Tuesdays with Dorie BWJ: French Strawberry Cake
June 19, 2012 at 12:01 am | Posted in BWJ, cakes & tortes, groups, layer cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 24 CommentsTags: baking, cake, fruit
Flo Braker‘s French Strawberry Cake is the perfect thing for right now, right here. Strawberries are all over the NYC greenmarkets (and my CSA), so a summer strawberry cake of some sort was bound to be in order even if we hadn’t picked this for TWD.
This is a lovely simple cake…no fancy buttercreams or anything. Just some lightly sweetened whipped cream and mashed strawberries filling a whole egg sponge cake. The cake is called a genoise in the book, but it’s the only genoise I’ve ever made that doesn’t heat the eggs in the process. The recipe calls for making one tall cake and splitting it into three layers. I made just a half recipe and I thought my little six-inch cake really only needed to be cut into two. This type of sponge cake can be a little dry on its own, but the whipped cream and macerated berries add the moisture that is needed. I think it became even tastier the second day. I can see this being great with raspberry smoosh, too, if you are feeling more English than French (Victoria sponge, anyone)?.
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan or read Sophia’s, Sophia’s Sweets and Allison’s Sleep Love Think Dine. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWJ: Pecan Sticky Buns
May 15, 2012 at 12:01 am | Posted in breakfast things, BWJ, groups, sweet things, sweet yeast breads, tuesdays with dorie | 31 CommentsTags: baking, bread, breakfast
I’ve been getting a lot of practice making breakfast pastries lately. A couple of months ago, the owners of the shop I work for decided that we should open three hours earlier and have a menu of morning baked stuff. I now have to wake up basically in the middle of the night to walk to work and make this happen. I’m thinking about quitting soon….but you didn’t hear me say that, and you certainly didn’t come here for banal griping. You came for Nancy Silverton’s Pecan Sticky Buns!
It’s pretty much a given that sticky buns have a lot of butter in them, but this recipe uses a sh*t-ton of butter. There’s brioche dough..no, make that laminated brioche dough (unlike the other sticky buns we did about–yikes– four years ago)…and then there’s the sticky top part. The only component without butter is the pecan-cinnamon swirl inside. When everything’s tallied up, it comes to five sticks for a whole recipe!! My mind immediately went to work wondering where I could shave off a few tablespoons. First off, a whole recipe makes two 9-inch pans, or 14 buns, and I certainly didn’t need that many for the two of us. A quarter of a recipe would be fine…I knew I could squeeze four slightly smaller buns out of that and bake them in a 6-inch pan. I ultimately decided on making a half recipe of brioche dough, and only taking half of that to make buns with (I’m saving the other half for another project). I kept the full amount of butter in the dough itself. Best not to mess around with that. I used about two-thirds the butter called for in the laminating step and half for the topping. I don’t think I missed out too much…my buns were sweet and soft and flaky. I plan to experiment more with this laminated brioche thing later on…it’s a cool technique.
By the way brioche is a lovely dough to work with…if you can keep it cool enough while you shape it, that is. It’s so soft and nice to touch. And it rises beautifully.
It took me like an hour to figure out how to put two pics side-by-side in Photoshop, btw…wow.
I made my base dough on day one, parked it in the fridge overnight after its first rise, and finished off the laminating and rolling the next day. I did my dough in my stand mixer. Since I just made a half a batch, my KA had no problem cranking it out. It was really such a small about of dough, though, that I think even the whole recipe would have been just fine. Despite my earlier talk about breakfast pastries, my husband and I actually ate two of these sticky buns for dessert. After getting up so early for work now everyday, I can’t manage to get up early enough on the weekends to have buns proofed, baked and cooled before brekkie. The other two baked buns were wrapped up tight and stuck the freezer, to be defrosted and enjoyed properly one weekend morning with a cup of coffee.
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan or read Lynn’s Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat and Nicole’s Cookies on Friday. There’s also a video of Nancy and Julia making the buns together. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Rhubarb Cinnamon Polenta Cake
May 12, 2012 at 3:13 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, simple cakes, sweet things | 12 CommentsTags: baking, cake, fruit
May is a good time to be in New York City. People are happy to be out and about. It’s nice sleeping weather (our house doesn’t have A/C, so this is a big thing for me!). And there’s finally more at the greenmarket than tired ol’ potatoes and apples. About the same time I saw the first rhubarb here, my copy of Nigel Slater’s Tender, Volume 2 (called Ripe: A Cook in the Orchard in the US edition). I knew he’d have some good rhubarby ideas for me…this guy has a London city garden that puts my weedy Brooklyn backyard to utter shame. I’ll certainly never have a mini orchard like he does, but maybe one day I’ll have a couple of raised beds for a few homegrown herbs and things. Until then, I’ll have to tote my seasonal fruit and veg home from the market.
