Thank you all very much! I love what a great source of information this site is & often tell people about it. I'm looking forward to giving these rolls a try soon.
First, barley malt syrup is significantly more dense than molasses. Second, it is about 50% as sweet as sucrose (table sugar), while molasses is 93% as sweet as table sugar. Therefore, molasses is quite a bit sweeter than barley malt syrup - but not quite twice as sweet. Tom's wonderful recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of barley malt syrup; I'd suggest replacing it with 1 1/4 teaspoons of molasses. The yeast also gets an enzymatic boost from barley malt syrup; you can replace that with a pinch (and I mean literally a small pinch) of a pulverized vitamin C tablet.
The density does vary slightly (malt = 1.6 g/cm^3 and molasses 1.4 g/cm^3) but malt syrup (Eden brand) is much more viscous than molasses.
The barley malt syrups (Eden brand for example) is NonDiastatic, meaning the enzymes are killed during the processing of the syrup. The addition of the syrup adds food (sugar) for the yeast, flavor and enhances the Maillard reaction. Thus it can be used as a wash to enhance the color of a crust (for example it is often added to the water in which bagels are boiled before baking.)
Diastatic powders have the **active** enzymes that will help break down the starch molecules in the flour and add flavor as well as then sugars for the yeast. Too much diastatic powder will begin to adversely affect the gluten, however.
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The barley malt syrups (Eden brand for example) is NonDiastatic, meaning the enzymes are killed during the processing of the syrup. The addition of the syrup adds food (sugar) for the yeast, flavor and enhances the Maillard reaction. Thus it can be used as a wash to enhance the color of a crust (for example it is often added to the water in which bagels are boiled before baking.)
Diastatic powders have the **active** enzymes that will help break down the starch molecules in the flour and add flavor as well as then sugars for the yeast. Too much diastatic powder will begin to adversely affect the gluten, however.