Malt Loaf – The Great British Bake Off Technical Challenge Recipe

This is the short version of the Coffee and Walnut Battenberg recipe that the bakers had to follow in the first episode of the Season 12 of the Great British Bake Off. This is Prue’s recipe – the full loaf recipe can be found here, and the butter recipe can be found from here. The bakers are supposed to decorate the loaves with candied orange and ginger, however this is not included in the BBC recipe – but a variation of that one is here.

Some More Insights to the Challenge

The expectation here is to make a Malt Loaf served with homemade butter on the side. It should be rich and moist. The bakers were given 2 hours.

This time we hear some lines from the recipe when the bakers read those out. We also see some glimpses of their instruction sheets but nothing legible. So some of the instructions in the recipe are again my own interpretation.

P.S. I haven’t added any pictures of the expected result for these challenge posts on purpose. It will be a lot more fun if someone finds the challenge and doesn’t know what the end result has to look like! For the list of all Technical Challenge recipes I’ve added so far, go see this post here.

If you decide to do this challenge – good luck! Don’t forget to share some pictures of your end result with me afterwards!

Preparation

You’ll need:

• 900g loaf tin
• muslin for the butter
• a (stand) mixer

Before starting…

1. Gather the ingredients
2. Set the timer to 2 hours.

On your marks, get set… BAKE!

MALT LOAF - THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF TECHNICAL CHALLENGE RECIPE

Cook Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours

This is the short version of the recipe that the bakers had to follow in the 1st episode's Technical Challenge in the Season 12 of the Great British Bake Off. 

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Ingredients

For the loaf

• 1 strong black tea bag
• 150 ml just-boiled water
• 200 g flame raisins
• 100 g soft, pitted prunes, finely chopped
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 150 g malt extract, plus extra for glazing
• 40 g black treacle
• 100 g dark muscovado sugar
• 250 g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

For the candied decoration

• 1 orange
• 1 ginger root
• 480 ml water
• 500 g granulated sugar

For the butter

• 400 ml double cream
• ¼ tsp fine salt

Instructions

1. Place the teabag in a jug and add the just-boiled water. Leave to brew, then discard the bag.
2. Tip the raisins and chopped prunes into a microwave-safe bowl. Cover with cling film and microwave on full power for 4 minutes. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda.
3. Pour the malt extract into a small pan with the treacle and sugar and cook until the sugar dissolves. Leave to cool for a few minutes.
4. Combine the ingredients to form the cake batter.
5. Pour the mixture into the lined tin and bake.
6. For candied decoration, cut the orange peel and ginger into strips. Add sugar and water into a pan, bring to boil until the peel is translucent and soft.
7. Make butter and let it chill.
8. Glaze the loaf and decorate with candied peels.

Did you try this recipe?

Share your experience down in the comments or let me know on Instagram!