Hi All - wondered if anyone has some clues on this;
I'm going to give a recipe a try for potato focaccia but it has powdered maltose in it.
http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/633205
What's benefit? What's it doing in the recipe...having read up on maltose it's just sugar in another form...but here in the powdered form in this bread recipe what could it possibly be doing that say adding normal sugar can't?
Lapis - if you read this and can give me your best guess...please remember to talk baby language to me :-)
thank you.
Sugars.
These range from single ringed structures, called monosaccharides, like glucose and fructose, disaccharises (two bonded rings) like maltose and lactose, to chains of sugars, which make up starch and cellulose, and can be thousands of rings bonded together in a line, like a string or pearls, stretched out straight.
Various enzymes will break down these long chains, and one enzyme, maltase, breaks down starch into maltose. In bread making, one of the major reactions is the conversion of starch into maltose, which is then acted upon by the yeast cells, which turn the maltose into carbon dioxide, and alcohol, and hence raise the bread.
The potato starch absorbs and retains moisture to a far greater degree than wheat flour and produces cakes/bread with a lighter texture. The maltose may be a little slower to react than say glucose, which means raising is slower, but more sustained, so lowering the risk of collapse.
HTH ;?)
In bread making, one of the major reactions is the conversion of starch into maltose, which is then acted upon by the yeast cells, which turn the maltose into carbon dioxide, and alcohol, and hence raise the bread.
That is really helpful thank you.
...so maltose is aiding the rise in bread.
second question: Bagels often have malt powder or malt syrup, when I google malt syrup comes up as Barley Malt Syrup so assume it's barley malt syrup.
would that malt syrup also have similar effect to maltose? or just purely as a sweetner?
Bagels you want dense with chewy crust...different usually from the bread of light crumb.
maltose is turned into carbon dioxide (and alcohol), the gas raises the bread/cake. Its not 'air' as many people say without thinking.
Maltose syrup will probably contain oligosaccharides (DON'T PANI) all it means is a small number of monosaccharides strung together), a kind of half way house from the conversion of starch to maltose, just several glucose rings stuck together in this case. Barley malt is the fermentable ingredient in beer, malting is heating to get the Maillard reaction going, which gives the beer the brown colour, like bread.
Makes me think how malt syrup got into bagel recipes? just as a side issue...I don't think of beer production with Jewish culture...so ignorantly, me thinks it's a much later addition.
sometimes the malt syrup is not added to the dough...sometimes it is added to the water it's boiled in before it goes into the oven...and now I'm thinking maybe to add a lovely brown colour.
Bagels are baked relatively quickly which means the brown colour from baking bread for 40mins is not achieved so adding malt syrup adds sweetness plus browning.
I've used a recipe that uses black treacle as an alternative to the malt syrup...again adding sweetness and assume helping with the browning.
I've been thinking about making that potato focaccia both ways one with the maltose other without.
Interesting to read your statement on potato absorbs and retains moisture. Potato bread is so delicious, I had it in a restaurant and our table of 6 all went for potato bread as the best bread ever. I've heard good comments from those who make it too.
The more I learn about bread the more I think it's the most complicated of all of the foods.
and it's so easy to make! And the easiest to get it wrong too :-)
potato starch (or sometimes known as farina), but not powdered mash, is a real bonus in the kitchen. Use it to thicken sauces (not Indian food) and one uses less than the equivalent of wheat flour, it doesn't need 'cooking out', and the gel point is about 60?C. It has no flavour.
Use it to coat chipped potatoes, just rub a freshly cut chip in potato flour, and deep fry, soft on the inside and very crispy on the outside, and any excess that falls off and would normally brown and char, doesn't, as there is very little protein in potato flour.
Add to minced meat to make burgers, and extra flavours (yep, from the Maillard reaction) go to make a very 'meaty' product, which holds its shape well.
Potato flour is my 'find of the decade' (so far!)
oohh you're making me intrigued about the wonders of potato flour.
I used it as recommended by Dan Lepard to replace a small amount of maize flour in some of his bread rolls...daughter intolerant to maize have to watch how much she has it.
I might play around with the amounts see if I can get a softer bread for her...she loves soft crumb bread. Normally this is achieved by using soya..that's why nearly all commercial bread contains soya flour and why I've had to start to make bread for daughter...again she's intolerant to soya.
Interesting to hear about the burgers...going to make some homemade ones soon...mmm...experimenting I think.