Malted Chocolate Biscuit Loaf
An odd post for me, but... as requested...
Malted Chocolate Biscuit Loaf
For some family reason that has yet to be fathomed, I always make this for Easter...
This is quite exceptionally sweet, so not to everyone's taste - but kids usually love it, as do adults if you can persuade them to indulge. :)
It's not a cake, but biscuit based, so there's no baking involved (unless you want/need to make your own biscuits).
Update!
Right, I've made this years cake - so I'll add a picture of it. The decorations are standing on little green fondant petals, and the base edge is trimmed with yellow/green fondant leaves. The chicken models we've had for years...
Ingredients
Loaf
175g (7oz) rich tea biscuits [see notes]
100g (4oz) glace cherries
4x15ml (4tbsp) golden syrup [light corn syrup will do]
75g (3oz) margarine
4x15ml (4tbsp) malted chocolate drink powder [Ovaltine, or Milo, or 3tbsp Horlicks + 1tbsp cocoa powder]
Icing
100g (4oz) plain chocolate-flavour cake covering [see notes]
50g (2oz) margarine
1 egg (medium)
150g (6oz) icing sugar [confectioner's sugar]
diamond-shaped sugar jellies
Method
1. Line the long sides and base of a 1lb loaf tin with a length of foil, overlapping each rim by 5cm (2in). Grease foil and tin.
2. Place biscuits in a food bag, or between two sheets of greaseproof paper, and roll gently with a rolling pin until well broken, not crushed (I find small pieces make the loaf easier to cut). Chop glace cherries into quarters.
3. Measure golden syrup carefully, levelling off spoon with a knife and scraping excess from underside of spoon. Place in a saucepan with margarine. Heat gently until margarine melts, remove pan from heat and stir in malted chocolate quickly.
4. Add biscuits and cherries, stir until well mixed. Place in loaf tin, pressing down with a back of a metal spoon to level the top. Bring foil over to cover the top and chill until set (best to leave it at least 1/2 day).
5. To make the icing; break up chocolate and place in a basin with margarine over a saucepan of hot, but not boiling, water. Stir occasionally until melted. ightly beat the egg, and beat it quickly in to the chocolate mixture. Remove basin from saucepan - don't allow the egg to cook at all.
6. Sift icing [confectioner's] sugar and gradually beat into chocolate mixture (use an electric whisk). Beat well. Leave to cool until icing begins to thicken. Place a rounded tablespoon into a piping tube with a star-shaped nozzle.
7. Fold back foil and invert cake on to a serving plate. Spread main bulk of icing over top and sides of cake using a small palette knife to cover evenly. Pipe a row of stars around the top.
8. Arrange diamond jelly shapes along the top, one in each icing star.
9. Leave to set.
Notes
a) If you can't get plain cake covering, which is often a lot sweeter than pure dark chocolate, then use pure dark chocolate and add a tablespoon of golden syrup to the icing, then possibly add some more sifted icing sugar to the icing - taste it to get it to how sweet you like it.
b) As with all recipes, follow one set of measurements only. Don't mix imperial and metric measurements, that won't work well.
c) As I can't use malted chocolate drinks anymore, I'm planning on replacing the 4tbsp of that powder with 1 1/2 tbsp of cocoa, and replacing 1tbsp of golden syrup with 2tbsp of malt extract - crushing some of the biscuits to powder to compensate for the lack of powder. Also, you could use 3tbsp hot chocolate powder and add 2tbsp of malt extract in place of 1tbsp syrup.
d) The egg in the icing keeps it soft and silky, if you don't want uncooked egg in your icing then it can probably be omitted (especially if you've put some golden syrup in the icing, as above), probably best to add 1 tbsp of milk to the chocolate mixture to make up for the lost liquid.
e) It's essentially a soft chocolate fudge icing, and you could conceivably buy pre-made fudge frosting to top the loaf.
f) Rich Tea Biscuits seem to be peculiar to Britain, judging by the number of ex-patriot websites that stock them they must be hard to get in the US. They are a type of dry, slightly malted biscuit (cookie) - it is possible to make your own, if anyone needs that [like anyone is going to make this] - I'll post it. Does anyone know of an american equivilent that'd work?
Malted Chocolate Biscuit Loaf
For some family reason that has yet to be fathomed, I always make this for Easter...
