Ovaltine substitutes

Ovaltine rebuilt from its actual components, since malted milk powder is malted barley extract with milk solids and Ovaltine is that plus cocoa and sugar.

Best for

hot Ovaltine drinks, malt milkshakes, Ovaltine cookies and brownies, malt buttercream and frosting

This is as close as it gets and it is close. The one real difference is sweetness: Ovaltine is heavily sugared while most malted milk powders are only mildly sweet, so taste your drink or batter and add sugar until it stops tasting thin. Sift the cocoa in, because cocoa and malt powder both clump on contact with cold milk. Brand names to look for on the shelf are Carnation Malted Milk and Horlicks, and either works here.

The Nestle malt-and-cocoa drink powder that fills the same role across Australia, Southeast Asia, West Africa and Latin America.

Best for

hot and iced chocolate malt drinks, milkshakes, baking and no-bake slices, sprinkling over ice cream

The same idea from a different manufacturer, so it works as a straight swap. It runs sweeter than Ovaltine and much more cocoa-forward, with the malt sitting behind the chocolate rather than leading it. Milo is also famously granular and does not dissolve completely, which is a feature in a Milo drink where the undissolved grains float on top, but it means an Ovaltine recipe made with Milo will have a slightly gritty finish. In baking that difference disappears entirely.

A malt-and-milk-solids drink powder with no cocoa in it, the British counterpart to Ovaltine's classic malt version.

Best for

hot malted milk drinks, malt milkshakes, malt loaf and malt cookies, bedtime drinks

For classic malt Ovaltine this is essentially interchangeable. For chocolate Ovaltine the difference is obvious: without cocoa the drink tastes creamy, biscuity and faintly savoury-sweet rather than chocolatey, which some people prefer and which is definitely not what a chocolate Ovaltine recipe intends. Add the cocoa and a little extra sugar. Horlicks is also thicker in the cup because of its higher milk-solids content, so a milkshake made with it comes out noticeably denser.

The easiest swap in most kitchens, delivering the chocolate and the sugar but none of the malt.

Best for

chocolate drinks, quick baking substitutions, chocolate frostings, children's drinks

Good if you only cared about a chocolate drink. The loss is specific and noticeable: malt supplies a toasted-grain, slightly savoury depth that makes Ovaltine taste less like candy and more like a malted milkshake, and cocoa mix has none of it, so the result is flatter and sweeter. There is nothing in an ordinary pantry that puts the malt back. If you happen to have malt vinegar in the house, do not try it; it is acid, not malt flavour, and it will ruin the drink.

Ovaltine's non-malt components assembled from scratch, for when there is no drink mix in the house at all.

Best for

hot chocolate, baking where Ovaltine was a flavour and sugar source, chocolate milk, chocolate frostings

This matches Ovaltine's dry bulk, its sweetness and its milky body, which means it behaves correctly in a batter or a frosting where those things affect texture. The flavour is straightforward chocolate milk. The dry milk powder is worth including rather than skipping, because it is what gives the drink that slightly rich, powdered-milk creaminess people associate with Ovaltine, and in baking it contributes the milk solids that keep a cookie chewy.

A last-resort route to real malt flavour, extracting it from the candy aisle rather than the baking aisle.

Best for

malt cookies and brownies, malt buttercream, milkshakes, cake toppings

Malted milk balls have a genuine malt centre, so this actually gets you the flavour Ovaltine was there for, which nothing else on this list except real malt powder does. The catch is that they are coated in chocolate, so you are adding cocoa butter and sugar along with the malt, which is why the butter reduction matters in a bake. They also refuse to grind to a true powder and go slightly pasty, so pulse rather than run the processor. Do not use this for a hot drink; the chocolate coating separates into a greasy film on top.