November 21, 2009 - 7:11am
Malt flour
Hi from Montreal, I've been calling baking shops around the city looking for diastatic malt flour. The only
thing close I've come to is Malt flour. How would I know if it's diastatic or non. This is for a panttone recipe.
Thanks for your help, Roberto
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I'm in Montreal, and would love to know where you found the malt flour.
The only place so far is a shop called Papillon on HWY 40 and Boul St.Jean.
I've also spoke to the owner of the bulk food shop in Atwater market and told
me he would be ordering it.
Roberto
I'll check it out. Thanks again!
I think this is what you are looking for:
http://www.bobsredmill.com/malted-barley-flour.html
--Pamela
There are two types of malt - diastatic and non diastatic. The UK malt producer, Muntons, defines them as follows:-
Diastatic
Diastatic malt extracts possess varying degrees of enzyme activity. In bread baking the alpha amylase content can be used to improve the potential for fermentable sugars for yeast activity, thus enhancing gas production during fermentation and final loaf volume. Diastatic malt extracts can be used not only for the production of the traditional sticky malt loaf, but also as an improver in years when the naturally occurring levels of alpha amylase in wheat flour are low.
Higher diastatic extracts are used for the conversion of cereal starches into glucose syrups.
Non Diastatic
In bread baking, non-diastatic malt flour is used to enhance flavour, to provide sugars for yeast activity and product colour.
It is also used in breakfast cereals and biscuits, malted milk drinks and ice cream, sugar confectionery and chocolate confectionery to impart the traditional malty flavour as either an additional tone, or as a complementary flavour enhancer.
Malt products come in two forms flour (powder) and extract/syrup (liquid). I live in the UK, but I found the following link to the KA site
Diastatic Malt
I know nothing more about this as KA products are not available in the UK.
Much of the diastatic malt that's available to the general public comes in the form of "Malted Barley Flour". I for one initially found this terminology extremely confusing. Not until I began searching for "Barley" did I find many of the sources of diastatic malt. I never would have guessed that "Diastatic Malt Flour" and "Malted Barley Flour" are usually two different names for the same thing. Who knew?
Also, North American flours (but not in most other parts of the world) usually have some diastatic malt already mixed right into the flour you buy (it's usually listed in the small print of the ingredient label:-). With these flours, diastatic malt often doesn't make as much difference as you expect, and it's awfully easy to get "too much" (which causes a very gummy crumb).
What this means is that if you're making a European recipe with U.S./Canadian flour, you may not need to add the diastatic malt the recipe calls for at all.
Here I found more often malted wheat flour than malted barley flour, generally even with an higher diastatic power (10000 instead of 8000).
Anyway, I agree with Chuck that "malt flour" should be the diastatic malt powder Moyerello is looking for.