This is quite exceptionally sweet, so not to everyone's taste - but kids usually love it, as do adults if you can persuade them to indulge. :)
It's not a cake, but biscuit based, so there's no baking involved (unless you want/need to make your own biscuits).
Update!
Right, I've made this years cake - so I'll add a picture of it. The decorations are standing on little green fondant petals, and the base edge is trimmed with yellow/green fondant leaves. The chicken models we've had for years...
Ingredients
Loaf
175g (7oz) rich tea biscuits [see notes]
100g (4oz) glace cherries
4x15ml (4tbsp) golden syrup [light corn syrup will do]
75g (3oz) margarine
4x15ml (4tbsp) malted chocolate drink powder [Ovaltine, or Milo, or 3tbsp Horlicks + 1tbsp cocoa powder]
Icing
100g (4oz) plain chocolate-flavour cake covering [see notes]
50g (2oz) margarine
1 egg (medium)
150g (6oz) icing sugar [confectioner's sugar]
diamond-shaped sugar jellies
Method
1. Line the long sides and base of a 1lb loaf tin with a length of foil, overlapping each rim by 5cm (2in). Grease foil and tin.
2. Place biscuits in a food bag, or between two sheets of greaseproof paper, and roll gently with a rolling pin until well broken, not crushed (I find small pieces make the loaf easier to cut). Chop glace cherries into quarters.
3. Measure golden syrup carefully, levelling off spoon with a knife and scraping excess from underside of spoon. Place in a saucepan with margarine. Heat gently until margarine melts, remove pan from heat and stir in malted chocolate quickly.
4. Add biscuits and cherries, stir until well mixed. Place in loaf tin, pressing down with a back of a metal spoon to level the top. Bring foil over to cover the top and chill until set (best to leave it at least 1/2 day).
5. To make the icing; break up chocolate and place in a basin with margarine over a saucepan of hot, but not boiling, water. Stir occasionally until melted. ightly beat the egg, and beat it quickly in to the chocolate mixture. Remove basin from saucepan - don't allow the egg to cook at all.
6. Sift icing [confectioner's] sugar and gradually beat into chocolate mixture (use an electric whisk). Beat well. Leave to cool until icing begins to thicken. Place a rounded tablespoon into a piping tube with a star-shaped nozzle.
7. Fold back foil and invert cake on to a serving plate. Spread main bulk of icing over top and sides of cake using a small palette knife to cover evenly. Pipe a row of stars around the top.
8. Arrange diamond jelly shapes along the top, one in each icing star.
9. Leave to set.
Notes
a) If you can't get plain cake covering, which is often a lot sweeter than pure dark chocolate, then use pure dark chocolate and add a tablespoon of golden syrup to the icing, then possibly add some more sifted icing sugar to the icing - taste it to get it to how sweet you like it.
b) As with all recipes, follow one set of measurements only. Don't mix imperial and metric measurements, that won't work well.
c) As I can't use malted chocolate drinks anymore, I'm planning on replacing the 4tbsp of that powder with 1 1/2 tbsp of cocoa, and replacing 1tbsp of golden syrup with 2tbsp of malt extract - crushing some of the biscuits to powder to compensate for the lack of powder. Also, you could use 3tbsp hot chocolate powder and add 2tbsp of malt extract in place of 1tbsp syrup.
d) The egg in the icing keeps it soft and silky, if you don't want uncooked egg in your icing then it can probably be omitted (especially if you've put some golden syrup in the icing, as above), probably best to add 1 tbsp of milk to the chocolate mixture to make up for the lost liquid.
e) It's essentially a soft chocolate fudge icing, and you could conceivably buy pre-made fudge frosting to top the loaf.
f) Rich Tea Biscuits seem to be peculiar to Britain, judging by the number of ex-patriot websites that stock them they must be hard to get in the US. They are a type of dry, slightly malted biscuit (cookie) - it is possible to make your own, if anyone needs that [like anyone is going to make this] - I'll post it. Does anyone know of an american equivilent that'd work?
Baby, fix me one more drink and hug your daddy one more time.
Baby, fix me one more drink and hug your daddy one more time.
Keep on stirring my malted milk, mama, until I change my mind.
--Malted Milk, Eric Clapton
posted by Orbling at
02:59
32 Comments:
I knew it felt wrong to right patriot... ;)
Good to know that they have some availability though. :)
I assume malt extract is available?
