Oh, boy, I had to dig deep in files in the basement for this one (LOL)... This information comes from a large number of articles in my file. I'd also suggest you do your own research on the subject so you gain a better understanding for yourself. Malt can be non-diastatic and diastatic. It's one of those things that is so ridiculously cheap to make from sprouted grain, you can make a lifetime supply with a 1-cup of grain (but I suggest to start with no more than 1/2-cup). - Non-diastatic malt is primarily used to add flavor, sweetness and color to the crust, but it will also add to the food supply for yeast. - Diastatic malt will do the same as non-diastatic malt, and in addition, supplies amylase enzymes. The amylase enzymes convert starches to maltose sugars and will also increase the softness in the dough. - "Mills typically put in 1/10% malted barley flour (barley because barley malt is cheaper than wheat malt) to provide diastase (enzyme), which converts the starch in damaged starch granules to sugars that are utilizable by the yeast over an extended ferment. The use of more diastatic malt than this can result in slack, sticky dough, and will not improve yeast action." - Diastatic malt powder is powdered malted grain, usually barley, but wheat and rice may also be malted. Diastatic refers to the diastatic enzymes that are created as the grain sprouts. It does all of sugar's jobs and has none of the shortcomings, so when malt is added to dough, it essentially gets a nutritional boost, not like the empty, non-nutritive sugar calories. - Malt extract is used the same as diastatic malt powder. - Malt syrup is a sweetener. Replace a tablespoon of sugar or sweetener in a bread recipe with 1/2 t. of diastatic malt powder, OR, 2 T. of malt extract. Add malt extract to the warm water if proofing bakers' yeast. "Adding barley malt, malt syrup, or malted flour ALL help break down big molecules of starch into simple sugars that yeast can use. For maximum sweeteness add a tablespoon of baking malt syrup (source: CookWise)." - How to make your own diastatic malt powder: Sprout 1/2-cup of wheat berries by covering them (plus 1") with water in a jar for 12-hours (or so - overnight). Drain. Rinse with clean water and drain again. Add a an open cover to your jar (I use a mesh sprouting lid). Leave the jar in a dark place for 2-3 days (or until the sprout is as long as the wheat berry). Be sure to rinse the grain once or twice each day. To dry the wheat, place on a sheet in a dehydrator and dry at 100-degrees F., until completely dry. Do NOT dry at a temperature above 130-degrees or you will kill the enzymes. When completely dry, grind the dried sprouted grain into flour and use approximately 1 t. per loaf. It should add a nice "wheaty" note. Check King Arthur Flour for more information at the link below. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: King Arthur Flour - diastatic malt powder

Here's my flatbread recipe, which I created using an ingredients list from the crackers I bought in Sonoma: Lars' Flatbread Ingredients 1-1/3 cups water (lukewarm) 2 tbsp dried malt extract (or 1 tbsp sugar) 1 tbsp dry yeast (or one package) 1/2 cup oat bran 1/2 cup rice bran 1/2 cup rice flour 1-2 tbsp canola oil 1 tbs olive oil 1 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil 2 tsp salt 3 to 3-1/2 cups unbleached flour Toppings: 1 egg + 1 tbsp water (for brushing on top of dough) garlic powder onion granules caraway seeds poppy seeds sesame seeds Pour lukewarm water into a mixer bowl and add malt extract. If you use liquid extract, you will have to double the amount and use less water. Whisk in yeast until all is dissolved. Then stir in oat bran, rice bran, and rice flour. Allow this mixture to rest for half an hour or more, and then add the oils. You can add less oil if you want a harder cracker. Then add 2 to 2-1/2 cups flour that has been sifted with the salt, and put the bowl in the machine with the dough hook. Mix at high speed (with the splash guard on) until blended. Then add flour in small increments until the dough makes a ball that is not too sticky. Finish kneading by hand, or simply place in a bowl that is lightly greased with olive oil, and allow to rise for a couple of hours, or leave it in the refrigerator covered overnight. I let my dough rise twice. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pinch balls of dough about 2-1/2 to 3" diameter and roll the dough on a floured surface into a rectangular shape as thin as possible. Prick the dough all over with a fork or docker and brush lightly with egg wash. Dust very lightly with garlic powder and onion granules. Sprinkle caraway seeds (if desired), about two per square inch. You don't need many of these, and it is easy for them to be overpowering. Then sprinkle poppy seeds evenly over, as desired and finish with the sesame seeds. It's better not to overdo the seed toppings (especially the caraway), but I haven't had a problem with the poppy seeds so far. Pat the seeds into the dough with your fingers and then cut the dough into squares using a pizza cutter or ravioli cutter. Transfer the dough, using a metal spatula, onto an ungreased baking sheet, and bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until toasty in appearance. You will need to watch them closely towards the end, as they will burn easily, once they are done. I use a toaster oven for most of them, but sometimes I bake them in the regular oven until almost done and then finish the untoasted ones in a toaster oven at a lower temperature - about 350 degrees for 2-5 minutes. You can always toast underdone ones later. Note: These taste better if you use malt instead of sugar, and you can substitute liquid malt if that is all you can find. The rice flour and bran make them crispy and crunchy. Lars

