All Roads Lead to the Kitchen: malt

The smell of this bread baking envelopes the kitchen in a warm, heady smell that, for me, conjured up memories of touring breweries and distilleries in Ireland. In two words, it smelled magical and comforting. My daughter said it smelled like bittersweet chocolate. I'm sure it was the combination of thick, rich Guinness and malt in the form of barley malt syrup and malted wheat flakes. This is definitely not your granny's beer bread.

With pleasantly chewy texture and notes of rich, malty chocolate, it's not for those with wimpy tastebuds. If you tend towards dark stouts and porters, dark chocolate, and dark coffee, I bet you'll fall head over heals for it like I did, though. I'm putting myself out there when I say basically, this is THE BEST beer bread I've ever eaten. Bold words for a bold bread.

I actually made this loaf almost five months ago, but I'm just now getting around to sharing it with you. I was waiting for the right time, and since I'm hosting this month's edition of #TwelveLoaves, I decided that time was now; I chose Malt as our theme.

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Malted Milkshakes {#IceCreamWeek} | www.girlichef.com

Chocolate Malts have been my favorite milkshake since the beginning of (my) time. To this day, one of my favorite meals consists of 50's-style diner food. As in, those super-thin, super-wide double cheeseburgers stacked on a buttery bun in a basket with shoestring fries, and alongside, a chocolate malt taller than the metal napkin dispenser sitting next to it on the table.

The absolute best places to get a meal like this are the old 50's diner-style restaurants, complete with red leather booths, black and white checkered floors, and mini-jukeboxes at your table.

We used to have a couple of them in the area when I was in high school. One particular high school boyfriend-slash-best-friend and I used to ALWAYS drive to one the next town over. I'm pretty sure it was called Sh-booms (Shabooms? I don't remember). I have no idea what happened to it. It must have disappeared sometime when I was away for college, because I don't remember seeing it since we went so many years ago. I would order the exact same thing every single time we went (see above).

There was another one in the area (actually I think they had at least two locations) called Alley-Oops. Same diner-style, complete with personal jukeboxes filled with hits from the 50's. I remember the one in South Bend closing when they tore the mall down, since it was built off the side of the mall. Actually, the one a couple of towns over was built on their mall, as well. I think I took my oldest to eat a few times when he was still pretty tiny. And yes, I ordered the same thing every time. I don't think that one is around anymore either.

Sigh. The disappearance of Americana...

I'll admit, I order the equivalent at Steak 'n Shake. But it's not quite the same. I mean yes, it's good. Particularly the chocolate malts. I think it's just the ambiance that I'm missing.

So yes, I adore a good chocolate malt (and I even like a not-so-good one). Fortunately, so does my whole family. They tend to get other kinds when we go out, while I'm happily sucking on the straw stuck into my chocolate malt - but they are more than happy to clean out the blender when I make a big batch at home!

Warning: These malts may be addictive! And also, they may be fattening. Maybe.

Malted Milkshakes

by Heather Schmitt-Gonzalez

Prep Time: 30 minutes (mostly unattended)

Cook Time: n/a

Keywords: beverage dessert low-sodium nut-free soy-free vegetarian dairy milk frozen ice-cream American summer

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 cup whole milk, divided
3 heaping tablespoons Malted Milk powder
3 heaping tablespoons Chocolate Malted Milk powder
1 quart vanilla ice cream, divided
malted milk balls, to garnish

Instructions

Place 1/2 cup of the milk into a blender with 3 tablespoons of malt powder; blend until powder is dissolved. Add 1 cup of the ice cream and blend until smooth. Add another cup, a little at a time, until it is smooth.

Pour two glasses halfway full with the vanilla malt, and pour the rest into a glass measuring cup. Place them all into the freezer for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, add the remaining 1/2 cup milk to the blender, along with the chocolate malt powder; blend until malt is dissolved. Add 1 cup of the ice cream and blend until smooth. Add the last cup, a little at a time, until it is smooth.

If you like, crush a few malted milk balls over the first layer of vanilla malt in the frozen glasses. Top off the 2 glasses with chocolate malt. Fill 2 empty glasses halfway with the remaining chocolate malt. Freeze everything for 10 minutes. Stir the vanilla malt that is left in the glass measuring cup, and then top off the 2 glasses that are halfway full with the chocolate malt (adding crushed malt balls in between, if you wish).

Serve garnished with a few more cut/crushed malted milk balls and enjoy immediately!

note:

Obviously, you don't have to make these two-toned if you don't want to. Make all vanilla or all chocolate (or go any flavor, using the plain malted milk powder).

adapted from Martha Stewart