I see a lot of Bread Recipes calling for Diastatic malt powder? I follow Peter Reinharts The Bread Baker's Apprentice book and i had a question. I use Gold Medal Full Strength Bakers Enriched Bromated Flours Bleached . It is a flour bakers near me use for there Breads and Pizzas. Would it help at all to add the Malt Powder to this flour? What does Malt Powder do for the bread?
Diastatic malt powder
- Thread starter Jafwiz
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1. Retail flour is already malted.
2. if you are making bread, bleached flour is not ideal. Bleached flour is weaker, has little to no flavor, has a bleached flavor, no color, does not brown well, and usually has a lower extraction rate.
3. Reinhard’s book isn’t the best to learn about bread. Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread is better. There’s no fancy pictures, just good information.
2. if you are making bread, bleached flour is not ideal. Bleached flour is weaker, has little to no flavor, has a bleached flavor, no color, does not brown well, and usually has a lower extraction rate.
3. Reinhard’s book isn’t the best to learn about bread. Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread is better. There’s no fancy pictures, just good information.
Another Choice is this
King Arthur Flour Special Patent 12.7 Protein says Never bleached nor bromated How is this on for bread and pizza dough?
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Let me explain flour.
Wheat kernel consists of three major parts: See diagram
Bran: 14.5% of the kernel weight; outer shell of the kernel
Endosperm: 83% of the kernel weight; the starchy center that the white flour is milled from
Germ: 2.5% of the kernel weight; the embryo of the kernel.
In most milling (not French), the wheat kernel is separated, then each part of the kernel is milled. The separately milled parts are called streams.
The endosperm is milled in two parts; the center is milled separately from the part that is closest to the bran. The reason is there is some bran residue on the endosperm.
Patent flour is the flour milled from the center of the endosperm. It is pretty much pure starch and has a lower ash content since there is no bran residue. It has less taste, finer in texture, and is lighter in color. This the starchiest part of the kernel.
Clear flour is milled from the outer part of the endosperm. It is still pretty much pure starch, but the ash will be slightly higher since it has some bran residue. It has more taste, is coarser in texture, and darker in color than patent flour.
Endosperm is where the amino acids, glutenin and gliadin are stored. When glutenin and gliadin bind with water molecules AND are agitated, they form gluten.
After the bran, endosperm, and germ are milled, they are blended to create different flours. The amount of each in the blend determines the type of flour.
Blending all the bran, endosperm, and germ together makes whole wheat (wholemeal) flour. Normally clear flour is used to make whole wheat since it is darker in color, coarser in texture, and more distinct in taste.
Blending approximately 73% of the bran and germ into patent flour makes all purpose flour.
Blending approximately 45% of the bran and germ into the patent flour makes pastry flour.
Patent flour is more starchy—not exactly what you want for bread. I think just buying King Arthur’s bread flour in the grocery store is fine.
And I really do recommend Jeffrey Hamelman’s book on Bread.
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Flour is complicated.
The most things bakers need to understand about commercial flour is the wheat kernel isn’t simply ground up into flour.
The three parts, bran, endosperm, and germ or ground into four flours. These are called streams.
Only the two endosperm flours have the properties that contribute to gluten: glutenin and gliadin.
All flours are made by blending the flour streams in different proportions. These different proportions are extraction rates. 100% extraction means 100% of the kernel is used to make the flour.
whole wheat is 100% extraction
cake flour is 45% extraction
Once blended this results in various levels of protein and ash in the flour.
Other thing I didn’t mention is it’s not uncommon for different varieties of wheat to be used in a flour. Just because it says hard red wheat on the bag, doesn’t mean there’s just one variety of wheat in the sack.
The protein and ash level are related. The higher the protein content, the higher the ash.
Not all flour is milled in this way.
The French mill the entire kernel. They then sift out the amount of bran and germ to create the flour they want. Since the entire wheat kernel is milled, some of the bran and germ is embedded into the endosperm flour. So the mineral content (ash) is higher. The flour has more flavor, is nutrient richer, and has more color. French flour performs better in that it performs like a higher protein flour than flour that has been milled by separating the wheat kernel.
French flour is labeled by ash content.
T45 equivalent to pastry flour
T55 equivalent to all purpose flour
T65 equivalent to bread flour
T85 there’s no equivalent in American flours. It’s a higher extraction flour, not whole wheat. So you get some of the benefit of the whole wheat but some of the nicer attributes of an all purpose.
Central Milling mills French type flours in the US
Central Milling Store - Organic, Conventional and Sprouted Flour & Grains
Shop online for Central Milling Organic flour & grains, Red Rose Conventional Flour and Tony Gemignani Pizza Flour.
So, I just looked at my bag of King Arthur Bread flour, and it tells me it's 12.7% protein, but that seems to be all the info. No values for any of the other things you mentioned. If I want to use, for now, flour I can buy at the supermarket, is there some way to find this?
... Not that I know enough to *make use* of that info yet, but just to start being aware of what I'm doing.
... Not that I know enough to *make use* of that info yet, but just to start being aware of what I'm doing.
Oh! And at Central Milling, they have photos of each flour. It's a pile that someone's mashed a square thing into?
Where could I learn what that's about? It appears to be some standard thing. Oh! Perhaps it'll be in Jeffrey Hamelman’s book, which I just now ordered.
Cheers,
--Bob
Where could I learn what that's about? It appears to be some standard thing. Oh! Perhaps it'll be in Jeffrey Hamelman’s book, which I just now ordered.
Cheers,
--Bob
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The higher the protein content the more gluten the flour will develop. Remember the proteins glutenin and gliadin Are in the endosperm.
The higher the ash content the higher the bran and germ content.
When you have a flour with a high ash content, you’ll have more nutrients, more color, more flavor. But you’re going to have a heavier dough, it’s not going to rise as well.
Bran is the outer shell, so is sharp. When you knead whole wheat flour, the bran is like a razor, cut through the gluten network.
The bran and germ the more water it will absorb.
Whole wheat flour take 100% hydration.
A flour like King Arthur’s bread flour at 12.7% protein probably has 60% ash. The general rule of thumb is the higher the protein the higher the ash.
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It’s nothing they just did that for decorative purposes