Homebrew Store Bread

I want to use malted wheat flakes or kibbled Nuttimalt in bread, but they are expensive from King Arthur or Bakery Bits (UK). Fortunately, a nearby homebrew store has a huge selection of barley malts and some less common malts like including wheat, rye, and spelt. I purchased seven pounds of grains for less than the price of one pound of malted wheat flakes from KA. There are also some other unmalted, pre-gelatinized grains like rye and wheat flakes and torrefied wheat. The torrefied wheat is whole berries that have been steamed (pre-gelatinized) and dried.

I used as many of the items as possible that would be used in brewing beer, but in a bread (Multigrain Struan recipe from Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads). For this recipe I used crystal wheat malt (reddish-brown; 26–45° Lovibond for beer fans), a darker crystal barley malt (brown; 120° L), and torrefied wheat. The wheat malt and berries were cracked by whirling briefly in a blade coffee mill. The barley was powdered in the mill and sifted to remove the coarser hulls. Most of the ingredients are commonly used in bread, except for the crystal malts. I initially tried to pre-soak the wheats but the soaked and drained grains gave a soupy mixture in the soaker instead of a firm mass. I started over without the presoak and that worked better.

Soaker:

• 67 g Crystal wheat malt
• 28 g Torrefied wheat
• 30 g Rye flakes
• 30 g Rolled oats
• 57 g Sprouted white whole wheat flour
• 10 g Crystal barley malt powder
• 5 g Vital wheat gluten
• 17 g Buttermilk powder
• 3 g Salt
• 170 g Water
• Combine until hydrated, cover, and soak for 10 hours

Biga:

• 170 g White whole wheat flour
• 57 g Sprouted white whole wheat flour
• 1 g SAF Red yeast
• 170 g Water
• Knead mixture for 2 minutes, rest 5 minutes, knead 1 minute, cover and store at 37 °F for 19 hours.

Final dough:

• Soaker
• Biga
• 57 g Sprouted white whole wheat flour
• 14 g Brown sugar
• 15 g Barley malt syrup
• 6 g Salt
• 6 g SAF Red yeast
• 15 g Canola oil
• Cut soaker and biga into 12 pieces and mix with other ingredients. Knead for ≈5–6 minutes, rest five 5 minutes, knead for 1–2 min. Bulk ferment for 45 minutes, pre-shape, rest, shape into a loaf, and proof for 45 minutes. Place in 425 °F oven, reduce temperature to 350 °F, and bake ≈50 minutes to 195 °F internal temperature. Cooled loaf weight 837 g.

The loaf has a rich brown color and a moist crumb. The flavor has a pronounced dark caramel flavor and the malt pieces and torrefied wheat provide a nice textural element (chewiness) in the bread. The torrefied wheat has a mild flavor from white wheat. A red torrefied red wheat might have more flavor, and lighter malts might give a toasted malt instead of caramel flavor. Time to head back to the homebrew store!