IngredientsFlour & grain
Backmalzmalt for baking
Sprouted grain, usually barley or wheat, dried and milled. As it sprouts, the grain builds enzymes that break starch down into malt sugar.
Two kinds exist. Active malt keeps working inside the dough; roasted malt has no enzymes left and only brings colour and taste.
Im Teigin the dough
Flour on its own carries little free sugar. The yeast has to make it first, and that takes time. Malt puts it there ready.
The dough gets going faster, the crust browns harder, the taste picks up a malty base. Semmeln, rolls and Brezn nearly always have some in them.
In Mexikoin Mexico
There is no direct product. The closest thing sells as malta en polvo, through Mercado Libre and brewing suppliers.
The ordinary supermarket has nothing for you here.
Ersatzwhat to use
Half a teaspoon of honey or malt extract per 500 g of flour. It does much the same job: the yeast eats at once, the crust browns.
Honey brings a taste of its own; malt extract stays closer to the original.
Vorsichtwatch out
Too much active malt turns the dough sticky. The enzymes then break down more starch than the dough can carry.
Keep the amounts small. More malt does not mean more colour, it means a crumb that smears.