Meridian Malt Loaf

First attempt at home-made malt loaf

Firstly, thanks to Meridian for sending me lots of tasty products to try. I’ve been a fan of their peanut butter (with no added sugar or salt!) for a while so was keen to test out other products in their range.

This malt loaf recipe is adapted from one I found online and includes Meridian Barley Malt Extract. Barley malt extract is a natural sweetener and is found in healthy muesli options such as the ‘no added sugar’ version of Alpen. This recipe does use extra sugar, but there’s no added fat and I used wholemeal flour instead of white flour so overall, it’s pretty healthy.

Ingredients

175g    Meridian Barley Malt Extract

85g      dark muscovado sugar

300g    mixed dried fruit

150ml  tea

2         eggs

250g    plain wholemeal flour

1 tsp    baking powder

½ tsp   bicarbonate of soda

This recipe is really simple: preheat the oven to 130°C; mix together all the ingredients in the order above; pour into a lined loaf tin; bake for 50mins. The malt loaf tastes good by itself or with a bit of jam on it. 

My Moroccan Adventure

Well that was an experience and not one I’d like to repeat in the near future.

On Thursday I travelled to Tangier, Morocco to compete in the Larache ITU Sprint Triathlon African Cup on Saturday my first international triathlon. The general theme of the weekend was waiting: waiting for my transfer to the hotel (2.5 hours); waiting for my bike (12 hours); waiting for accreditation (1 hour); waiting for race briefing (1 hour); waiting for race start (1.5 hours); waiting for my bag (30 mins); waiting for my transfer to the airport (50 mins) and finally, waiting for my flight home (6 hours). It seems the Moroccan minute is quite different to a UK minute.

Anyhow, eventually my bike did turn up, at 23.15 the night before the race. And when the race finally started, it was a great course- nice warm sea to swim in, a few waves, hilly bike and hilly run. I came 11^th out of 16 finishers. I was disappointed with my result but it wasn’t a complete disaster, I learnt a lot that I’ll take into future races. Other positives of the trip were: a cafe selling ideal pre-race pasta; friendly locals (sometimes a bit too friendly); and a bit of sunshine (unfortunate tan lines to prove it)! 

Three weeks now until my next race, Blenheim Triathlon, on the 9^th June. It was one of my favourite triathlons last year, so I'm looking forward to doing it again.

Race results here