Bread diary no. 11 – Malt flour

I was lucky enough to be given a plethora of interesting flours for Christmas/Chanukah. Two of the speciality flours were dark malt varieties that looked brown and exotic.

Red malt flour

First up I tried some:

Red malt loaf
950g strong white flour
250g red malt flour
22g sea salt
22g yeast
840g water
25g dried malt flakes

As soon as I added the water to the mix the dough turned a wonderful dark chocolate colour and gave a wonderful malty smell. It’s been really cold recently and I’ve noticed that my proving and resting periods are longer than before by about 30 mins. If anything I should have left this a tiny bit longer.

Loaves ready for the oven

While baking the bread gave off an even better aroma than usual and I couldn’t wait to give it a taste. It tastes very rich and malty and was an amazing accompaniment to some very smelly Epoisses cheese that I have. Also great with a bit of honey.

Next up I used a similar flour but added a twist – beer.

Dark barley malt loaf
800g strong white flour
100g dark barley malt flour
100g wholemeal flour
20g sea salt
20g dried yeast
660g dark wheat beer
40g water

Beer and flour

This turned out to be very heady and aromatic with a strong but not unpleasant aftertaste. The texture is very chewy too. Excellent with smoked salmon.

These are very distinct breads that I wouldn’t necessarily want all the time but are great to have in the locker for a special occasion.