Eating Healthier in Today's World

Sweetening Your Homemade Breads #2

In our last post I promised I would talk more about the different sweeteners that can be added to our breads.  One thing I mentioned is that they aren't as necessary as one would think for the bread to rise as the dough itself has some natural sweeteness to it and will feed the yeast as well.  We want to talk about the less used sweeteners that are also used in breadmaking that will give your homemade breads a differents look, taste, texture and colour.

Molasses:  Molasses is one of my favorite sweeteners, especially for the heartier breads, which it's dark flavour complements boldly.  There are many varieties of molasses, most by-products of sugar refining.  Sugarcane is pounded, the juice is extracted, and from the juice comes sugar.  What remains behind is first extraction molasses, the lightest.  Second extraction is darker because more sugar has been removed.  Finally, third extraction molasses, or blackstrap, is left.  It still contains some sugar, but so little that it is not commercially practical to take any more out.  Blackstrap is well known as a rich source of iron and other minerals, partly because sugar extracting used to be carried on in iron vessels.  Nowadays this is not necessarily so, and the iron content varies a lot from brand to brand (and so does the flavour).

Because sulfur is used in the refining process of sugar, there is residual sulfur in the molasses--highly objectionable to people who are sensitive to it.  Unsulfured molasses is available most places; it is this that we have used in our recipes.  Which kind you prefer is very much a matter of your own taste.  As a rule of thumb, the darker the molasses is, the more sugar has been removed, and the stronger the flavour.  Blackstrap, by far the darkest of the lot,  is more flavouring agent than a sweetener, and it should be used with caution by those who haven't become addicted to it's tangy bite.  The "JOY OF COOKING" pronounces thus on it's pungency;  " Blackstrap molasses is a waste product...and is unpalatable."  To it's fans, blackstrap is marvelous.  Whatever kind of molasses you use, of course, it will make your bread darker in colour than if you had used another sweetener.

Malt:  Malt is extracted from sprouted barley, usually, and sometimes from other grains.  It has a rich taste and so enhances the flavour of grain that manufacturers of white-flour products often use it to help approximate the satisfying warm flavour of whole wheat.  The form of malt that is most concentrated and most easily available is barley malt syrup, a thick, viscous semi-liquid.  When you buy it be careful to get the plain-flavoured kind--hop-flavoured malt syrup, sold for brewing, is quite bitter.  Look for a brand that has not been diluted with corn syrup, certainly.

The malt syrup is non-diastatic:  it has been heated in it's manufacture, and contains no active enzymes that would affect your bread.  Diastatic malt, or dimalt, does contain adtive enzymes.  Dimalt is most often sold in natural or health food stores in the form of flour.  The flour is much less concentrated than syrup in sweetness and malty flavour, but because its enzymes convert dough starches to sugars, a small amount sweetens a whole loaf, making dimalt a good choice for people who want to make bread without sweeteners added.  The dimalts that are available to the home baker vary in potency, but as a rule, a quarter teaspoon per loaf is just about the maximum you can use without have the bread become a gooey mess that can't bake properly.   See our post on making your own dimalt or diastatic malt in our earlier May 09 posts (Use the search engine at the top)

Maple Syrups:  Pure maple syrup is one of the most delicious sweeteners, whether you pour it on pancakes or use it to sweeten bread dough.  Be alert to it's freshness, though.  It does not keep well, even in the refrigerator.  If mold forms on the top, skim it off.  The molds can't survive in the syrup itself, but other micro-organisms can, and they can alter the flavour drastically.  If there is any question in your mind, bring the syrup to a boil--often that revives it's usefulness.  But even then always taste it before you cook with it, because when it's flavour is off it can ruin a whole baking.  The crystallized version keeps longer.

Sorghum Syrups:  Sorghum is from a grain that grows well in most places in North America. It is rather sour, and I didn't like its flavour in the bread.  There may be many good ways to use it, but I am not familiar with them so I would recommend this as a lost resort.

Crystallized Fruit Sugars:  There are many kinds of crystallized fruit sugars--date, banana and the like--and for that matter turbinado, demerara, and the whole health-food-store panoply--may have some subtle advantages over supermarket varieties, but they are expensive for what you are getting, which is ---sugar.  Some are far less sweet than their more common counterparts, so you may find it necessary to add much more to get the same sweetening effect.

Fructose:  Finally a word about Fructose, which not long ago receive a whole lot of attention as a sinless "natural" sweetener.  It does occur naturally in honey and fruits and vegetables, but commercial fructose is a highly processed sugar, usually manufactured from corn syrups, which is itself a highly refined sugar.  I can't recommend it at all.