By
Orbling, at Thursday, March 24, 2005 3:54:00 am
Cheers Eion. :)
Not quite sure how I'd function without you.
By
Orbling, at Thursday, March 24, 2005 4:10:00 am
Yep, Mr Clapton certainly rocks.
Hmm, that's annoying about the biscuits - I do have a recipe for them in a book, could list it if necessary. Digestives wouldn't work with this recipe, it'd have to be quite a plain, smooth, crisp affair... :S
By
Orbling, at Friday, March 25, 2005 1:36:00 am
Well that's approximately it for the loaf part of the recipe. It's just making up some sticky goo (syrup, margarine, chocolate malt powder) and stirring the biscuits and cherries in, then packing it in tight to a tin and chilling it. Then you ice it with special fudge icing.
By
Orbling, at Friday, March 25, 2005 3:49:00 am
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
By
KC, at Friday, March 25, 2005 10:57:00 am
Attempt # 2 ... Where Stacey learns how to spell correctly in the wee hours of the morning ...
Hmmmm ... The only special icing I've ever heard about was used for ... um, never mind that. Way too early to go into the details of that one.
;)
By
KC, at Friday, March 25, 2005 11:00:00 am
Oh this special icing is so much better than that.... ;)
This recipe does not require the oven at all Steph, just the hobs [burners?], some mixing bowls, a tin and a fridge - maybe a rolling pin for good luck. You'd be able to do it - it's something that you can get kids to do (*hint @ Stacey*) with hardly any supervision. Plus it's yummy. :)
As for the Orthodox Easter, I should've mentioned that on my Ostara post.
In October 1582, the Gregorian calendar was introduced in Europe, replacing the old Julian calendar, in order that our calendar would stay more constant with the seasons and with the years (it had more months, leap years, etc..).
When this happened, the system for calculating Easter was also updated to position the holiday more accurately within the new calendar - the idea being to make it the Sunday after the paschal full moon (which is the ecclesiastical full moon after the vernal equinox, or at least the vernal equinox of 325AD when the Julian paschal full moon tables were devised).
The Orthodox churches still used the old Julian calendars, so split away from the western european churches on this matter.
When the Gregorian calendar was introduced, it was necessary to align the current date with where the earth currently was - so we had a lot of anti-leap days all at once. You know we have a leap day once every 4 years (sort of), in order to catch up, as every year is roughly 365.25 days long? Well, when the new calendar came in we were 10 days behind where we should've been for the vernal equinox to occur on the 20th March (which is when the church said it should occur) - so they removed 5th to 14th October 1582 - those dates never happened.
Although in some countries this correction happened later on, England adopted the Gregorian calendar in September 1752; America is a bit complicated, the French influenced areas adopted at the outset in 1582, the English areas changed in 1752.
Greece only dropped the Julian calendar in 1923 - and by that time the Orthodox churches were dead set on using the Julian dates for Easter. So they still do.
It is possible for those dates to fall on the same day, they did in 1990, but in general the Orthodox Easter is a few weeks after the other churches.
By
Orbling, at Saturday, March 26, 2005 3:49:00 am
Ummm ... Did you happen to notice just how long your recipe post was? You can't actually think I'm ready to make something as complicated as that, do you?
Just because there is no cooking involved doesn't mean the chance of disaster has lessened, especially were I to give KC the go ahead to do it! (My excuse, we have a small kitchen.)
Oh and by the way, I remember what that frosting I couldn't mention yesterday was called ... First word being recreational.
By
KC, at Saturday, March 26, 2005 2:37:00 pm
An honorary Greek. :)
Well there are a number of Greek families that have me round on occasion, though there are as many Turkish families that do the same - so I have to remain neutral. ;)
I'll make some Dolmades shortly to celebrate my new found greekness.
Stacey, the recipe may look long - but that is just because I'm such a horrific waffler. It could be summarised to:
Melt margarine and syrup in saucepan.
Stir ovaltine in to melted mixture.
Add broken biscuits and chopped cherries, mix well.
Pack tightly in to tin, refridgerate.
Cover in chocolate fudge icing.
Seriously, the main cake part is no different to rice crispy cakes, or cornflake cakes... Fozzy bear's chicken could make this...
