I enjoy using Emmanuel Hadjiandreou’s book" How to Make Bread," but for many recipes he uses malthouse flour as the main ingredient. According to the author, malthouse flour “is a brown four containing malted grain” and is available the United Kingdom. Malthouse flour is supposed make the bread sweeter and nuttier than other breads.
His substitute includes malted wheat flakes, which does not seem to be available locally for me. His substitute is unbleached bread flour, multigrain blend or medium rye flour, and malted wheat flakes.
I haven’t heard of malt house flour but I have used malted wheat flakes. They do come from England but can be purchased from King Arthur Flour. I really like using them in bread.
You might try your local homebrew shop for malted meal. especially if you can grind your own, you should get malted grains, in different degrees of ‘roast’.
Thank you for the Amazon tip. It is produced in the UK and yes, it is expensive! The Dove’s farm entry does have a nice description of malthouse flour.
You can make your own with whole wheat flour, rye flour and malted wheat flakes. Really, that’s all it is. You can ask the staff here, at KAF, or BRM what ratios they would use, or experiment on your own. I regularly experiment with varieties of flours and grains in my breads. I grew up in Upstate NY in the 60’s, and my mother never bought store bread. She baked a massive variety of breads, many recipes from “the old country”, and all in her head. Thankfully, she included me in baking with her, so I’m pretty fearless when it comes to baking and creating new (to me) types of breads. It’s cathartic for me to knead dough :). I bake two loaves at a time, at least two times a week for my husband, my last child at home attending college here in town, and myself.
You can order the flakes from KAF, BRM, Amazon, etc, if you can’t find them locally.
Thanks Kate for your thoughts. I was initially scared off by the price of Malted Wheat Flakes at King Arthur Flour, but considering I only need about a 1/2 cup/loaf, it is not too bad. Bob’s Red Mill doesn’t seem to carry malted wheat flakes.
I just tried Ken Forkish’s “Overnight 40% Whole Wheat” recipe, with 50 grams of Maltex cereal replacing 50 grams of whole wheat flour. Total flour was 500 grams, so Maltex was 10%. Good crust, nice open crumb. Taste has distinct malty overtone, especially when lightly toasted.http://www.homestatfarm.com/Products/Maltex/tabid/3010/Default.aspx)
