Diastatic malt powder

Malt diastasique

What it is

Barley is sprouted, then kilned cool enough to leave its amylases alive, and that is the whole difference: the enzymes go on cutting starch into sugar inside the dough. American mills malt their white flour as a matter of course, which is why US recipes rarely call for it and French ones must. Active malt is sold by degrees Lintner, a number that measures how fast it converts starch into the sugar the dough has not yet made for itself.

In the kitchen

Half a percent of the flour weight, no more. The enzymes never stop, so a heavy hand gives a slack, gummy crumb and a crust that darkens and goes sticky long before the loaf is baked through. Leave it out of long-fermented dough, which has already made its own sugar.

Goes with

T65 bread flour Rye flour Baker’s yeast Barley Honey Salt Sesame Poppy seed

Same species

Barley Barley malt syrup Beer vinegar Mugi miso Roasted barley tea

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