Ginger Malt Love
I bloody love malt loaf. I feel like it’s one of the only bready made things that I actually buy in the supermarket. I’ve got a trolley full of onions and assorted grains and maybe some milk and BAM a chunk of yellow Soreen appears in the fray. This is so much the case that I’d never really thought about trying to make one until this week. The idea just seemed to dawn on me like a Biblical dream.
The thing about malt loaf is that you need malt extract to make it. Malt extract is one of those tricksy ‘health’ ingredients that have to be tracked down, like rose water or vegetarian gelatin. It could be in Holland and Barratt if you’re lucky; or maybe some kind of big Waitrose; or somewhere that caters to environmentalists. Edinburgh’s Southside: yes; Glasgow’s Southside: not so much.
When I finally did track down a jar of maltatiousness it was in an American supermarket chain under the cunning disguise of ‘malt syrup’. Ha! I Should’ve thought of that one. I actually love the US obsession with different types of syrup. Go to a New York pancake house and (if you’re me) not only will you be offered a side order of an entire steak at 8 a.m., you’ll also get at least four syrup flavours to combine onto your breakfast. When I was in the freezer aisle of Walmart.in the Southern States a couple of summers ago I even came across a blueberry syrup pancake, wrapped around a sausage, on a stick. I almost bought it. Almost. Disturbing though these flavour combinations are, there is also a big part of me that finds them quite alluring. While I was dribbling my way through the syrups and various nut butters aisle (yes, it’s a whole aisle) of Glasgow’s very own American food empire, I found myself chucking a jar of stem ginger in syrup into the basket. Just like that Biblical dream, ginger malt loaf was suddenly born. It may not be a sweet sausage lolly, but it is a pretty tasty combo.
Ginger malt loaf
Ingredients
Butter for greasing
150ml hot black tea
125g malt extract
50g stem ginger syrup from ginger jar
85g dark muscovado sugar
200g mixed dried fruits
100g stem ginger, chopped up into little bits
2 eggs beaten
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Extra Stuff
Kettle/ pan and hob
Big bowl
Some loaf tins
Oven
Knife
Method
This recipe is based on a BBC malt loaf recipe that I gingerly varied. They suggest two 450g loaf tins but I used loads of tiny ones for portion sized loaves. As long as you leave a good rising space above the raw mixture (bit of a note to self there…) just fill up ‘em tins that you got and watch yo oven.
Make your tea and mix it with the syrups, ginger bits and fruit. If you wanna, leave it for a few hours for the fruit to soften up nicely. Grease your tin(s) and preheat the oven to 150c. Whisk in the sugar and eggs and then add the dry stuff. Pour into the tin(s) and bake until a knife comes out clean. Once cooled eat it sliced/torn up with butter. Or extra syrup.
We got rhubarb!!!
In this recipe I had to look in a dictionary for the main ingredients! In the end, nice concept for a bread, never heard of it though! I will look for the syrup in the health – bio shops!
I think the picture for this one is broken on the home page… definitely going to try this though, I think the love of maltloaf must be a familial trait. It is always my kayaking breakfast 🙂
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