Oooh! I do! I do! Love love love this recipe for seeded or rosemary crackers from Fine Cooking... Seeded Crackers For the topping: 1 tbs. sesame seeds 2 tsp. poppy seeds 2 tsp. fennel or caraway seeds (I used fennel) 3/4 tsp. kosher salt (I used sea salt) For the dough: 6 3/4 oz. or 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling 2 oz. scant 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour 1 tsp. table salt (I just used kosher; I don't have table salt) 3 tbs. extra-virgin olive oil (but not your best. the flavor doesn't really come through) Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and heat the oven to 450F. Stir the seeds together in a small bowl. Fill another small bowl with water and set it aside along with a pastry brush and the kosher (or sea) salt. In a large bowl, whisk the ap flour, w.w. flour and salt together. Add the olive oil and 1/2 cup water to the flour; stir with a rubber spatula until it collects into a soft crumbly ball of dough. Use the spatula or your hands to press the dough against the sides of the bowl to gather all the stray flour. (At this point, I let the dough rest ten minutes or so, which makes the first roll easier. Set the dough on a lightly floured work surface and portion it into thirds. Pat each portion into a square. Set two squares aside and cover with a clean towel. Roll the remaining dough into a rectangle about 1/16 inch thick and 7 or 8 inches wide by 14 or 15 inches long. (It's pretty important to get to 1/16 inch; otherwise the crackers will not crisp up properly.) Whenever you feel resistance, lift up one edge of the dough and sprinkle more flour underneath before you continue rolling. [Note that a pasta maker works GREAT for rolling this dough out] With a pastry brush, brush the dough lightly iwth water and sprinkle about a third of the seed mix evenly over the surface. Sprinkle with 1/4 tsp. salt. With a dough scraper, pizza cutter, ravioli cutter, or sharp knife, cut the dough in half lengthwise and then cut across to make rectangles roughly 2 by 4 inches. Don't bother trimming the edges; rustic edges add character. (I trimmed a little bit; my edges were not as nice as theirs were). Transfer to an unlined baking sheet. Bake until nicely browned, about 10 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. While each batch is baking, clean your work surface as needed and repeat the rolling and cutting with the remaining portions of dough. Store the cooled crackers in a zip-top plastic bag. They'll keep for up to a week. (Do make sure they are well-browned and if they bend easily, leave them in for a minute or so longer. Rosemary Variation: Add 2 tbs. chopped fresh rosemary to the dry ingredients in the dough. Skip the seed topping and instead sprinkle each batch of crackers with 1/4 tsp. fine sea salt.

I've used Rye Bread Improver and Deli Rye Flavor, but not Caramelized Coloring. I thought they were a waste of money. When you look at the ingredients in Rye Bread Improver, you can use potato flakes, or potato starch or flour, your own vital wheat gluten, malt, etc... You can use potato water from boiled potatoes for all or a portion of the water in a recipe, instead of potato products. I sometimes malt my rye and dry it before I mill it to add that malty flavor. Malting the grain also makes it easier to digest. King Arthur used to sell malted rye grain and I used to mill it into flour and use it occasionally. If you do purchase the ingredients you mentioned above, try to use them in King Arthur rye bread recipes that call for these ingredients first, so you can see how they work. They are designed for these products. I mill my own rye flour and it is superior in flavor to using commercial rye flour. I can also mill it anywhere from fine to coarse, which allows for a variety of rye breads. There are also several types of rye flour... If you use light rye flour, it has the bran and germ removed and is akin to using unbleached white flour and has little flavor and color. I use freshly milled rye for making cookies and quick breads as well. Much of the flavor and color people associate with "rye bread" is from the add-ins, rather than the flour. Add-ins like coffee, molasses, cocoa, etc. Some even incorporate copious amounts of food coloring to darken them. The use of seeds and flavorings such as caraway, onion, anise, flax, and orange is traditional in various cultures. As far as I'm concerned, more people associate the flavor of caraway with rye bread, not rye flour. You can add caraway seeds to white bread and people will assume it's rye, that's how dominate the flavor is in the bread and how it is associated with rye. If you want more flavor from your caraway seeds, grind a portion of them into a fine powder (using a spice mill, a suribachi and pestle or a mortar and pestle) and add it to the dough. American pumpernickel has little to do with traditional pumpernickel. Traditional pumpernickel is a very dense mixture that is pressed into a pan (sometimes with a lid) and steam-baked for as much as 20-hours. The Germans call these varieties "kastenbrots", which translates as "box bread." If you have an Aldi store near you, they sell loaves of this type of bread - usually in the fall. Danish ryes tend to be lighter and sweeter than most German ryes. Molasses and malt extract are popular ingredients in Danish rye. Danish ryes tend to contain either buttermilk or butter, or both, which helps preserve the loaves and gives them a richer and more open texture. Rye bread is associated with a tighter crumb than wheat bread due to less gluten. You can get a more open texture by incorporating a slow-rise technique and using a high percentage of wheat flour, or additions of vital wheat gluten. Because rye flour has little gluten in it, you need to mix your wheat flour into the liquid FIRST and beat it very well in order to develop the gluten while the mixture is still in the bowl. THEN add the rye flour. If you want that "sour" flavor, use a rye flour based starter and make a naturally-leavened bread. When you use a typical direct dough method, which is the fastest way to make bread and the one most people use these days, you'll also give up a lot of flavor that can only develop from long, slow, cool rises. The larger the percentage of rye flour you have in your recipe, the stickier the dough will be - even with the correct hydration. Sticky dough often means people add too much flour to their rye bread recipes while kneading and get a "brick" for a loaf. If you find you have difficulty kneading the sticky dough, place it in a large freezer-style zip-lock bag. Press out all the air, zip it shut, and knead the dough in the bag from the outside. You can still adjust the hydration, if necessary. Turn the bag inside out to remove the dough. This is one bag you won't be able to clean and reuse. Handle the dough with oiled hands. You can also knead the dough with wet hands (keep a small bowl of water handy to dip your hands in). This will help keep the dough well-hydrated. It's better to err on the side of a wet dough than a dry dough from adding too much flour to compensate for the stickiness. You might enjoy some of the rye bread recipes associated with Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska. Seeded rye is also known as Jewish rye and is another popular rye bread. Be sure to keep us posted on which rye bread recipes you like! -Grainlady