Last night I was on call, I managed about 3 hours sleep, so once I finally got back home at 6, I caught up on Gossip Girl, waited for my alarm to go off, then thought it was probably time to go back to bed. I managed to sleep in until all of 10am…. then thought it was time for a spot of baking…..

You know when you buy a random ingredient, put it in the cupboard and forget about it… then rediscover it months later?

Oh yes, this is one of those.

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Malt Loaf Recipe – taken from Leiths Baking Bible by Susan Spaull and Fiona Burrell (NB. my version of the book is this one, but they’re about to re-release it here)

Ingredients

450g plain flour

30g baking powder (yes… that is what it says!)

55g soft dark brown sugar

170g dried dates, chopped

225g sultanas

55g butter

55g black treacle

115g malt extract

290ml milk

Method

Heat the oven to 180C/350F/ gas mark 4. Grease 2 675g/ 1 1/2 lb loaf tins and line the base of each with a piece of baking paper.

Sift the flour with the baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar, dates, and sultanas.

Melt the butter, add the treacle and malt extract and heat very gently until the mixture is runny. Add the milk and mix well.

Make a well in the flour mixture. Add the liquid ingredients and mix very well to get a smooth soft dough.

Spoon into the prepared tins.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 1- 1 1/2 hours, or until a sharp knife or skewer inserted into the centre of the loaves comes out clean.

Remove the loaves from the oven and allow to cool in the wins for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

note: the loaf came out quite crusty on the outside, I baked it for about 55 minutes… (and had reduced the temperature as it was looking almost done at about 40). I think it needs a touch less.

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I also managed a walk in the sunshine while my loaves were cooling (accompanied by the bag of joy).

I took a wander past the charity shops around the corner… leading to coming back with a couple of books and an old tea set, ready for a Jubilee party!