Slater’s Rhubarb Cinnamon Polenta Cake would be just as good for breakfast as it is for dessert. It’s made from more of a dough than a batter. The cake is a little crunchy from the cornmeal and perfectly moist, but sturdy enough to support the layer of baked rhubarb that makes a pink stripe in the center. I make a stove-top rhubarb compote a lot when it’s in season, but I kind of like the more hands-off baked method from this recipe, and I’d use it again even if it’s just for my morning granola. The rhubarb more or less keeps its shape when handled this way and you get to pour off the gorgeously pink liquid it releases. Even if I wasn’t going to serve it alongside the polenta cake, I wouldn’t think of pouring this down the drain. Hello, homemade rhubarb sodas, cocktails, yogurt or ice cream drizzle…I could go on.
Rhubarb Cinnamon Polenta Cake– makes an 8-inch cake
adapted from Tender, Volume 2 by Nigel Slater
Note: Use a medium to coarse cornmeal/polenta for the best texture. The cake is fragile when warm, so it’s best to serve it cool, together with the reserved juices from the cooked rhubarb.
for the filling
500g rhubarb
50g sugar
4 tbsp waterfor the cake
125g medium to coarse cornmeal/polenta
200g AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of ground cinnamon
150g sugar
grated zest of a small orange
150g butter
1 large egg
2-4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp demerara sugar
-Lightly butter am 8-inch (20-centimeter) loose-bottomed cake tin, preferably spring-form. Set the oven at 350°F (180°C/gas mark 4). Put in a baking sheet to get hot.
-While your oven is heating, trim the rhubarb, cut each stem into three or four pieces and put them in a baking dish. Scatter over the sugar, toss, and let everything sit until the oven is hot. Sprinkle over the water and bake for about 30 minutes until the rhubarb is soft but still retains its shape. Remove the fruit from the dish and put them in a colander to drain. Reserve the juice to serve with the cake.
-Put the cornmeal/polenta, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and caster sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Add the grated zest and the butter, cut into smallish pieces, then blitz for a few seconds till you have something that resembles breadcrumbs. (You could also do this by hand, rubbing the butter into the polenta with your fingertips as if making pastry.) Break the egg into a small bowl and mix with the milk, then blend into the crumble mix, either with the food processor or by hand. Take care not to over-mix: stop as soon as the ingredients and liquid have come together to form a soft, slightly stickydough. If it isn’t sticky, add a little more liquid.
-Press about two-thirds of the mixture into the cake tin, pushing it a couple of centimetres up the sides with a floured spoon. Place the drained rhubarb on top, leaving a small rim around the edge uncovered. Crumble lumps of the remaining polenta mixture over the fruit with your fingertips, and don’t worry if the rhubarb isn’t all covered. Scatter over the demerara sugar. Bake on the hot baking sheet for 45-50 minutes, then cool a little before attempting to remove from the tin. Serve in slices with the reserved rhubarb juice. You can wrap leftovers in plastic and refrigerate for a couple of days…just bring back to room temperature before serving.
Tuesdays with Dorie BWJ: Hungarian Shortbread
May 1, 2012 at 12:01 am | Posted in BWJ, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 20 CommentsTags: baking, cookies, dessert
Glad I didn’t have to wait very long for TWD to choose Gale Gand’s Hungarian Shortbread…this recipe has been calling to me since I bought Baking with Julia years ago (but I was rather painfully pretending I couldn’t hear because of all the butter). Shortbread dough with a homemade rhubarb jam layered in between– oh, come on. Actually, I didn’t find rhubarb at the greenmarket in my neighborhood the weekend I made these, so I used it as an excuse to help clear out the fridge and went with store-bought jam instead (I used Sarabeth’s Plum Cherry).
I made half of a recipe, which worked wonderfully in an 8-inch square metal cake pan (I prepped it with parchment first). The dough is pretty cinchy to layer in the pan because you freeze it and grate it….then just sprinkle the grated dough fluff right in and pat without really pressing much. I grated my dough the old-fashioned way, but I hear a food processor works great, too. I figured my store-bought jam would likely be sweeter than a homemade rhubarb one, so I cut back on the sugar in the shortbread just a tad to compensate. Then I added in a splash of vanilla and bumped up the salt with an extra pinch. I didn’t want the bottom layer to be rawsies (which can sometimes happen with multilayered bar cookies), so I decided to par bake the bottom crust before adding jam and top layers. Twenty minutes in the oven was enough to make the bottom layer look set but not browned, which was all I was going for.
