In the savory world, there are plenty of ways to amplify the
flavor of foods with ingredients sometimes called "umami bombs" -
things like Parmesan cheese, anchovies, and fish sauce. No one has
ever really called any ingredient a "umami bomb" on the pastry side
of things, at least not until now. Stella Parks, aka The Brave
Tart, says there is one such ingredient: malted milk powder.
Commonly sold under the Carnation and Horlicks brands, malted
milk powder is made of wheat flour, malted barley extract, powdered
milk, salt, and baking soda. The combination of "concentrated
grain extracts gives malted milk powder a roasted, toasty, earthy
flavor, while the powdered milk adds a bit of creamy richness,"
Parks notes. She says it can lend butterscotch or toffee notes to
baked goods.
Don't confuse malted milk powder with other common baking
ingredients like diastatic or non-diastatic malt powder. The
enzymes in the former can cause problems with yeasted doughs, while
the latter doesn't have the same blend of ingredients and can upset
the balance of sugar in a recipe.
Parks suggests using it to taste in your
favorite cookie doughs, cake batters, ice creams, and
custards. Note that the milky notes will increase once the product
is heated. The EYB Library has many recipes to get you started with
this "umami bomb" for pastry, including these Member
favorites:
Campfire delight cupcakes with malted Belgian chocolate frosting
& toasted marshmallow filling from Sweetapolita
Cocoa-buttermilk
birthday cake from Baking: From My Home
to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
Chewy malted milk chocolate cookies from Serious Eats (pictured
top)
Malt
ball and peanut crunch semifreddo from See You in the
Morning by Matt Lewis and Renato
Poliafito and Christina Tosi
Malted-milk
crèmes brûlées from Martha Stewart Living
Magazine