One of my mates with no paitience at all, and no cooking skill at all, watched me make this today (excluding the decoration) - it took all of 10 minutes. He said he could do it...
KC could easily handle it, have faith. :)
Recreation normally leads to the dark side.
Oh, see that I updated this post with a picture of this year's finished article. :)
By
Orbling, at Sunday, March 27, 2005 6:48:00 am
Ahhh but "what is light without dark?"
(And what movie might that be quoted from?)
You outdid yourself with the second picture. It looks too good to eat.
:)
By
KC, at Sunday, March 27, 2005 10:45:00 pm
If you quoted that from Legend, you just went up a mile in my esteem. ;)
Darkness and Light are two sides of the same coin, how would we see one if there was no comparison to the other?
"In the beginning, it is always dark." -- Many bonus points for knowing this quote.
From the start there were no stars, no planets, just dust and darkness, lightless particles swirling in the depths. Over the years the individual pieces clung together in the cold, produced heat and thus small candles switched on in the void. As time marches on the lights grow brighter, more and more shining beacons in the night. Eventually, when the universe is old, the light will radiate in to all recesses and be all - only then will time's journey be complete and the light can be switched out once again.
That's how I see it anyhow.
Beautiful Love said that about the cake... As did my nan. Cakes have to be eaten, regardless of their appearence! ;)
As we had 6 people here for tea, it's more than half demolished (second helpings being nearly compulsory). Quite yummy, if I may say so myself. :$
By
Orbling, at Monday, March 28, 2005 3:38:00 am
You'll have to tell me whether or not Eion is correct in his guess. If he is, then I'm going to pretend that's how I answered rather than saying The Dark Crystal. (It's been ages since I've watched either so you'll have to forgive me.)
Nice call guessing Legend. That was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid. I love anything ethereal in quality. Maybe it's because I'm loved by the sun.
;)
As for this quote,
"Conan, what is best in life?"
"To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!"
Humph! Lamentation of women my *!@#!! Those are some fighting words ...
;)
By
KC, at Tuesday, March 29, 2005 3:47:00 am
Definitely the Neverending Story - very well done. One of the all time best ever films.
As is the Dark Crystal, both in my all time top 5.
Legend is safely within the top few as well, so feel free to quote from that whenever - I too love all things ethereal. ;)
Conan The Barbarian is a pretty reasonable film, but for utterly different reasons, very different type of film. Appeals to my heroes of might and magic fantasy mind. There are some good quotable lines in that film - I would not have chosen that though.
Lamentation of the women.... LOL, the rampant sexism of the film is the bit I try to ignore. I concur with Stacey.
Mind you that film did have a strong, valkyrie type lead female role, maybe that served to reduce the bias.
By
Orbling, at Tuesday, March 29, 2005 3:57:00 am
I think the problem was more the declaration that he thought the lamentation of women, after killing their partners, was one of the "best things in life"....
ie. enjoying their misery - not good!
By
Orbling, at Tuesday, March 29, 2005 5:39:00 am
"Plus, he's a frigging *barbarian*! He's not Conan the Sensitive Metrosexual Man About Town."
Just because one is a barbarian doesn't mean one must act like one. And it wouldn't have hurt to have made him a bit more sensitive. Not that that would have improved anything about this movie in my opinion. Must be the girl in me, I suppose. I'd rather watch paint dry than be subjected to this film (ever again) in this lifetime.
;) (Sorry boys.)
By
KC, at Tuesday, March 29, 2005 12:37:00 pm
Karl A Orbel of 2* leicester street?
wicked, can i come and visit sometime?
By
Andrew, at Tuesday, March 29, 2005 9:23:00 pm
And have to give up my romance novels, day long shopping sprees and chick flicks starring Colin Firth or Hugh Grant???
I think not ...
;)
By
KC, at Wednesday, March 30, 2005 1:58:00 am
Dude! You have a stalker! :-)
(there is a reason I don't usually post comments on your blog. I can never think of anything remotely intelligent to say)
By
Grover, at Wednesday, March 30, 2005 2:31:00 am
how come my loaf looks so so so different from yours?=P
hahaa
By
Desolation, at Wednesday, March 30, 2005 3:07:00 am
lol i was on the BT website for my dad and it had the people search button and i typed in orbell/barnet and karl came up, theres only 1 orbell family in barnet...none in my town either :P
By
Andrew, at Wednesday, March 30, 2005 9:51:00 am
I was just teasing. I don't really think you're a stalker. :-) It is frightening, though, just how much info you can dig up on the internet on somebody.
