Malt in Sourdough
I recently read a formula for making malt at home, and then kneading in a
teaspoon of it per bread loaf. The author stated that adding more than a
teaspoon would result in a less robustly-risen loaf.
I haven't tried this with sourdough, for two reasons. First, I just read
about it. Second, making malt is a pain in the butt.
For those who don't know, malt is germinated grain seeds, and most beer
brewers make it from barley. I see no reason why it could not be made from
wheat berries, and in fact German Weissen Bier is made from wheat.
The process involves washing and cleaning the grain berries, soaking them
in water to double their bulk, putting them into germination trays to allow
them to sprout roots, drying them, roasting them, and grinding them. The
germination dramatically increases their sugar content, so the ground
product (which tastes like the malt in malted milk) serves as a sugar
substite.
I normally do not put sugar in my sourdough, but I'm not against it. Maybe
the malt will give the bread a nice taste. Mine already tastes nice, but
I'll not complain about more niceness.
Do any of you have wisdom on the subject of adding malt to sourough?
Gonorio
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