Hi Dee, Sounds like you're not incorporating your water in well enough. If you're getting little white lumps in it, the water isn't being dispersed evenly. You said when you added more water, it turned into the slurry at the bottom of your machine, that's okay, just keep the machine going, eventually it will disperse the water into the dough. You must be using fresh yeast from the sounds of it, which is the best. I would really suggest you take out your yeast from the fridge an hour before using it. Let it warm up a bit. Use a thermometer to get your water between 100 and 110F, then mix the yeast into the water. Then pour it into your dry ingredients. This will make sure the yeast get's mixed. For most breads, I mix all the dry ingredients and fat together. Then I mix the fresh yeast with the water/milk and add it to the dry ingredients. I find that there are times when you may have to use more water than usual. Could be from the weather outside or if you have your home is warmer than usual. If you are living at a higher elevation than your recipe was invented at, that could be a factor too. As for Malt- Malt can be made from wheat, barley and other cereal grains. Mostly it is barley in canada and the usa. Diastatic malt is an excellent yeast food and has considerable enzymatic activity, which increases the production of maltose from starch during fermentation. non-diastatic malt is used more for adding sweetness, color and flavor. Hope that helps. I'm a Pastry Chef, have been baking breads for many years now. Cheers! Lore
- posted
19 years ago