I went to Budapest back in the nineties, but I didn’t have anything like this. I’m certain I would remember, because these are really delicious (so don’t feel bad at all if you want to skip the homemade filling and use jam from the shops). And they hold up very well refrigerated, as I can assure you, since it takes us days for the two of us to get through an 8-inch pan. In fact, I wound up freezing the last couple of pieces before my husband and I went out of town for our anniversary this past weekend (nine years– what?!?), and they were perfect after they defrosted to room temp…even the powdered sugar on top was still intact!
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan or read Lynette’s 1smallkitchen and Cher’s The Not So Exciting Adventures of a Dabbler… Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Tuesdays with Dorie BWJ: Meyer Lemon Loaf Cake
April 17, 2012 at 12:01 am | Posted in BWJ, cakes & tortes, groups, simple cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 32 CommentsTags: baking, cake, dessert
Wow–I went all last week without a post. Blah. But now it’s time for cake with TWD and Norman Love’s Lemon Loaf. I bought a few Meyer lemons at TJ’s a couple of months ago, and although I was too lazy to use them then, I did manage to zest and juice them and stash that stuff in the freezer for another time….a time like this!
I didn’t have any issues with this recipe. I did do a half recipe (although I think that with the particular pan I used, I actually should have done two-thirds or three-quarters to get taller slices). It’s a pretty easy recipe and it’s made by hand. There were a couple of things I fiddled with here to ensure a moist and lemony cake. I rubbed the lemon zest into the sugar before mixing anything and I added (for a full recipe, the equivalent of) the juice of one lemon into the egg/sugar mixture. I also made a quickie soaking syrup by heating some extra juice and sugar together, and brushed it all over the loaf while it was still hot.
I liked this loaf cake. It had a nice sunny color and a good pound cake-style texture. I think cakes like this are really good with a little bit of fruit sauce or compote. Jam’s fine, too, when I don’t have any berries in the house. After I took this picture, you bet I totally smooshed the jam and cream over the the top and ate it as a open-faced cake sandwich (or maybe cake smørrebrød since I used lingonberry jam)!
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan or read Truc’s blog, Treats and Michelle’s, The Beauty of Life. It’s also on The Splendid Table’s site. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
Hot Cross Buns
April 4, 2012 at 8:28 pm | Posted in sweet things, sweet yeast breads | 6 CommentsTags: baking, bread, holiday
Every year I think about making Hot Cross Buns for Easter (or Good Friday, I guess), but I never get to it. Well, finally, this is my year! And let me tell you that eating one of these sweet, spiced buns freshly homemade is a real treat. I made these with currants and candied orange peel, although you could use raisins or craisins or whatever dried fruit and zest you choose. If you are British or Australian, you may not like what I’ve done on top here. A “traditional” English hot cross bun has a cross made not of icing (like mine), but of a flour and water paste that is baked on. But what can I say– I’m American and I like my icing!!
You’ll see that this recipe begins with preparing a sponge starter. It is really easy…there’s nothing to it but a little added resting time. The sponge lets the yeast get some extra fermentation, which is better for flavor and makes for nice soft buns. The rest of the dough is a snap to put together in a stand mixer. These aren’t so complicated to make, even if, like me, you don’t do a whole lot of bread baking at home…the hardest part is waiting for them to cool completely. You bet I devoured this guy with a little salty butter just as soon as he was cool enough to “cross”!
Hot Cross Buns– makes 12
adapted (quite a bit) from Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman
Steph’s Note: There’s no real need to soak your currants or orange peel unless they are very dry. If that’s the case, I’d put them in a small bowl with a couple teaspoons of orange juice or Grand Mariner and microwave for ten seconds (cool before using).
for the sponge
38 g AP flour
190 g milk, about 85°F
9 g sugar
7.4 g (2 1/4 t) instant yeastfor the final dough
340 g AP flour
60 g butter, softened
57 g sugar
1 egg
3 g salt
2 g ground allspice
2 g ground cinnamon
110 g dried currants
40 g candied orange peel, finely choppedfor the icing (amounts are approximate)
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted if lumpy
4 teaspoons milk
-For the sponge, combine the milk and yeast in a medium bowl. Whisk in the flour and sugar. The mixture will be very loose. Cover and let rest until it is about 3 times its original volume, 30-40 minutes.
