RBL Cookbook Winner: Malt Loaf
In honour of the Royal British Legion’s centenary this year, and in line with the release of their veteran cookbook – ‘Cooking with Heroes: The Royal British Legion Centenary Cookbook’, Avery held a competition whereby residents were invited to share their favourite childhood food memories. Head Chef, Adam Haigh at Aire View Care Home in Leeds was a recipient of one of the prized cookbooks for his entry of reminiscence of a delicious malt loaf.
Talking about his childhood Adam said, “When I was younger, I would be fascinated by cooking and spending time in the kitchen with my Grandparents. I have fond memories of learning how to cook from my Grandad and how to make malt loaf, which is one of the first recipes I ever made growing up.
Every Sunday, I would assist him with making a fresh loaf using traditional methods by hand. I don’t think he would be too pleased if he knew that today I use a stand mixer and dough hook instead! When the loaf was cooked and cooled down, he would cut a huge wedge and smother it with loads of salted butter, served with a nice cup of tea.
To this day, 25 plus years later, I still use the exact same recipe and have prepared this for our residents, which got the thumbs up all around.”
If you would like to learn how to make Adam’s malt loaf, then follow the recipe below:
Ingredients
- 25g unsalted butter
- 1tbsp brown sugar
- 4tbsp malt extract
- 2tbsp black treacle
- 350g strong white flour
- 100g wholemeal flour
- 5g salt
- 2 packets fast action yeast
- 230g sultanas
- 250ml warm water with a teabag and strain the bag and get rid
Method
- Grease two 500g loaf tins for this recipe.
- Add butter, sugar, malt extract and treacle in a small pan over low heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved well and put aside to cool.
- Mix the two flours together in a bowl. Add Salt on one side and yeast on the other. Add the sultanas and then pour in the cooled mix from the pan and the warm water and bring them together until all well combined.
- Dust the work surface with flour and knead the dough for 3-4 minutes. Then divide the dough into two equal sizes and roll to a sausage shape, the length of the prepared tin. Place each tin into a large bag so the bag won’t touch the dough and tie at the top to prove for 2 hours until the dough has risen above the tins. (You can also cover with lightly oiled cling film loosely)
- Preheat the oven to 165°c and bake on the middle shelf for about 35 minutes.
- Be careful when taking the loaf tins out of the oven, and brush with a little more malt extract.
- Once cooled, slice and serve with proper butter!
For more winning cookbook entries, visit our news page here.
