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Bread

Malt Bread

A yeast‑leavened bread made with flour, yeast, water, dry milk, salt, sugar, malt extract, and lard or oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Malt Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Dissolve the yeast in 1 gallon of water at 85°F with the yeast food and malt extract. Set aside for 10 minutes.

  2. In a mixer, combine salt, sugar, dry milk, and the remaining water. Mix until dissolved.

  3. Gradually add flour to the mixer. When partly mixed, add the yeast mixture and melted lard or oil.

  4. Mix on high speed for 16‑20 minutes or on low speed for 23‑35 minutes until dough reaches 78°F.

Rise and shape

  1. Let the dough rest for 2½ hours. Fold over the sides without punching down.

  2. Allow the dough to rise for 1½ hours. Punch down. Let it rest for 1 hour.

  3. Punch down again. Let it rest for another 30 minutes.

  4. Divide the dough. Round it. Place it in the proofer for 15‑16 minutes.

Proof and bake

  1. Transfer loaves to pans. Place in racks. Proof with steam.

  2. Bake the loaves with steam until done.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Flour + wheattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Wheat + malttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the loaves their structure and chew.
Yeast
Ferments sugars to produce carbon dioxide, which makes the dough rise.
Water
Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and dissolves the yeast and other dry ingredients.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast for fermentation and adds sweetness and browning in the crust.
Lard or oil
Tenderizes the crumb by coating flour proteins and gluten strands, giving a softer texture.
Dry milk
Adds milk solids that enrich flavor and help the crust brown.

The step that matters

Mixing the dough to 78°F. Dough temperature controls yeast activity and fermentation rate. Mixing too long or too short leaves the gluten underdeveloped or overheated, so the dough should be checked for temperature at the end of mixing.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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