How to Use Barley Malt As a Fermentable Sugar in Making Whole Wheat Bread

Adding barley malt to bread improves the texture and color.

For a bread to rise, the yeast must be fed with sugar to ferment. Carbon dioxide given off during the fermentation process provides the lift for the loaf. Barley malt syrup is a natural sweetener which stands in for sugar to feed the yeast in bread recipes. According to Shirley O. Corriher in "Cookwise", barley malt syrup helps the flour to break down into products more digestible to the yeast. (see reference 1 pg 11) When purchasing barley malt syrup, be sure to use diastatic which improves the crust color and rising of the bread. Non-diastatic barley malt is used only as a flavoring and cannot be used to help the yeast in bread making. (see reference 2 pg 373) Does this Spark an idea?

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Kitchen towel
Loaf pan
Cooling rack

Instructions

- 1
  
  Replace the sugar added to ferment the yeast with twice as much barley malt syrup. For instance, if the recipe calls for 1 tbsp. sugar, use 2 tbsp. of diastatic barley malt syrup. Mix the yeast and malt syrup together, and let it sit for 10 minutes to "proof" the yeast. Proofing checks the viability of the yeast, if it foams, it is good to use in the bread.
- 2
  
  Combine the dry ingredients for your recipe.
- 3
  
  Add 2 tbsp. of diastatic malt syrup to the remaining wet ingredients for your recipe and combine the wet and dry ingredients together to form a sticky dough.
- 4
  
  Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface by pressing and folding the dough for ten minutes.
- 5
  
  Loosely shape the dough into a ball and wrap it in a flour dusted kitchen towel.
- 6
  
  Set the towel into a bowl and refrigerate the dough to rise for at least eight hours or until the loaf doubles in size. The barley malt requires eight hours to begin to break down the flour. (see reference 4)
- 7
  
  Press the dough with your hand to break air bubbles inside the dough. Shape it into a loaf form to fit the pan.
- 8
  
  Preheat the oven according to your recipe while the loaf rests for 30 minutes.
- 9
  
  Bake the bread according to your recipe.
- 10
  
  Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes before turning the loaf out onto a cooling rack to cool completely before slicing.

All Recipes: Whole Grain Bread Recipes

Photo Credit sliced wheat brerad image by Roslen Mack from Fotolia.com

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