Malthouse loaf and biscuits

I was recently given some Shipton Mill “Malthouse” flour.  This type of flour more widely known as Granary flour but “Granary” is a brand name owned by Rank Hovis.  Essentially it is a brown flour (i.e about 85% wholemeal) to which flakes of malted, rolled and toasted wheat have been added.  The caramelised malt adds a distinctive flavour.  The Shipton Mill version has a combination of malted wheat, rye and barley.

This morning I used it to make my usual batch of sourdough bread.  Of course all flours vary in how much water they will absorb, even the same flour from season to season.  The Shipton Mill website recommends using a wholemeal recipe.   My normal wholemeal needs about 125ml (half an EU cup) more water than my white bread so I added that in.  The Malthouse flour could have done with a bit less – which I suppose is obvious now I think about it as a smaller proportion is wholewheat and I imagine the malted grains don’t absorb much water during the initial kneading.

The loaves turned out nicely though, and very tasty.  We’ve just enjoyed some with a soup made with carrot, onions and pumpkin from the allotment.  Whilst the loaves were baking I used some more of the flour to make some digestive biscuits.  I used the recipe I developed and recorded last April, but I just used all Malthouse flour.  They came out very well so that’s definitely worth repeating.

Thanks to Phil Hemings of Hemings Bakehouse for the flour.  I highly recommend his seeded sourdough loaf if you visit Tonbridge farmers market, or one of the other markets he attends.

Digestive Recipe:

125g Malthouse/Granary bread flour
0.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp sodium bicarbonate
25g soft brown sugar
65g butter (salted, or add a little salt)
2 tbs milk

Follow the method in this post

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