Barley Malt in Whole Wheat Dough?

9 years ago

I've been working on personalizing a whole wheat pizza recipe. The thing I've been missing though is the barley flavor. Meantime, Grainlady has me about convinced to get a grain mill and grind my own wheat. So now I have a couple of questions that I hope you all can answer and save me from too many failed experiments.

1. Can I substitute diastatic barley malt for sugar to feed my yeast? If yes, I know I'd have to adjust the proportion, so any suggestions of how much to use would be welcome.

2. If not, is malted barley, such as they sell for brewing, appropriate for grinding for baking? (I'm not malting my own.)

3. If yes to #2, are there sufficient benefits to grinding whole grain malted barley at home?

4. Can a sufficiently small amount be milled in a grain mill? My spice mill did an adequate but not brilliant job on some coffee beans. Made more of a meal texture than a powder. It's great with flaxseeds though.

If no one knows the answer to #1, I'll just give it a try and see. I only use sugar for the yeast, and don't care about its flavor, but do want the barley flavor, so thought it might be a good tradeoff. Alternatively, if there is some point in grinding whole malted barley, I'd be fine keeping the sugar if necessary.

Thanks!

Comments (5)

grainlady_ks
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Oh, boy, I had to dig deep in files in the basement for this one (LOL)... This information comes from a large number of articles in my file. I'd also suggest you do your own research on the subject so you gain a better understanding for yourself.

Malt can be non-diastatic and diastatic. It's one of those things that is so ridiculously cheap to make from sprouted grain, you can make a lifetime supply with a 1-cup of grain (but I suggest to start with no more than 1/2-cup).

- Non-diastatic malt is primarily used to add flavor, sweetness and color to the crust, but it will also add to the food supply for yeast.

- Diastatic malt will do the same as non-diastatic malt, and in addition, supplies amylase enzymes. The amylase enzymes convert starches to maltose sugars and will also increase the softness in the dough.

- "Mills typically put in 1/10% malted barley flour (barley because barley malt is cheaper than wheat malt) to provide diastase (enzyme), which converts the starch in damaged starch granules to sugars that are utilizable by the yeast over an extended ferment. The use of more diastatic malt than this can result in slack, sticky dough, and will not improve yeast action."

- Diastatic malt powder is powdered malted grain, usually barley, but wheat and rice may also be malted. Diastatic refers to the diastatic enzymes that are created as the grain sprouts. It does all of sugar's jobs and has none of the shortcomings, so when malt is added to dough, it essentially gets a nutritional boost, not like the empty, non-nutritive sugar calories.

- Malt extract is used the same as diastatic malt powder.

- Malt syrup is a sweetener. Replace a tablespoon of sugar or sweetener in a bread recipe with 1/2 t. of diastatic malt powder, OR, 2 T. of malt extract. Add malt extract to the warm water if proofing bakers' yeast.

"Adding barley malt, malt syrup, or malted flour ALL help break down big molecules of starch into simple sugars that yeast can use. For maximum sweeteness add a tablespoon of baking malt syrup (source: CookWise)."

- How to make your own diastatic malt powder:

Sprout 1/2-cup of wheat berries by covering them (plus 1") with water in a jar for 12-hours (or so - overnight). Drain. Rinse with clean water and drain again. Add a an open cover to your jar (I use a mesh sprouting lid). Leave the jar in a dark place for 2-3 days (or until the sprout is as long as the wheat berry). Be sure to rinse the grain once or twice each day.

To dry the wheat, place on a sheet in a dehydrator and dry at 100-degrees F., until completely dry. Do NOT dry at a temperature above 130-degrees or you will kill the enzymes. When completely dry, grind the dried sprouted grain into flour and use approximately 1 t. per loaf. It should add a nice "wheaty" note.

Check King Arthur Flour for more information at the link below.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: King Arthur Flour - diastatic malt powder
plllog
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Wow!! Grainlady, I have been doing some research, but had gotten to the point of confusion. I really appreciate you looking all that up for me and laying it out in such a clear way.

I'm glad I was right that I could substitute the malt for sugar. I will certainly use diastatic malt for that, and see where I get with the flavor. It took awhile to figure out that it was the barley malt that was the "right" flavor in my favorite pizza crusts that I was missing.

Thanks, too, for the malting instructions. I went through a whole lot of them that were geared toward brewers and they were unreasonably complex.

Many thanks!

JC
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plllog
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Or not. Main ingredient of diastatic barley malt is dextrose, next wheat flour. Replacing sugar with sugar. Funny, in all the research I've done, I hadn't bothered to read the label before.

I think I'll start with a package of organic malted barley extract (ingredients: barley) and see if that's enough to feed the yeast.
grainlady_ks
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
There are more than enough carbohydrates in the flour to feed the yeast without additional sugars - everything else you add in the way of sweeteners is just extra, or breaks down differently or at different speeds.

Minerals also feed yeast, so choose a high-mineral sea salt, instead of plain old table salt.

-Grainlady
plllog
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Oh, good! Thanks, Grainlady. This is my first venture, other than one offs, in messing with yeast dough recipes. My current batch, combining thoughts from a couple of different, not perfect, recipes is the tastiest I've managed yet--first real hit sans barley. Trying to balance the development of the gluten and yeast and acidity and condition and flavor is interesting, especially since I'm at that point of knowledge where it hasn't come together yet, so I'm doing what I'd call informed trial and error.

Barley Malt in Whole Wheat Dough?

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Barley Malt in Whole Wheat Dough?

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