June 4, 2015 - 2:14pm
Substituting sprouted wheat flour for diastatic malt
No one near where I live sells diastatic malt, so I have to order it. I do have some spouted wheat flour, and I would like to try using it as a substitute for diastatic malt. How much should I use? What percent of the total flour weight should I use? What should I be looking for, as in faster bulk fermenting times, and faster final proofing times, and any other relevant info?
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equal amounts of sprouted flour does not act the same as diastatic malt flour. But you are correct to assume that sprouted anything will speed up fermenting times.
Diastase is the active ingredient, it is Amylase.
Have you thought about getting some naked barley and sprouting your own? ( I think that might be preferable to another source, saliva.)
Sprout barley and follow this post
Making Red Rye Maltyou can use .6 of 1% by weight for home milled flour that is un-malted and not whole grain. Whole grains don't need any extra malt
Sprouted flour is made from grain that is "sprouted" and dried, then milled. Diastatic Malt is made from sprouted barley that is brought further in the germination process, then dried and ground. And from my understanding the commercial product is ummm a concentrated form of that.
For sprouted flour as soon as the shoot shows we dry and then mill. For malted grains we wait til that sprout is the length of the grain, then dry and mill. The difference is quite extreme. You can do this pretty easily at home. Just take some whole grains (wheat, barley, rye etc...) cover in water for eight hours. Now drain them and keep in breathable container (covered with cheesecloth works). Every 8 hours rinse with water and drain and continue until the sprout is the length of the grain. Now spread out on a sheet pan and dry completely. Now you can grind as you need for your formula.
If you want sprouted flour you can start the drying process as soon as you see the shoot emerge.
Sprouted Flour can be used as a large or even 100% of the flour, although it does require different handling than typical breads. The Malted Flour is used like Diastatic Malt Powder, in small quantities, to improve fermentation, color, and flavor of your loaves. You can use a bit more of this than a commercial diastatic malt as it's not quite as concentrated. But it's still used in very small portions. Commercial is typically used at .10-.20% of the total flour and the homeade fresh malted flour you can use double. .2-.4% of the total flour weight
Josh
All very informative and very interesting. I mistakenly thought the same, but less potent, active ingredients were in sprouted flour that are in diastatic malt powder.
I may (someday) attempt to sprout some barley and make my own diastatic malt powder (flour?), but I don't have any kind of mill other than a bladed coffee grinder.
This may be a question for a different thread, but what if I malted some barley and mashed it at a temp low enough to not destroy the active ingredients? I've made a mash with some of Bob's Ten Grain that has some very gritty stuff in it that softened up very nicely in enough water at a temp no warmer than 150F. I realize 150F is too warm for diastatic malted barley, but, would it be possible to make a mash using whole malted barley at the temps no warmer than Dabrownman used to make dastatic malt powder?
in a bladed coffee grinder, then I sifted it and kept grinding. The trick is not to let it build up heat while pulverising it. Heat will destroy the enzyme. The same goes for drying, in the shade and with a small fan works best.
I can't answer the mash question. It does take about 3 days to get sprouts, the first thing to notice are tiny little rootlets, they are not sprouts. I would think that a very wet mash would drown the grain so it might not sprout. ???