The Fresh Loaf

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More experimenting with malted barley

qazwart's picture
qazwart

More experimenting with malted barley

Affer my disastrous pumpernickel, I’ve experimented a bit more with diastatic barley malt.

I made 100% whole wheat with King Arthur’s whole wheat flour. That flour doesn’t contain barley malt and my precious use make a tough course bread. I add in about 1/3 cup of molasses and a cup of oil to three cups of water. I use yeast, so unlike my pumpernickel, this isn’t a sourdough. 

To the three to four pounds of flour, I add 2 Tbls of gluten (which has made the dough a bit lighter, and 1 tsp of the barley malt. Despite being 100% whole wheat, the texture was soft much more like a soft white bread and the dough rose nicely. 

In fact, the texture was a bit too sodt. I baked it at 325 for about forty minutes, and it should have been thoroughly baked, but the texture was like bread that needed another five to ten minutes in the oven. 

Next tirne, I’m reducing the barley malt to 1/2 tsp and reducing the oil. Maybe I’ll elimin that all together. With the barley malt, it’s no longer needed to add moisture to the loaf. The molasses adds flavor, so I will keep that.