I thought it might be interesting to others, so I decided to post this bake. I got interested in malted barley a while back. I was learning about diastatic malt and one thing led to another. Wendy, aka “LazyLoafer”, among others helped my learning process. I went to a local “Home Brew” shop and picked out an assortment of malted grains, mostly barley. It is very inexpensive and I chose the whole grain since I have a home mill. Most, if not all of the malts are non-diastatic.
The chocolate malt (my favorite) in tiny amounts make a really distinct difference in any bread. The color of the crust and crumb are darkened dramatically. The flavor of the bread has a unique mildly bitter unsweetened chocolate, or maybe coffee taste.
Below is a 78% Tartine. The crust is not burnt, the color comes from the malted barley.
It only takes a tiny amount of malted barley to affect these result. I used 2% of the bread’s flour. The image below shows 10g of fresh ground barley.
Dan
that looks wonderful! If you livedw closer to NY, I'd invite myself over for a slice?
Dan
Your loaf looks great. I don't have a mill, do you think I could get the grain fine enough with a food processor?
Al
I think it would work, Al, But the stores will grind it for you.
I'm going to check it out at the local brewery and supply store to see if they have and will grind the malt.. If not have you ever used a stout instead of water to mix the dough?
No, I know nothing about stout
The local brewer's supply was out of chocolate malted barley but had some in rye. I had them grind it up, thanks for the tip, but they only could grind it down to a coarse grits texture. We' ll see if the food processor will get it finer.
Al
I've used both stout and lighter ale in breads, usually as the liquid in the pre-ferment (poolish), and they are mighty fine! I've also used several kinds of malts (crystal, chocolate and others), which all seem to be fantastic in bread.
Wendy, if you were using beer in a sourdough, how would you use it? Would a Poolish and Levain work the same way?
How does beer affect the fermentation?
Dan
I don't know Dan, I've never tried beer sourdough. However, Hamelman has a recipe in "Bread" that is made with a rye sour (88% hydration) and a liquid levain (125% hydration), as well as beer for some of the liquid in the main dough. Perhaps you should try some experiments and let us know how it turns out!
Great, I’ve got his book.
I just had a sandwich made with the bread. It amazes me how 10 grams of chocolate malt could make such a difference to the flavor profile. I like breads with intense flavor. Seeds and cracked grains, Toadies, and malt are my favorites.
I really appreciate the initial help you gave me.
Dan
I mixed up a batch of Champlain SD and substituted Lazy Magnolia Sweet Potato Stout for the water. The initial mix was pretty much like the other Champlain's I've done and the color's a little lighter than Dan's with the chocolate malt. After overnight in the frig, the dough handled much stronger initially but after about 5 minutes settled down to slightly stronger than the regular Champlain. Shaping was also a bit easier, the dough handled like a lower hydration. It's retarding overnight and we'll see what happens tomorrow. This is really a taste experiment and if it works I'm thinking of adding in walnuts and possibly blue cheese. If anyone has tried blue cheese as an enrichment I'd love to hear about your experience.
Al
I'm going to try Hamelman's beer bread, and I think I'll add some caramelized onions (I'm going to make a huge batch in the slow cooker tonight) and maybe a touch of mustard. :)
Looking forward to pictures and hearing about your experience.
dan
I finally baked this loaf today, The dough came out of the frig relatively firm and was easy to scored. Baked it straight from the frig into a hot DO and oven at 515 deg.I did give it a light misting after the scoring. 20 min. covered then reduced to 465 for an additional 15 min. Final internal temp 208 dog. Monitored the internal temp until it had dropped to 79 deg and had to cut it. I was pretty happy with the crumb and wanted to do a large taste test so I cut the boule into quarters and that crumb was even better though I'm puzzled how the crumb could change so much. I gave 3 quarters of this loaf with 3 quarters of an original Champlain loaf to 3 neighbors tonight and asked them to taste them side by side. In the house, the votes are one for the plain and one for the stout. I'm undecided. I was afraid that the stout would completely overwhelm the more subtle tastes of the bread and to some extent it does adding a fuller/rounder taste to the bread with just a hint of chocolate/coffee. The original Champlain has brighter notes of wheat. We'll see when the neighbors get back to me.
Hi Lazy Loaf,
I think you'll need a huge batch. I made a carmelized onion and parmesan loaf with two large onion and wished it had more. Love to see how it turns out.
i'll have to try this. thanks for sharing.
With what tool did you grind your malt?
I have a KoMo grain mill. But I called the store and it seems the HomeBrew Stores will grind it for you. You only need a small amount. Here is a link to my local store, but there is probably some near you. http://www.lahomebrew.com/Brewing-Grains-s/1817.htm
Dan
i grind with a corona mill.
just pass 3-4 times and it works ok
i do malt rye and malt wheat
all with high dp
high dp gives yeast more to eat aka sugar
gives a nice bread
What does do mean? I’m guessing diastatic power.
Please explain, I’m curious to learn.
enhances for bread and they are easy to make at home if you don't want 10 different kinds like we do:-) I'm trying to keep mine down to 2 at a time, one NDS and one diastatic. Right now they are rye but the previous batch was wheat. Nothing like having fun in the kitchen!
That bread looks killer and has to taste as good as it looks.
Very nice Dan
Hey Dab, for flavor enhancers, I’m diggin’ dem Toadies.
Thanks for the help...
Dan
Toady Tom's Tasty Toasted Tidbits. Toadies is way easier to type when necessary:-)
I picked up some choc alt barley yesterday, this is exactly what I was looking for.
Fergie, please let us know how your bread turns out. Pictures would be great.
The smallest amount of Chocolate Malt will have a noticeable affect. I would start off with 0.5%, or 3 - 5 grams per loaf.
is diastatic because they want to make beer with it and the enzymes have to be alive and well to make the wort where the starches in the grains are converted to sugars before fermentation takes place. A bit of the barley is made non diastatic for beer production and for the same reasons we use it in bread - for color and flavor could never have anything but pilsners and lite beers otherwise ....and porters and stouts are the best beers in my world just like whole grain breads are the best. I prefer porters and stouts in breads over hoppy ales that I find a bit too bitter in bread. Where would the world be without the famously great Irish Guinness Wheat Bread? The old saying is that God made Guinness great so the Irish wouldn't take over the world :-) But Lucy says God made Guinness great so we could have great bread.
Type porter or stout into the search box for further inspiration of both in bread
I say If you like making bread you will love making beer:-) Happy baking and brewing and eating and drinking!
Chocolate malts are non-diastatic. The heat required to roast the grains to a very dark color will kill off the enzymes. There is no need to be concerned with gummy crumb when using very dark colored malt.
Wouldn’t you agree with that, Dab?
Dan
Don't forget the enzymes available from the other grains. The major difference with dark roasted malts comes from the caramelization of the sugars. Caramel sugars are not as affected by the enzymes, and yeasts can only partly ferment the darker malts. Thus the taste of the malt is stronger and the loaf may be sweeter.
gary