Question

I bought a few bags of your organic light malthouse flour recently, and I am having trouble getting loaves made with it to rise, do you know any reasons why this could be, can you offer any help?

Answer

The Malthouse flour has a high % of Malt flour added, to obtain the lovely flavours that are expected of this product, as well as a high % of the heavy malt flakes to give the texture. This reduces the level of functional gluten that you have to work with to hold this structure, so you must cultivate additional gluten at there early stage to enhance the process.

This can be achieved by setting a flying sponge. Add all of the yeast to 20% of the flour, without any salt, and enough water to make it to a creamy batter. Give this 30 to 45 mins to ferment; this will ensure that the yeasts have activated well before they are added to the remainder of the ingredients.

Feedback

Thanks for getting back to me, I found the flying sponge really helped to rise my dough, and made a nice loaf.