A thick, dark syrup made from sprouted barley, roughly half as sweet as sugar and heavy with maltose. It is the traditional syrup in bagel boiling water.
What it does in a recipe: Malty flavour, deep crust colour and fermentable sugar that yeast works on faster than it does sucrose. Pick the swap that covers that job — the ratios below are written so you can act on them without doing any arithmetic.
Also called: Malt syrup, Malt extract
4substitutes
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Sweetenerscategory
Quick answer
Brown rice syrup
1 cup barley malt syrup = 1 cup brown rice syrup
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4 ways to replace barley malt syrup
Brown rice syrup
Closest match
1 cup barley malt syrup = 1 cup brown rice syrup
Another maltose-rich grain syrup of similar thickness and similar low sweetness, so both the browning and the yeast behaviour stay close.
Trade-offMilder and paler, without the roasted malt note. Bagel crusts brown a little less deeply.
Allergen checkThis is the usual choice when barley's gluten is the problem, but some brown rice syrups are produced using barley-derived enzymes and are not certified gluten-free. Check for an explicit gluten-free certification on the jar, and for coeliac disease confirm the brand rather than trusting the ingredient name.
Honey
In a pinch
1 cup barley malt syrup = 3/4 cup honey
Honey is close to twice as sweet as malt syrup, so three quarters of the volume lands near the same perceived sweetness while keeping a syrup's moisture.
MethodIn bagel or pretzel boiling water, honey works one-for-one by volume — precision there matters far less than in a dough.
Trade-offFloral rather than malty, and it browns faster, so crusts can darken before the crumb is done. Not vegan.
1 cup barley malt syrup = 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar + 1/4 cup water
It rebuilds a dark syrup of roughly the right consistency, with molasses supplying some of the colour that malt would have given the crust.
MethodWarm and stir until fully dissolved. In a boiling bath for bagels you can skip the water and add the sugar straight to the pot.
Trade-offSweeter and without any malt character, so bagels taste like plain bread rolls. Sucrose also ferments differently from maltose, which changes the crumb slightly.
Barley malt syrup contains gluten and is not safe for anyone with coeliac disease. So are malt extract and most malt powders, whatever the rest of a recipe's ingredients suggest.
Cooking around an allergy? Diet tags here describe the ingredient itself, not any particular brand. Processed products change formulation without notice and shared production lines are common, so read the label on everything you use. A severe allergy is a medical matter — confirm with the manufacturer or your clinician rather than relying on a substitution chart.