.

These Olive Oil Anise Einkorn loaves were adapted from my No Knead Holiday Spelt Bread, which was adapted from the Il Bollo recipe from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.

Olive Oil Anise Einkorn Loaves

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Author: Bread Experience
Yield: 2 Small Loaves 1x

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Instructions

In a large bowl whisk together all of the dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl or large liquid measuring cup, combine the wet ingredients and mix well.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly using a Danish dough whisk or wooden spoon.
When the dough becomes to stiff to work with the spoon or whisk, switch to using wet hands. Fold and turn the dough in the bowl several times until there are no dry bits of flour.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let it ferment at room temperature for 2 hours. You can grease the bowl or just scrape it down really well with a dough scraper or spatula.
Perform two stretch and folds at 30-minute intervals. Then allow the dough to rest for the final hour.
Cover tightly and place in the refrigerator overnight.
The next day, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it warm up to room temperature for 1-2 hours.
Transfer the dough to a lightly-floured work surface and divide the dough into two pieces using a bench knife.
Preshape the two pieces into balls and let them rest, covered on the work surface for 20 minutes.
In the meantime, dust two lined proofing baskets with rice flour.
Shape the dough balls into tighter balls and place seamside up in the proofing baskets.
Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let proof 1-2 hours.
About 45 minutes to an hour before you plan to bake the loaves, preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a Dutch Oven or Bread Cloche on the bottom rack.
When the loaves are proofed, carefully remove the Bread Cloche from the oven and place the domed lid on a protected counter and the base on the work surface. I usually place each one on a heavy cloth to ensure the surface is protected and there isn’t a sudden change in temperature from removing it from the hot oven.
Sprinkle the base with cornmeal or semolina and carefully flip one of the loaves onto the base.
Score it in the pattern of your choice and immediately place it in the oven and put the lid on it.
Bake the loaf for 30 -40 minutes, removing the lid for the last 15 minutes or so. It should be browned and sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.
Remove to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.
Repeat with the other loaf.

Notes

When I baked the first loaf, I didn’t remove the domed lid until the last 5 minutes or so and it got really browned and cracked a bit. It also seemed to have better ears although it didn’t look quite as pretty as the second loaf.
When I baked the second loaf, I removed the lid earlier. The scoring opened up completely. I liked both loaves, but the second one seemed to open up more evenly after I removed the domed lid, but no ears.