Looking for help to decode this malted sandwich bread recipe
I'm from the UK but have been living in Canada for a few years. There's this specific type of sandwich bread that seemingly only exists in the UK and I miss it so much. It's not fancy, or artisanal; in fact, it's a typical mass-produced sandwich bread that is ubiquitous in those pre-packaged sandwiches that us Brits love so much. I'd love to know how to make it, because I haven't found anything like it here in Canada. It's soft, but with just the right amount of chew, malty, a little grainy, not too sweet. It is, in my opinion, the greatest sandwich bread in existence.
The problem: apart from not being able to buy a loaf of this stuff in Ontario, I can't even get my hands on Hovis granary flour, which I believe is a good shortcut. Not only that, but one of the main ingredients, malted wheat flakes, cannot be bought anywhere in Canada either (trust me, I've looked everywhere).
Here's [1] a link to the exact type of bread I'm talking about.
Here is a list of the ingredients:
- WHEAT FLOUR, WATER, MALTED WHEAT FLAKES, BRAN (WHEAT), YEAST, SALT, MALT FLOUR (BARLEY), VINEGAR, EMULSIFIERS (MONO- AND DIACETYL TARTARIC ACID ESTERS OF MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES OF FATTY ACIDS, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES OF FATTY ACIDS), MALT FLOUR (WHEAT), VEGETABLE PROTEIN (WHEAT), RAPESEED OIL, FLOUR TREATMENT AGENT (ASCORBIC ACID)
Now, there are a few ingredients that I'd like some advice on.
- What is a typical hydration level for a sandwich bread like this, taking into account that it contains bran?
- Malted barley flour is listed, which I assume is either diastatic or non-diastatic malt. If we assume that the ingredients are listed by weight, that would suggest that the bread contains quite a lot of malted barley. My understanding is that diastatic malt can only be added in tiny amounts before it makes a bread gummy, so is it safe to assume that this malted barley is non-diastatic?
- What function does vinegar have here and what is a typical percentage?
- What is malted wheat flour?
- Is vegetable protein a pseudonym for something else?
- Since I can't procure any malted wheat flakes here in Canada, is there perhaps a way to make them myself? Is it a case of buying wheat berries, sprouting them, toasting them, and then flattening them into flakes?
I'm aware that mass-produced bread like this will use ingredients and techniques that might not be feasible for the home baker, but if anybody has any insider knowledge or general wisdom about this style of bread then I would love to hear any thoughts. Thanks so much if you made it this far!