Source: Cook's Thesaurus malt powder = malt flour Notes: You can make malt powder by allowing whole grains to sprout briefly, drying them, and then grinding them into a powder. Commercial malt powders are usually made with barley, and they're used extensively by commercial bakers. There are two main types of malt powder: diastatic and non-diastatic. Diastatic malt contains active enzymes which help break starch down into sugar. The extra sugar feeds the yeast in the dough, helping the bread to rise, and also gives the bread a browner crust. It's often used to make crusty breads. Non-diastatic malt doesn't have active enzymes, but it gives baked goods better flavor and a shinier, browner crust. It's used in everything from bagels to croissants to breakfast cereals. Don't confuse malt powder with malted milk powder, which also contains powdered milk and wheat flour and is used to make beverages. Look for malt powder in health food stores or baking supply stores. When making sourdough breads, they sometimes have a very light (anemic\-looking) crust, and the addition of diastatic malt can help alleviate that. Diastatic malt does all of sugar's jobs and has none of the shortcomings. It's rich in enzymes and vitamins, so when malt is added to dough it gets a nutritional boost, not like the empty calories and non\-nutritive \- sugar. BUT, adding too much malt can cause problems. Too much and you have bread that will be "over\-proofed" and you might have a nice gummy, sticky dough and when baked will have an alcohol smell and a dense crust. Malt extract is used the same as diastatic malt powder. I make my own diastatic malt powder for pennies by sprouting wheat (or barley \- you can even make it with rice, although I've only used wheat or barley) at home. When the sprout is as long as the berries themselves (2\-3 days), dry them in a dehydrator (set at 100\-degrees F) until completely dry. Do not let the temp. get above 130\-degrees F or the enzymes will be destroyed. Then grind the dried malted berries into flour, and use it in your favorite recipe at a rate of approx. 1t. per loaf. You can grind/mill the sprouted dried wheat berries in a coffee/spice mill. If you are getting "into" Crust & Crumb, be sure to skip the Banana Bread recipe (pgs. 162\-164). There is an error in the recipe I discovered years ago when we had a discussion about this recipe on King Arthur's Baking Circle message board. The ratio of dry ingredients to liquid ingredients is off \- the amount of flour needs to be doubled. The recipe for Buttermilk Pancakes (pg. 177) is also one of the most insipid recipes I've ever tried. McDonald's pancakes are better than this recipe!!! There's a lot to learn in C&C.... but I've also made a lot of good naturally\-leavened bread without Peter Reinharts "master formulas", using a nearly 100\-year old form of sourdough starter called "Everlasting Yeast" from an elderly friend, as well as using Carl Griffith's 1847 free for the asking (http://carlsfriends.net/). So consider C&C just one person's opinion and information. Not necessarily the gospel. Find a method you like that works for you. \-Grainlady

Those are lovely! Re sourness, if you want a really sour flavor, use less starter and no yeast and let it do a really slow rise. At least, that's what I've read. :) You can also get more sour by feeding up with newly milled flour which still has lots of wild yeasts and other stuff, which I've experienced myself. My whole wheat starter is much sourer because of that, and the 3/4 white buns I made recently with my white starter, and sugar, but no yeast, have hardly any tang at all. How fun to have a clay oven to play with!

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately they're not what I'm hoping may exist somewhere (perhaps it doesn't). Compumom, the Beard recipe I modified was the one for apricot bread in Beard on Bread, substituting persimmons for the apricots and their soaking water, as I described in my original post. I've made the Beard persimmon bread recipe you reference as well, reducing the sugar and using half oil half butter in place of the butter: the results were excellent, but too sweet and too fat for my current taste. Irisgal, your recipe is sweeter than what I want. Perhaps fruit breads require that much sugar, or almost: I know sugar can be cut to 3/4 cup, because I often do that myself, but don't know if can be reduced to 1/4 cup as I attempted, and which didn't work. I like a fruit bread for breakfast or as a snack, but since I had flu almost a year ago, my already moderate taste for sweetness has diminished almost to zero. For the last few years even plain apples have been borderline too sweet. Hence my interest in a bread with little added sugar.

No, they don't recommend it on the box. What, my recommendation isn't to be trusted, eld? ;) The Trader Joe's pannettone has a paper wrapper over it. I wanted a crisp crust instead of a soft crust so I popped it into the toaster oven for about 3 minutes. I like using left-over ciabatta for French toast. Cut it thick and let it soak in the eggs and milk for awhile and fry it over low heat so it doesn't get too brown before the egg mixture cooks through. It becomes custard-like. https://www.thekitchn.com/ciabatta-french-toast-from-tri-132303