-In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, mix final dough flour and softened butter until the butter is evenly distributed through the flour.
-Add egg, sugar, spices, and salt. Continue to mix until combined. The mixture will be quite dry at this point.
-Switch to the mixer’s dough hook. Add the sponge and mix on low speed. Mix until well combined, about 3 minutes.
-Up the mixer to medium speed, and mix about 8 minutes. You can occasionally scrape down the sides of the bowl, if needed. The dough will start to leave the sides and come together around the dough hook, and the gluten should have reached a medium level of development.
-Add the currants and orange peel and mix on low speed just until they are evenly distributed through the dough.
-Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled, covered container. Ferment in a warm place for one hour, giving it a fold (kind of like a letter) after 30 minutes.
-Turn the dough onto an unfloured counter and divide it into 12 pieces (about 70-75 g each).
-Form each piece into a ball. To tighten the ball, place it on the counter with your cupped hand loosely around it, and move your hand in a tight circle several times.
-Place the balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet (I used a 1/4 sheet tray…they did not touch when I arranged them on the tray, but as they proofed, they expanded to gently touch.)
-Cover and proof in a warm place for about an hour.
-Preheat the oven to 400°F . Bake the buns on the parchment-lined sheet at 400°F until the tops are browned, about 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350°F and continue baking until browned all over, about another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
-When the buns are completely cool, whisk together the icing ingredients. You can add extra confectioners’ sugar or milk as needed to make a thick, but pipeable paste. Put it in a piping bag with a medium-small round tip and pipe it in a cross over the buns. They are best when eaten fresh (although I did freeze a few for the weekend).
Fudgy Chocolate Stout Cake
March 13, 2012 at 8:17 pm | Posted in cakes & tortes, simple cakes, sweet things | 6 CommentsTags: baking, cake, chocolate, dessert, holiday
Apparently I think Saint Patrick’s Day is a good excuse to drench chocolate cake in booze. OK, I would gladly do that any day of the year (as is evidenced by this and that), but last year I marked St. Paddy’s day with whiskey-soaked chocolate and now I’ve moved to stout. Chocolate stout cakes are nothing new, but I am loving the ease of this one. So easy, you can whisk this together while sipping the remainder of your can of Guinness or Murphy’s and be confident you won’t muck it up.
You may notice that this cake is vegan. I’m not, but I can appreciate that the lack of eggs and dairy let the chocolate flavor of this cake shine. The stout and espresso boost that taste and temper the sweetness. There’s so much liquid in this cake that it stays moist and fudgy…improves with time even. Three days later and I think it’s better than the first. I’ll raise a pint to that!
Fudgy Chocolate Stout Cake– makes an 8″ cake
from mrslarkin’s recipe on food52
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
7 tablespoons natural cocoa powder (not dutched)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Guinness or other stout
1/2 cup espresso or strong coffee
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon apple cider or white vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Set oven rack to middle. Grease an 8” round cake pan with cooking spray, then line with parchment and lightly spray the parchment.
-Whisk flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
-In a measuring cup, mix together stout, coffee, water, vanilla and vinegar. Stir into the flour mixture a few turns, then add your oil and combine until you have a smooth batter (you can use a whisk for this, just be gentle).
-Pour into prepared pan. Place in oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. Check with cake tester, which should come out very slightly moist. Remove from oven and let cool on rack.
-Turn out onto cake plate. Peel off the parchment. Dust cake with powdered sugar, or cover with frosting.
*Alternatively, this recipe makes 1 dozen cupcakes. Bake for 18 – 23 minutes. Cool cupcakes. Frost with your favorite frosting or dip tops into a simple icing made of confectioner’s sugar, cocoa powder and coffee. Decorate top with a fresh coffee bean while icing is still tacky.
Tuesdays with Dorie BWJ: Rugelach
March 6, 2012 at 12:01 am | Posted in BWJ, cookies & bars, groups, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 42 CommentsTags: baking, cookies
This week, Tuesdays with Dorie is celebrating Purim with Lauren Groveman’s Rugelach! (I know it should be hamentaschen, but that one’s not in the book.) Anyway, we made rugelach in the last round of the group, but that was years ago now, so I was more than ready to make them again this past weekend. This version’s quite different, as it turns out. Most noticeably, these rugalach are round spirals, not cresent-shaped. They’re formed from slice-and-bake-style rolled logs. And they are stuffed–almost bursting– with good things. Things like cinnamon sugar, nuts, dried fruits and apricot or prune lekvar (a thick jam/fruit butter). I went with walnuts, golden raisins and prune butter.
