Gluten-Free Malt Loaf

GF Malt Loaf sliced on a wooden board. Once slice spread with butter.

5 from 3 votes

You will love this Gluten-Free Malt Loaf which has all the familiar hallmarks of your favourite dark treacly loaf but is made without malt extract and without xanthan gum. Sticky, a little chewy, intense with fruit and bags of malty flavour.

Prep Time20

Cook Time45

Total Time1 5

Course: Cake

Cuisine: British

Servings: slices

Calories: 247kcal

Author: Georgina Hartley

Ingredients

120 ml whole milk
100 ml tea hot and freshly brewed
150 g medjool dates about 8, pitted and diced
80 g black treacle
75 g sultanas
40 g dark brown muscovado sugar
1 banana mashed
150 g sweet rice flour glutinous rice flour
80 g sorghum flour
70 g teff flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 egg medium, 60g
2 tablespoons apricot jam warmed through in a saucepan

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Pour the milk and hot tea into a large measuring jug and add the dates, making sure they are fully submerged. Set aside for 15 minutes.
Blend the date mixture until smooth using an immersion blender.
Pre-heat the oven to 170°C / 150°C fan assisted oven / gas mark 4 and line and grease a 9 inch loaf tin.
Pour the treacle, sugar and sultanas into a small saucepan and heat until the sugar has melted into the treacle.
Turn off the heat then add to the blended date mixture along with the mashed banana, stirring well to combine.
Whisk the flours together in a large mixing bowl with the bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt.
Make a well in the centre of the flours and whisk in the egg and the date/sugar/banana mixture.
Bring the flours into the liquid ingredients then stir everything together until completely combined.
Pour the mixture into the baking tin and bake for 45 minutes, or until an inserted metal skewer comes out clean.
Remove from the oven, turn out of the tin and cool on a wire rack.
When the loaf is at room temperature, brush the surface liberally with the warmed apricot jam then wrap in greaseproof paper and store in an airtight container. Leave the loaf to mature for at least 24 hours before serving so the loaf gets lovely and sticky.

Video

Notes

Ingredient Substitutions

Gluten-free flours. I do not recommend swapping any of the flours in this recipe if you can as they have been carefully chosen for the right texture and consistency. If you have issues of availability then the teff flour or the sorghum flour can be replaced with oat flour but you will lose some of the malty flavour.
Whole milk. For a dairy-free version you can swap for a plant based alternative. Oat milk, cashew milk or almond milk are the best choices.
Egg. This recipe has not been tested with an egg substitute.

Baking Tips

Brewing the tea. Weigh out 100ml of just-boiled water and add your black tea bag. Brew the tea bag in the water for 2 minutes before removing the bag.
If you don’t have a blender, you can use a food processor to mix the date mixture. Alternatively, you can diced the dates up very small before you soak them in the hot tea and milk and avoid blending entirely.
Always sift your dark brown muscovado sugar as it has a tendency to clump and won’t mix well with the other ingredients.

Freeze

This Malt Loaf freezes very well. You can freeze the whole loaf or in slices for up to 2 months. Make sure it is well wrapped. Wrap the slices individually in cling film. Each slice can be defrosted by warming through in the toaster for a couple of minutes.

Ingredient measurements

Please note that the US customary measurements for the ingredients provided are based on a conversion calculator. This recipe was tested with metric measurements and I recommend using a digital scale to weigh ingredients for the most accurate results.

Nutrition Information

Please note that the nutrition information provided below is an estimate based on an online nutrition calculator. It will vary based on the specific ingredients you use. Please seek a professional nutritionist’s advice for further clarification. The nutrition serving is for 1 slice of the loaf, assuming the loaf is cut into 10 slices.

Nutrition