March 22, 2013 - 10:11pm
Unmalted Wheat and brewing grains
This is my first post on this forum so please be gentle.
I am starting to take my bread baking hobby a little more serious and I am looking into milling my own grains. For baking, I am a complete novice at this but I am an avid homebrewer. I have worked at a local homebrew shop for about 3 1/2 years helping people with that hobby.
What I would like to know is if any of the grains that I can procur from the shop would be any good for baking. I know malted grains would probably not be desireable for baking, but I could be wrong. There is an unmalted wheat that we do sell that has a good flavor.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/rahr-unmalted-wheat-1.html
Is this grain, or any other grain for brewing, be worth milling and baking with?
Thanks!!!
Share
If I were interested in milling my own flour I'd look for a source of grain meant to be milled into flour, not mashed for beer.
I've added small amounts of cracked, malted grains to breads for flavor and color, but only those kilned at high temperatures which denature the alpha and beta amylase enzymes.
I've also added spent grain to breads, ala Peter Reinhart.
In all cases I was underwhelmed. In one case I added finely chopped black malt to a dough, which resulted in the hoped for black bread, but it was also slightly sweet, and had a funky flavor. I've ceased experimenting with beer-making grains.
You could make your own diastatic malt powder by milling malted barley, and sifting it to remove its bran, but unless you plan baking a lot of bread you don't need a lot. I use diastatic malt only to help crust browning, and I use it only in a few breads. I bought one pound nearly three years ago, and still have about 1/3rd of a pound remaining. One tsp diastatic malt powder to each three cups of flour (4g of diastatic malt powder to 375g of flour) is the suggested ratio.
David G