When examined after boiling the starch granules are seen to have broken up, a small part remaining in the liquid as minute insoluble particles.
In this condition starch is very susceptible to the action of the bodies known as ferments.
Bearing this in mind, this same change takes place in the process employed in the manufacture of corn flakes, that is, the crude starch granules have become completely gelatinized.
The value of gelatinized starch as formed in corn flakes, especially when used in connection with a small quantity of malt extract or malt flour, is not sufficiently understood by many bakers, and it is hoped that these few remarks will make the matter clearer and be of interest to all bakers who are desirous to increase their knowledge in the works of their chosen vocation.
It has conclusively been shown in text-books, that cooked starch, i. e., corn flakes, are more susceptible to “saccharification,” that is, sugar is sometimes called saccharum or saccharine matter, hence the term which is applied to this change that the starch thus undergoes. This conversion is due to the ferment known as diastase found in malt and has the power to convert the gelatinized starches of the corn flakes into maltose. Maltose, on the other hand, is changed by the ferment zymose, contained in yeast, into glucose.
This body is of interest to the baker as being the ultimate form to which all sugars are changed, and in this state is readily broken down into carbonic acid gas and alcohol, which causes doughs to rise. It follows then that corn flakes are a very valuable article to the baker on account of its gelatinized starch, its low cost, absolute sterility, its purity, and, above all, its great moisture-absorbing qualities.
Its use in connection with malt may eliminate the use of cane sugar entirely, and still furnish all the saccharine necessary to give bread the desired sweet flavor and taste. In order to make this clear, the result of the following experiments will corroborate the above statement. After the bread was baked and dried and ground the quantities of reducing sugar were determined by chemical test:
No. 1—100 gm. flour, 58 c. c. water, 2.5 gm. cane sugar gave 5.5 gm. saccharine.
No. 2—100 gm. flour, 56 c. c. water, no cane sugar, gave 3.9 gm. saccharine.
No. 3—100 gm. flour, 62 c. c. water, .125 gm. malt, 3 gm. corn flakes, gave 5.4 gm. saccharine.