Many recipes may call for a mixture of different kinds of flour to create the best results possible, and a common type of flour added to other flour is malted flour.
If you have never used malted flour before, you may be curious about what malted flour is. I did some digging, and here is what I learned!
What Is Malted Flour?
Malted flour refers to flour that has been mixed with diastatic malt powder. For instance, malted wheat flour is usually wheat flour combined with malt powder. Generally, people use malted flour to help the fermentation processes during baking while enhancing the crust browning to make the baked products look better.
Do you want to learn how you bake with malted flour, what you can substitute for malted flour, and more? Keep reading!
What Does It Mean If Flour Is Malted?
Generally, if the flour is called malted flour that means that diastatic malt powder has been added to another type of flour.
Diastatic malt is a kind of malt usually made from sprouted barley that also has diastase enzymes.
What Is The Purpose Of Malted Flour?
Generally, the main purpose of malted flour is to assist in the fermentation process of baking products.
When you add malted flour into a recipe, it adds a specific enzyme that will convert starches in the flour to create simple sugars.
When there are simple sugars present in the mixture, the yeast can continue proper fermentation activity since the yeast will feed on the simple sugars.
Plus, adding malted flour helps crust on bread brown well, so malted flour can help enhance the overall appearance of your baked goods.
How Do You Bake With Malted Flour?
How you use malted flour in a recipe will depend on what kind of malted flour you have.
For instance, malted flour mixed with other flour, such as malted wheat flour, may be used as you would normally use flour.
Generally, malted flour contains the right amount of malt powder needed in flour, so you may not need to add other ingredients like more malt powder.
On the other hand, if you have malt powder instead of malt flour, you would generally use malt powder very sparingly.
If you were to use the same amount of pure malt powder for malted flour, you would likely wind up with very sour and over-proofed dough since malt powder is only meant to slightly enhance recipes and not replace flour completely.
Keep in mind that some manufacturers may call pure malt powder “malted flour,” so it is important to make sure you know if your malted flour is pure or mixed with other flour before using it.
How Do You Cook With Malted Flour?
Normally, how you would cook with malted flour will depend on what type of malted flour you have.
If you have non-diastatic malted flour, you would normally use this to color and flavor your food since non-diastatic malted flour does not have any active enzymes.
For instance, non-diastatic malted flour can add a glossy brown color and a slightly sweet flavor to cover baked goods and on cereals and sauces.
If you have diastatic malted flour, diastatic malted flour is not normally used for cooking since diastatic malted flour is best for baking since it is meant to aid fermentation.
How To Use Malted Flour To Replace Sugar?
If you have diastatic malted flour, you can use diastatic malted flour to replace sugar in some recipes.
However, you may only want to use malted flour as a sugar replacement for recipes that are not overly sweet.
Moreover, you should only use malted flour sparingly in your recipe, otherwise, you would risk over proofing your dough while creating a noticeably unpleasant sour taste.
What Can I Substitute For Malted Flour?
If you do not have malted flour, you can usually use most types of bread flour since many kinds of bread flour have malted flour in the ingredients list.
On the other hand, if you need a substitute for malted flour that can provide a bit of sweetness, you can opt for coconut milk powder.
While coconut milk powder is a bit fattier than malted powder, you can usually add the same amount of coconut milk powder as a malted powder to create malted flour.
Another excellent replacement for malted flour is maca powder, which is a powder that is from the maca root.
Maca powder is very similar to malted powder in terms of color, texture, and taste, so you can easily mix maca powder into flour to create malted flour.
Normally, you can use an equal ratio of maca powder to malted powder into flour to make malted flour.
What Can I Substitute For Malted Bread Flour?
If you do not have malted bread flour that specifically states that it is malted, be sure to check the ingredients list first since many bread flour brands contain malted flour.
If your bread flour does not contain any malt powder, you can use one tablespoon of diastatic malt powder for one teaspoon of sugar.
Although if your bread flour does contain some form of diastatic malt, you will not need to look for malted bread flour for your recipe.
Check out our other articles to learn what nut flour is, what bleached flour is, and what baker’s flour is.
Conclusion
Malted flour is a great type of flour to use, and malted flour may be found in most bread flour since malted flour contains enzymes that aid in the fermentation process that are crucial for making bread.
However, there are different types of malted flour, which are diastatic and non-diastatic, and diastatic malted powder is usually used to create malted flour.