I’ve been baking with Kernza a lot recently, for a couple of reasons. First, unlike its cousin, bread wheat – which is what we find in the grocery store – Kernza is a perennial. It grows back again and again every year. The norm in grain production in the US is for the plants to get tilled or pulled from the soil every year to make way for new seeds. That’s done a number on soil and climate preparedness in the US breadbasket. Perennial grains could change all that. Climate aside, the second reason I’ve been baking with Kernza is that it smells FANTASTIC. Like cinnamon and spices and magic. (You almost forget that like most foods, flour probably used to have a smell before the US food system blandified it). I’ve been making tarts that build on its nutty-spiciness: caramel, hazelnut, and cinnamon-apple. Yes, my kitchen has smelled wonderful. If you’d like to order Kernza flour, you can get it from Perennial Pantry. 

Also, not for nothing: If you roll this dough out very thinly, it also bakes into a delicious graham cracker.