Black goo

There are some English foodstuffs that simply don't translate to Continental Europe: HP sauce, decent teabags, and malt loaf. I love squidgy Soreen malt loaf, coated in a thick layer of butter, but rarely get to eat it now. So, it was time to turn to Delia and her recipe for sticky malt loaf.

First step: Buy some treacle and malt extract. The health food shops here in Amsterdam are fantastic, a veritable treasure trove of weird ingredients, like the afore-mentioned malt extract and treacle.



Step two: Whip up an odd, dark brown yeasted dough. The only sweetness comes from the treacle and some sultanas. Definitely odd. Then leave to rise for several hours.



Bake, then glaze with honey.



The end result? Pretty damn good. It's an almost savory fruit cake, which sounds unpleasant, but is actually rather addictive. And, as I discovered this morning, it gets squidgier the longer you leave it (if that's possible).