April 7, 2009 - 5:43pm
Malt flour
Does anyone know of a supply of malt flour in the UK?
I know about Wessex Mill's Malt Loaf Flour, but this is a mixture of 15% malt flour with white flour and it has sugar and "flour improver" as well.
Malt flours come in several grades ranging from pale lightly roasted with the enzymes still active to a dark roast with more flavour, but no enzyme activity left.
I've emailed two commercial suppliers a few days ago, but have received no replys, so I'm not hopeful there.
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Last time I bought malt one of the varieties came from British company called Simpsons Malt.
Thank you all for your ideas. Sadly all the suggested UK mills seem only sell blended flours containing malt or malted grains. What I'm looking for is a pure malt flour, which only seems to be available in bulk quantities for commercial bakeries.
As for milling my own flour, that would require me to purchase a mill. There is one available for my Kenwood Chef mixer, but I can't justify the cost just for this one use. I'd never get it past the finance comitee! There isn't much tradition of home milling in the UK and so supplies are not too readily available, although I agree that brewing malt can be obtained relatively easily.
For now, I think I will have to stick with the malt loaf mix from Wessex Mills. I've now found this in a farm shop in nearby Abingdon, which is nearere than going to the mill which itself is only 10 miles away.
Keep in mind that malted grains are much softer, so unless you need massive amounts they can be ground rather easily in a coffee grinder.
I emailed the UK Flour Advisory Bureau, explaining what I wanted and remarking that Muntons had not replied to my email. Their helpful reply was as follows:-
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Try and contact the Muntons Malted Ingredients - tel -01449 618 300
And also make contact with the following:
Edme Ltd - tel 01206 393 725
Rank Hovis Ltd - 01427 613 502
Bacheldre Watermill - tel 01588 620 489
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Note all these telephone numbers are UK natioinal numbers.
I had already found 3 of these company's web sites but hadn't tried phoning any of them.
I will try these over the next day or so and report back.