P. Reinhard's 'Multigrain Extraordinaire' (Atomic Cloud)

When I looked at the formula of this loaf I was a bit surprised to find 1 Tbl of Instant Yeast in the ingredients. I checked the percentages and with 2.4% it seemed intentional - if 'somewhat' unusually high for what I use in my loafs.

Well, so I follow the instruction *with the exception* of the brown sugar (3 Tbl or 1.5 oz equal to 11%) ... I didn't have any, nor am I particulary crazy about adding sugar to a bread. So decided to exchange the sugar with an equal amount (1.5 oz) of Malted Barley Syrup.

The result was that the dough was and stayed way, way wetter than the described 'tacky' state and the dough EXPLODED almost during the first fermentation. I had to add flour since Autolyse, folding and wet dough kneading techniques did not improve the situation. The final proofing had to be cut short after just 30 minutes instead of 90 minutes. I decided to bake the loaf in the suggested 5x9 pan and -as I expected by then- the loaf grew like crazy and almost made it over the wide lip of the LeCreuset pan. The loaf looked like an atomic cloud and had if you taste it by itself the ethanol aftertaste I expected from that hyperactive behavior.

The reason for this uncalled for behavior was, I think, that the sugar was missing - Sugar binds water, just like Salt, and retards the action of the yeast. So, too much water was 'free' in the loaf and the yeast was only retarded by the amount of Salt (2.8%)

I did not expect that result because I thought sugar and syrup would somewhat perform the same (just that the syrup is of course not a dry ingredient).

Let me know if you think that the exchange if sugar/malted syrup wouldn't or couldn't be the cause - Every other ingredient was added exactly as called in the formula.

BROTKUNST

PS The kids had a good laugh and liked the bread anyway. The Ethanol aftertast seemed to have disappeared or was not noticable with butter and other toppings.