Recipe of Malt with egg

Ingredients

• 400 ml ice-cold non-alcoholic malt beverage (one 500 ml bottle; a dark malt soda such as Malta Morenita)
• 100 ml of the same malt at room temperature, to start the blend
• 1 whole fresh egg (yolk and white), with an intact shell
• 2 tablespoons sugar (25 g) or 2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk (40 g)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch fine salt (less than 1 g)
• 4 ice cubes (about 60 g), optional
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, to serve
• 1 tall 500 ml glass, chilled in the freezer for 5 minutes
• Optional, for a thicker texture: 1 extra egg or 100 ml ice-cold evaporated milk

Directions

1. 1

   Chill the malt: 2 hours in the fridge or 10 minutes in a bowl of ice water. Warm malt loses its fizz at once and the drink turns flat and cloying.

2. 2

   Wash the egg under running water before cracking it: salmonella travels on the shell, so it is cleaned there, not when the egg is opened.

3. 3

   Put the glass in the freezer for 5 minutes, no longer: a deep-chilled glass can crack when the liquid goes in.

4. 4

   Put the egg, the sugar or condensed milk, the vanilla, the pinch of salt and the 100 ml of room-temperature malt into the blender jug.

5. 5

   Blend for 20 seconds on medium speed until the mixture lightens and foams; if the egg came straight from the fridge, give it 10 seconds more.

6. 6

   Turn the speed to its lowest setting and pour the 400 ml of cold malt in a thin stream through the lid opening, never all at once: that keeps the gas in and the foam up.

7. 7

   Blend 5 more seconds and stop: over-blending warms the mix, knocks the foam down and starts to curdle the egg.

8. 8

   Taste and adjust the sweetness with a spoon, not the blender: if it is too sweet, loosen it with 50 ml more cold malt.

9. 9

   Serve at once in the chilled glass, with 2 ice cubes if you like, and dust the cinnamon on top just before drinking.

10. 10

    Drink it within 10 minutes: after that the fizz is gone and, because it contains raw egg, it will not keep.

11. 11

    No blender? Beat the egg with the sugar in a jar with a lid and shake it with the malt for 40 seconds; less foamy, but it works.

12. 12

    For pregnant women, small children, older adults or anyone immunocompromised, make the same recipe with liquid pasteurised egg.