Barley malt syrup

Sirop de malt d’orge

What it is

Sprouted barley is kilned, then mashed so its own enzymes cut the starch into maltose, about two thirds of the finished syrup, and maltose is why it reads as roughly half as sweet as sugar. Bakers buy it for the enzymes and for the sugar the yeast cannot finish: what survives fermentation caramelises into the crust.

In the kitchen

Check whether it is diastatic before buying: the enzyme-active kind is dosed at 0.5 to 1 % of flour weight and will slacken a dough badly beyond that, while the deactivated kind is only flavour and colour. Warm the jar in water before weighing, since cold it will not leave the spoon.

Goes with

T65 bread flour Rye flour Baker’s yeast Sesame Tahini Oats

Same species

Barley Beer vinegar Diastatic malt powder Mugi miso Roasted barley tea

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