Diastatic Malt

The first thing I wanted to make with my WonderMill was bread. Before I started milling my own flour I would from time to time bake my own bread. I, therefore, thought it would be good to begin my milling experience with baking bread.  When I was researching about milling and baking bread I learned it can be good to include malt.  Diastatic malt to be exact.

Diastatic malt helps the yeast grow and in turn promotes a good rise, great texture and brown crust. All which will help make my homemade bread better. And now that I have a grain mill I thought I might as well make the malt myself. I found good directions on ehow.com that I used.  Since I have never made malt before I opted for just making half the recipe the first time around.

Items needed:

Lukewarm water
1 cup hard wheat berries
Sprouting jar or wide mouth jar/vase
Nylon sock and rubber band (if not using sprouting jar)
Dehydrator or cookie sheet
Grain Mill such as the Wondermill

Directions:

Since I don’t have a sprouting jar I just used a wide mouth vase. I filled the vase with two cups of lukewarm water and one cup of hard red wheat berries. I then used a clean nylon no-show sock (it already has elastic built in so I didn’t have to use a rubber band to fasten it to the vase).

 

I left the grains in the water overnight (about 12 hours). I then turned the vase upside down and let all the water drain through the nylon sock. As you can see in the picture below, the grains had already started sprouting a little.

For the next 4 hours I left the vase propped at an angle upside down to let any water left drain meanwhile allowing air to still circulate. After 4 hours I rinsed the grains with water. I repeated this rinse and drain process 3 times that day (every 4 hours).  The directions say to repeat the process for two days unless the sprouts become as long as the grains themselves. After a day and a half, mine did – so I stopped the process early (only rinsing and draining once the second day instead of the directed 3).

Since I don’t have a dehydrator, I used a cookie sheet to dry out the grains. I turned on my oven to the lowest possible temperature and then turned it back off after 5 minutes. I placed all the sprouted grains on a cookie sheet. I then put the cookie sheet with the wheat berries in the hot turned off oven for 3 hours. I then removed the cookie sheet, turned on the oven again and repeated the heating and turning off step. I repeated this step 3 times.

 After the third time in the oven, the berries were completely dry.

I then put the dried berries in my WonderMill and turned it into a flour. And voila – malt!

It may seem like this is a lot of work. And it is:) But you don’t have to make it very often (it goes a long way) and you don’t have to stare at it for two whole days during the sprouting process:)

 

About one and one eighth danish

My name is Signe and I am a Danish thirtysomething woman and pastor’s wife now living in Arizona. I’ve recently begun blogging about our life and lessons learned along the way.  Part of this journey has involved our growing desire to be healthy, which has led us to be more intentional about the products we use and the food that we eat – all while staying on a budget. I love to travel and explore the world around me, while trying to combine my Danish upbringing and identity with the culture I am now part of. I enjoy spending time with people and especially my family wherever they may be around the world and of course my wonderful and amazing husband.   My blog is called one and one eighth danish which can be found at ourcarlsonlife.blogspot.com

Grain Mill Wagon Experience: I really enjoyed being part of the Grain Mill Wagon Challenge. I had been wanting to mill my own flour for a while and the WonderMill allowed me to get started on baking nutrition packed breads and desserts. It was fun getting to revive old recipes and make them better. It was easy to substitute the fresh whole wheat flour in my original recipes and it didn’t change the taste much and they are now full of bran and nutrition. I was surprised at how easy and quick it was to mill my own grains. I have also found that milling my own flour (especially if making gluten free breads etc) is cheaper than buying the pre-ground specialty flours. The Grain Mill Wagon Challenge has given me a renewed excitement to bake and I feel good about eating and serving what I have made.

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