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.
The different quantities of water were increased to give dough equal viscosity.
It must be remembered, in making comparisons from this table, that the saccharine matter in the bread is produced in one instance, by the action of the diastase contained in the malt extract, in the other by the action of the enzymes in the flour upon the partial disrupted starch granules of the flour itself, and in the third instance by the cane sugar used.
The results obtained from these experiments are interesting and worthy of careful consideration, inasmuch as ⅛ gm. of malt with 3 gm. of corn flakes (perfectly gelatinized starch) produced practically as much saccharine matter as when 2½ gm. of cane sugar was used. In other words furnishes the bread sufficient saccharine matter at the least possible cost. In addition to this the corn flakes absorbed twice its weight of moisture in the dough, thereby increasing bulk, a decided gain to the baker.
For the sake of argument, it is admitted that the same chemical action takes place when using any other highly starchy product which has been cooked. Corn flakes, however, eliminates any necessity for previous boiling, since it is already prepared in its manufacture and is very sensitive to the attack of diastasic action.
It is also a fact that some of the starch in the flour, which has become disrupted during the milling, is gelatinized by the heat of the oven during baking, giving diastase opportunity to convert some of the starch into sugar. But since raw starch does not gelatinize until the temperature has reached 150 degrees F., which temperature is already higher than the most favorable one for diastasic action, and the intervening time during which the temperature of the baking is increased to 175 degrees F. (a killing temperature for diastase), is very short, a relatively small amount of the gelatinized starch is converted and the baker therefore is compelled to add the more costly article, cane sugar, in order to produce the desired amount of saccharine matter in his bread. This fully explains the difference of saccharine matter found in experiments No. 2 and No. 3.