I've been searching all over to find a substitute for Malted milk powder in the whoppers ball candy. The substitutes I have found usually contain gluten. I'm by no means a skilled baker, but I've made lots of gluten and dairy free treats for my friends before, but this is probably my biggest challenge so far. Thank you for reading and I hope you can help!
Gluten-Free Whoppers Balls Recipe
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There is no gluten free malt because malt is not an ingredient, but a process. That process is the germination and drying of a cereal grain. Barley, which contains gluten, is just about the only cereal grain used for malting. But malted barley in of itself does not create malt flavor. So even if you could locate a malted grain that was gluten-free, like corn, you still wouldn’t have that malt flavor.
In order to create a product with malted flavor, whether it’s malted milk powder, beer, or distilled spirits, you need a mash.
To make a mash, malted barley is mixed with and equal amount of wheat by weight, and water. Mashing is the process of heating and resting the malted barley and wheat mixture. Mashing triggers enzymatic activity to convert the starches in the grains into sugars. It’s the breakdown of the starches in the two grains, barley and wheat, that gives malt the malt flavor. If a malted grain is not turned into a mash, you will never get malt flavor.
Given the requirement of malted grain and wheat to create malt, there will never be a gluten-free malted anything.
Due to a medical condition, I’ve been gluten free for 10 years. I’ve learned that a healthful and balanced life means making peace with the fact that I will never again be able to eat certain foods. You simply destroy the soul lamenting what you cannot eat. It’s no way to live.
I wish my family and friends would make peace with the fact that I can’t eat gluten. While I appreciate their good intentions of wanting to create a gluten free version of a treat or food, I really don’t need to be reminded over and over again that I cannot eat that particular food.
There are so many naturally gluten-free, dairy free, sugar-free foods that can be made and offered. And to be honest, use of a bunch of alternative ingredients almost always produces a horrible frankenfood that no one wants to eat. The experience of having to eat those terrible concoctions out of politeness keeps us in the mental and emotional rut we work so hard to climb out of in the day to day management of the diseases that require these special diets.
If you want to be a generous friend, skip the frankenfood, and go for real food, made with real ingredients.
In order to create a product with malted flavor, whether it’s malted milk powder, beer, or distilled spirits, you need a mash.
To make a mash, malted barley is mixed with and equal amount of wheat by weight, and water. Mashing is the process of heating and resting the malted barley and wheat mixture. Mashing triggers enzymatic activity to convert the starches in the grains into sugars. It’s the breakdown of the starches in the two grains, barley and wheat, that gives malt the malt flavor. If a malted grain is not turned into a mash, you will never get malt flavor.
Given the requirement of malted grain and wheat to create malt, there will never be a gluten-free malted anything.
Due to a medical condition, I’ve been gluten free for 10 years. I’ve learned that a healthful and balanced life means making peace with the fact that I will never again be able to eat certain foods. You simply destroy the soul lamenting what you cannot eat. It’s no way to live.
I wish my family and friends would make peace with the fact that I can’t eat gluten. While I appreciate their good intentions of wanting to create a gluten free version of a treat or food, I really don’t need to be reminded over and over again that I cannot eat that particular food.
There are so many naturally gluten-free, dairy free, sugar-free foods that can be made and offered. And to be honest, use of a bunch of alternative ingredients almost always produces a horrible frankenfood that no one wants to eat. The experience of having to eat those terrible concoctions out of politeness keeps us in the mental and emotional rut we work so hard to climb out of in the day to day management of the diseases that require these special diets.
If you want to be a generous friend, skip the frankenfood, and go for real food, made with real ingredients.
Thanks friend, I was doing my best to avoid making any sort of mush while still trying to make something delicious and reminiscent of Whoppers. Sorry you took this so personally, but I guess I can't blame you. This was mostly a challenge for myself to see if I can create something like this. I'm very much aware of the challenges and struggle of keeping a gluten and dairy free diet, I've gone out of my way of many times to maintain one so that we don't have to separate groceries or see me eat food that they would love. I'll probably end up making my usual stuff for them. Thanks for the useful information, keep up the good work!
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No worries, I didn’t take it personally… It’s just most people will not explain how uncomfortable it is to have Frankenfood made on one’s behalf. We understand it was done with the most kindness of intentions.
There are many things that can be made with alternative ingredients without a loss of quality. My pies and cakes are completely in distinguishable to the gluten versions. And in fact I don’t even make the dreaded “this is gluten-free “announcement when I serve it to guests.
Where we lose our way is when we persist in trying to create things in which there are no reasonable substitutions. I have a couple of vegetarians and vegans in the family. I embrace a mostly vegetarian diet most of the time. I always chuckle at the Thanksgiving tofurkey. No matter how you shape it, it will still be tofu. It will never be turkey. And that’s perfectly OK because there’s nothing wrong with tofu. In fact, I just ate a block of sprouted tofu for lunch.