The history of humankind is intertwined with the domestication of grain. It is a search for value in our shared ancient roots and a connection to our food that draws people back to the original wheat varieties, eikhorn and emmer.  Recognition of these “ancient grains” continues to get more and more attention. Last month, the NYTimes had a great article, “Bread is Broken,” that looked at the failure of the modern industrialized grain-to-flour market to produce something worth eating. As the values of modernism and its faith in mass commodification loses it hold on our culinary ethos, looking back is the only way forward. There is nothing new, only reinvention and discovering anew how to eat and live with purpose.

What better way live, than with emmer crispbreads and cheese.

Also known under its Italian name of farro, the berries makes a great grain for risotto-like (farotto) dishes and a compliment to hearty greens. This is how I have typically been using my emmer berry supply.

As a flour, emmer mills to a medium soft flour with a yellow/tan earthen tone and a hearty wheat bite.

After milling the flour, the crispbread dough was emmer flour, tarragon water (50%), emmer poolish (25%). I made the tarragon water by steeping dry tarragon the day before. I love tarragon and thought it would be a add a subtle herbal flavor to he cracker. (Spoiler: it didn’t work, the wheatiness of emmer overwhelmed any herbal notes.)

I used a fairly standard process for the dough, using a day old emmer poolish and long autolyse. I gave it some generous kneading to help build a solid gluten structure and let it rise overnight in the refrigerator. The gluten in emmer is weak, but for making crispbreads I was concerned less with rising than holding a nice tensity when rolled out.

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The final product was two batches of nice crispbreads. I pushed flax seeds into the second batch before baking, which added some nice texture and a fancy look. My wife like this version better because it was rolled slightly thinner (on purpose) and also less burnt (on accident, as I left the first batch in a minute or two too long and it got a little toasted). It is always a victory when my wife likes anything I make. She likes a lot of my creations, but the look on her face when something is mediocre is both telling and heartbreaking.