"Sugars" are not just one thing, nor are they from one source when dealing with bread making. You don't say what type of bread you are making that requires barley malt syrup, and that would be helpful information.

-Table (white) sugar is 50% fructose and 50% glucose.

-A bread making favorite of mine because it retards mold, staling, and aids in keeping bread "fresh" longer is agave nectar, which is between 56% and 92% fructose.

-Honey, a great choice if you are going to freeze your bread (a well-documented topic in bread science), is 20% water, 30% glucose, 40% fructose, 1% sucrose.

Sugar is hygroscopic and attracts and bonds to moisture. It keeps water from evaporating and reduces staling which is why enriched breads last much longer than lean breads. However, too much sugar in a bread recipe can damage gluten development as well as damaging yeast because sugar draws water from yeast and inhibits its growth. That why some sweet dough recipes include extra yeast to compensate for the higher percentage of sugar. They often require more kneading to develop gluten when they have a high percentage of sweetener in them; and they also take much longer to rise.

You could use Osmotolerant Instant Active Dry Yeast (Fermipan Brown or SAF Gold), which is recommended for use in dough characterized as sweet, salty or low absorption. The osmosis is the means by which yeast cells absorb oxygen and nutrients and give off enzymes and other substances. This type of yeast is beneficial in certain types of recipes because osmotic tolerance is called for because the amount of available water in the dough is limited.

Two tablespoons of sugar per cup of flour is about the maximum you can add without major gluten damage. "When dough contains a lot of sugar, the two gluten proteins link with sugar instead of with each other. Glutenin combines with sugar, gliadin combines with sugar, and very little gluten is formed."

So what about barley malt syrup....? It's primarily maltose. You often find barley malt, barley malt syrup, or malted flour in sweet breads like Hawaiian Bread or Portuguese Sweet Bread to not only add sweetness, but it's not as detrimental to gluten formation as table sugar. Barley also contains enzymes that help break down big molecules of starch into the simple sugars that yeast can use.

All sugars interfere with gluten development, but all sugars are not identical. Glucose, which is corn syrup, browns at lower temperatures than many sugars. Most sugars are hygroscopic and absorb water from the atmosphere. BUT, fructose, which is one of the two sugars in white table sugar, is more hygroscopic than most. That's why agave nectar and honey helps keep bread moist longer - they have higher amounts of fructose than sugar.

FYI (free of charge information) - Yeast doesn't like lactose, the sugar in milk, so I avoid proofing yeast in milk, although you will find recipes that do that. Breads that contain milk/dairy products have more residual sugars than those containing only sucrose.

You'll have to do your own research on the nutritional aspect. I'm in the middle of making potato soup for lunch and it needs my attention. Good luck on your studies.

-Grainlady

" You don't say what type of bread you are making that requires barley malt syrup, and that would be helpful information. "

It is more of a curiosity about "Barley Malt Syrup" rather than a recipe requirement. This whole quest started over 30 years ago at Jerry's Pizza in Middletown CT. As it is, I have to say that this is the most incredible flavored crust I have ever had even to date. If I evaluate any pizza crust, I have to remove his from the sample as his totally distorts the readings.

We have discussed what he does and I cannot imitate the results nor have I found any other pizza restaurant to make anything similar. All I can say is that Jerry does not use pizza dough instead, he uses bread dough. Whatever that means.

Recently, I changed from asking around for the answer to actually baking bread to find it which sparks all these questions and exploration here and in other bread/pizza fora.

Lately, I am exploring Croissants. Granted, a whole different beast from pizza dough but it is the flavor that drives me.

I can make the croissants and have good appearance, texture and crumb but they lack that bread flavor I find with Jerry's pizza dough.

I heard that BMS is a flavoring that I may be missing so I am trying it. I have also toyed with European butter, various types of flour, different kinds of yeast, and even distilled water but have not had much luck making a great flavored bread. Textures are good but not flavor. My oven maxes out at 550d and I just might use my grill to go higher.

Some day, I just might get the right mix...
Now that I have a nice bottle of Barley Malt Syrup, I also wonder where it might also be used, hence, therefore ergo, my question for this thread....

Barley malt syrup is often the "secret" ingredient in breads, including pizza dough. It adds flavor with just a little sweetness. It's that "flavor" in NYC-style bagels. When you add barley malt syrup to the boiling water it is soaked-in by the boiling bagel so it not only sweetens it, it colors the bagel as well.

Another add-in that adds flavor is NON-diastatic malt powder, but it doesn't have the enzyme action. You need diastatic malt powder for that. Both are easy to make at home with sprouted grain and I generally made it with wheat. Hulless barley you can sprout is expensive ($7.89 per pound - sproutpeople.org) while I can get wheat cheap or free, and it only takes a small amount (1/4-cup).

FYI- In places where sugar was rare/expensive, they made malt extract (it can be made with other grains than just barley) and used it and honey as primary sweeteners.

Another flavor enhancer for breads you may have missed is the difference between fresh cake yeast and dry yeast.

-Grainlady

Many tries ago, I used the cake yeast but went back to dry because it did not give me what I wanted. Since then, I have learned about flours, rise times, types of yeast, European butter and stuff so, I guess I should try it again.

Maybe now it is time to put together the best of all worlds for my croissants:

Cake yeast, All purpose flour (KA), European Butter, filtered (distilled?) water as I seem to smell chlorine in my water sometimes, and to develop/use a poolish, use Barley Malt Syrup, measure by weight. allow extended rise times. One recipe suggested 6 days in refrigeration.

Right now, I am finishing up my 6 layer Lasagna recipe tests so it may be a while before I tackle croissants again....

Do you have a favored recipe for croissants?

Are you using a "laminating" method to make your croissants - where the fat is rolled into the dough and folded over many times to create all those lovely layers? They are too "fussy" to make, in my opinion. I made all my breads and baked goods using freshly-milled flour for over 25-years. I taught bread classes and milling classes for 20-years, including bread machine classes. Now that I've been gluten-free for 2-years, it's on to other things.

-Grainlady

This video, albeit in French, is very good. They insist that you don't work the dough much at all and let it rest well between each stage. Well worth a watch, I think.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsxsNE1NW3Q

Grainlady: I do believe I have mastered the laminating process very well. My croissants turn out well and are very attractive. I have come to prefer cutting them from a circle rather than the square but I don't believe that any of this has as much ado about flavor as ingredients.

I have heard that heat is a good factor. My stove goes to 550d and I can use the broiler to increase the heat on the stone.

The more I make them, the longer I let them rise, the higher the temperature, the better they taste. Now I want to get them over the top to the "fresh bread" taste I expect.

My next batch will be from cake yeast, European Butter, KA AP Flour, and now Barley Malt Syrup. but I am not sure about the amount of syrup. I understand that 1 cup barley malt syrup = 1/2 cup sugar (decrease liquid called for in recipe by 1/4 cup).

One technique I used the other day was the Panera Method. Drive to the store, purchase 2 for $5, place them on a cooling rack with parchment paper that already has brunt marks on it and they taste great....

islay_corbel: Most of the videos I see concentrate too much on rolling and little on ingredients and rising or flavor. With the one you suggested, I did learn how to turn/off the subtitles though (:

Well, the flavour is a given with good ingredients handled correcctly.I'm so sorry you were so bothered by the subtitles.
IMHO there's no place whatsoever for barley malt syrup in a croissant. Nor should it taste like bread. It should be very buttery, flakey and light.

This post was edited by islay_corbel on Thu, Jan 1, 15 at 5:35