June 15, 2014 - 8:37am
malt
Could you, please, tell me how you store malt. I had mine in a snap top plastic container and it formed a solid mass.
Our humidity is high during the summer. I had no problems during the winter months.
Since it was a plastic container I could rap it against the counter top and break the whole into smaller chunks which I put into a glass container with screw on lid. This went into the fridge.
Any ideas how to break up the chunks further? Everything I use on it gets sticky quite fast.
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This is just a thought not an "I've done this".... I actually had some malt too and it became a stone. It was only in a zip-loc bag so it was inevitable this would happen. So getting a glass jar or other container that can seal tightly against moisture is probably step one.
Since moisture is the enemy, you could put a desiccant (water absorbing material) in with the malt that would absorb any moisture that got in.. You can get silica gel on ebay very cheap.
If you are talking large quantities of malt that you will be storing for long periods of time, you might look at the company Drierite. They make a desiccant that can be reheated and reused. It does not physically absorb water but chemically bonds (absorbs) so it is more effective too. It is more expensive up front but over time may be the cheapest option.
Those are my thoughts on this... Good Luck!
and voila - no more lumps. I store mine in the freezer since it is a whole grain that will go bad once ground.
if was a whole grain, David. I always thought it was an extract of sorts. As for pushing it through a sieve, no way, this is way too hard. I was thinking of grinding it in a coffee mill, but the stickiness is preventing me from that.
I will put it in the freezer once I have the chunks eliminated.
I use these canning jars and they work like a charm all year round.
your responses. Here is what I ended up doing - I used a wooden potato masher to break up the heavy clumps and then used the same as a mortar. The malt is still a bit granular and might work going through a sieve at this point, but it is getting a bit sticky again despite the ac taking a lot of moisture out of the air. I can at least measure a teaspoon of it at a time and will dissolve this in a bit of water before putting it into the dough. Here is a thought "Can you put malt into the autolyse?"
Janet, I have some of those jars you refer to and used one.
I think that depend on the length of the autolyse. For a short autolyse (10 - 60 minutes), should be fine. However, remember that those enzymes (primarily proteases, I believe), are busy breaking things down, and at a certain point it's going to impact the structure of the dough. If you're going to autolyse for 1+ hours, add the malt later, just to be safe.
make sure to remember that. There is still so much to learn and I am grateful for every tip I receive.