Somebody once had me google a prospective boyfriend, and armed only with his name and address, I found that he had a clean police record, he was still married (said he wasn't), and even pulled up an aerial photo of his house. I gave myself the heebie-jeebies doing that.
By
Grover, at Thursday, March 31, 2005 12:30:00 am
Stacey, you wouldn't have to give up all that stuff - I go see those sort of films, and still manage to see the "grr, argh" type of films too. ;)
Grover, you don't have to worry about intelligent commenting, firstly because you can easily manage it, and secondly because comments certainly don't have to be of an intellectual variety. This was a post about a cake/dessert! LOL ;)
Desolation, do send me a photo - bet it tasted great though. ;)
I've never been secretive about where I live, or who I am. My proper name has always been on this log, and many other places on the net, and I've discussed my immediate area and mentioned what road I live on many a time in the past. I fully understand others taking care of that information, but personally I'm not a high risk category for stalkers and such-like. If people want to give me grief, then so be it - the benefits of being genuine outweigh that. :)
By
Orbling, at Thursday, March 31, 2005 4:04:00 am
It's a very nice borough, at least in parts. This vacinity has plenty of trees, woods and parks, and fewer ghetto fools than is standard for a city suburb.
Elitist rich person, grumble, grumble... :p
By
Orbling, at Thursday, March 31, 2005 4:53:00 am
Well the nice thing about living in such an area as this, is that trips to "urban destinations" involve travelling past lots of greenery. Less than I'd like though, although I keep getting txted to go for a walk in the woods soon, which will be lovely. :)
Impoverished student my butt... you eat out all the time, and how big is that projector screen of yours? ;)
By
Orbling, at Thursday, March 31, 2005 6:42:00 am
Karl do u mind if i turn up to your house with my friends?
By
Andrew, at Thursday, March 31, 2005 9:37:00 am
Maybe you need to rethink that posting of your personal whereabouts again ...
;)
By
KC, at Thursday, March 31, 2005 10:59:00 am
lol imagine me turning up on Karls doorstep lol, and your mum answers...who are you?
"im one of karls bird watching friends"
"but why are you carrying a cricket bat?"
"um.."
By
Andrew, at Thursday, March 31, 2005 12:07:00 pm
Jesus Christ, honestly Eion, you've never even been to the borough, it's one of the most affluent, well-educated and pleasent boroughs in the city...
You just hate it because I live there and you like to wind me up! ;)
I'd rather not have any uninvited callers Andrew, especially not wielding cricket bats. :p
We all give out a surprisingly large amount of information about ourselves online, most of us would be trackable if anyone could be bothered to do so. It's just common courtesy not to.
Anyhow Stacey, too late to reverse such decisions. Information disclosure is one-way.
By
Orbling, at Friday, April 01, 2005 2:44:00 am
Well in that case, you ought to just spill more and put it all out there ...
;)
By
KC, at Sunday, April 03, 2005 7:05:00 pm
Well, whilst the appeal of having my entire worldly knowledge, experience and faults on display for all to see has its appeal; it would take far too long to catalogue and I'm pretty open anyhow.
People ask questions, they usually get answers.
By
Orbling, at Wednesday, April 06, 2005 2:41:00 am
What a wonderful looking cake, Karl. Well done.
A friend of mine from Oklahoma is visiting someone she met off Blogger who lives in London. Perhaps I'll travel with her and meet my dear friend Karl! What fun it would be to meet the people we know so much about!
I think Desolation should post a pic of their cake. :)
By
Texas Gurl, at Thursday, April 14, 2005 7:28:00 am
I agree with you on Desolation's cake - I definitely want to see a picture of it! ;)
It's amusing how people travel the world meeting friends from the ether. Two of my mates live permenantly with ladies they've met via the internet from overseas, one of which is happily married, the other probably will be shortly. One of my best mates has his Israeli girlfriend due to fly-in, in 3 hours. Not the first such trip, so I may well have to increase the previous count to 3 soon...
Such is the joy of modern technology.
By
Orbling, at Friday, April 15, 2005 4:57:00 am
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