Sort your malt: A quick guide to picking right

Malted grains and flours are used in many products. It is a key ingredient when making beer or scotch. It is also added to premixed bread flour to help bread rise. You will also find it used in foods like malted milk powder, chocolate malt shakes, malted milk candy balls, etc. If you had to buy barley malt products, you may encounter a few kinds. But, which one should you use for your recipe?

Here’s the code to crack them:

Diastatic Malt Powder: This is the beer making kind. It is rich in diastatic enzymes. It is also used by professional bakers to obtain a better rise. If you are feeding yeast, use this.

Non-diastatic Malt Powder: This is the eating kind. Since the malted grains are roasted at high temperature, the enzymes get inactivated. It has a subtle sweet flavour and is a rich source of vitamins and minerals. When mixed with milk and flavours, it becomes “malted milk” powder. You can also use it to make candy, milkshakes, etc.

Barley Malt Syrup: A thick, sticky syrup extracted from malted barley grains, whose sweetness comes primarily from maltose which tastes only half as sweet as white sugar. The syrup does not contain live enzymes. You can use it both as a sweetener to make granola bars or add it to baked goods just to give it a rich, brown colour.