March 23, 2011 - 12:00pm
Malt Powder Surprise
Peter Reinhart calls for malt powder in several recipes in Crust and Crumb so I ordered some diastatic malt from Amazon. Yesterday was the first time I've tried it. The stuff tastes quite sweet. I threw together some dough, doubling up on the yeast and malt percentages Reinhart might call for just for jollies. The stuff rose higher and faster than anything I can recall!!! It was surprising, almost spooky!
Share
Comments
yep, diastatic malt is the perfect food for yeast to eat :)
happy to hear you got good results.
I belatedly took a look at the "ingredients" label on the Barry Farm Diastatic Malt Powder I got from Amazon. It says the stuff contains malted barley flour, dextrose and flour (wheat flour, I suppose, but who knows). The dextrose would explain the sweet taste I noted. I can't help but wonder what malted barley flour tastes like on it's own without the dextrose.
I don't know where KA gets it from, but it has exactly the same ingredients. I've always read that you should use this ingredient sparingly.
If you crack the malted barley, then the husks are removed. If you grind up what remains, you have barley flour and maltose. Maltose is the combination of two dextrose molecules, and dextrose (a monosaccharide) is the same thing as a glucose. Note also that the term 'flour' does not legally imply any one particular type of grain albeit it is usually wheat.
The point is, I think that what you are seeing on your diastatic malt ingredients is the legal description for ground up malted barley ...(barley) flour and maltose (2 dextrose per 1 maltose molecule). The fact that the 'flour' is listed separately from 'barley flour' makes me wonder if they are using it as a buffer in order to produce a standardized product, e.g. if some malted barley has more maltose than others, then they buffer it down to standardize the amount. Unimportant from a hobbyist standpoint, but very important from a commercial standpoint where consistency is key.
Just my 2 bits... I'm thinking that the product that you got is A-OK and just what the doctor ordered! Probably the only way to do better than that is to go buy some barley kernels (not barley malt ...barley, the raw grain) and malt your own and then grind it. Instructions exist here at TFL if you search for it.
Brian
If I started malting barley, I'd probably make my own brew with it.
As I work with gluten-free bread I have to say that it is impossible for me to taste diastatic malt powder, but what I use and it makes such a difference is dextrose. Before I was using glucose syrup as a starter for the yeast, my bread was rising like a monster (good monster). But the stickiness of glucose syrup was a problem when I was making the bread so I changed to dextrose powder and I have the same results.
I have made testing with glucose, dextrose, sorbitol, sucrose, honey, and nothing makes better results on rising than glucose/dextrose.