What with making the cream cheese dough and prepping the list of fillings, this recipe has a lot of steps, but you can make it a little easier on yourself if you want. I made my dough the night before, and toasted my walnuts then, too, since I already had the oven on for dinner. The one big shortcut I took was that I used a plum butter that I had bought at the Grenemarket in place of making my own lekvar. I’d had that little jar of plum butter open in the refrigerator for months, so I was glad for the excuse to finish it off. It was the consistency of a thick prune paste, anyway, so I thought it would work perfectly, and in fact any thick store-bought jam would likely do just fine. Also, I admit I didn’t measure anything related to the fillings. I used good judgement and eyeballed it all. I also eyeballed the amount of filling I put into each dough roll-up. I know when enough’s enough and I didn’t want my spirals to unravel or explode.
These taste great. The flavors are big and warm, so I’m glad we made them while it’s still chilly where I live. They’re thick cut, so they’re nice and sturdy. And I am in love with the prune swirls…it looks like a letter “C” in each cookie. So cute that even though the cookies are supposed to be completely coated in cinnamon-nut sugar, I didn’t want to hide the tops. Instead kept the sugar concentrated on the outside of the cookies and just sprinkled a bit on top.
Here are my rugelach pointers: With all the cream cheese in the dough, it gets soft fast, so I didn’t hesitate to left it have a rest in the fridge at different stages of rolling and filling. The dough rolls up best if the chunky things like nuts and dried fruit are chopped pretty fine. When these guys bake, there’s a lot of jam and sugar that gets caramelized on their bottoms, and it’s best to get them off the baking sheet and onto a cooling rack as soon as you can so they don’t get stuck. They’re sturdy enough to handle almost right out of the oven.
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan or read Margaret’s The Urban Hiker and Jessica’s My Baking Heart, as they are co-hosting this week. Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll.
P.S.: For something totally unrelated, enter my BOOK GIVEAWAY for a chance to win a copy of Marshmallow Madness!
Homemade Marshmallow Crème and a BOOK GIVEAWAY!
March 4, 2012 at 7:19 pm | Posted in book review, general pastry, other sweet, sweet things | 42 Comments
If you think that a marshmallow is one of those semi-stale, crackly, crusty things you get at the supermarket, then we need to have a talk. Ideally, they should be squishy and soft, not tough and dense….and oh-so importantly, they should taste fresh. You don’t have to buy them, you know…the marshmallow ideal can be your reality if you make them at home. It is sticky business, to be sure, but it isn’t that hard. And there’s a whole, sweet new book, Marshmallow Madness! by fellow blogger Shauna Sever, to help you out. It has a puffy cover and everything! It starts with the classics…vanilla, chocolate…and moves on to some really inspired flavors like buttered rum and maple-bacon. Who would have thought marshmallows could be so adult and sophisticated? I’ve already made my caramel sauce for the sea salt caramel swirl ones.
I whipped up a batch of Shauna’s marshmallow crème this morning. It’s marshmallow minus the gelatin, and just like with marshies, if you’ve only ever had store-bought Fluff, you’ll be wowed by the way homemade tastes. Like real vanilla, for one thing. Guess what I’m gonna put this sticky stuff all over tonight?? Minds out of the gutter people, this is a PG blog– I’m talking about chocolate ice cream! And if I have any left next weekend, I’ll turn it into a giant Ho-Ho with the chocolate-marshmallow roulade recipe in the “Fluffy, Puffy Desserts” section at the back of the book.
The nice folks at Quirk Books sent me a copy of this book, and now I want to send a copy to one of you, too. Just leave me a comment (one per person, please) on this post before 4:00 pm EST on Thursday (March 8) and I’ll randomly choose a winner from the list. Be sure your e-mail address is correct so I can contact you!
***Giveaway Winner Update: I now have two copies to give away, one from me and one from Quirk Books, who has very kindly offered to donate another. I used random.org to generate random comment numbers to find the winners. It selected comments 7 and 10, so congratulations to Christy and Anne M. You should be getting your books soon!***
Homemade Marshmallow Crème– makes about 2 1/2 cups
from Marshmallow Madness! by Shauna Sever
Steph’s Note: I used golden syrup instead of corn syrup here, and it worked just fine (although the crème isn’t as blindingly white as it would be otherwise…it has the faintest tinge of gold).
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/8 tsp salt
2 large egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
-Stir together the sugar, light corn syrup, water and salt in a small saucepan over high heat. Boil, stirring occasionally, until it reaches 240°F.
-Meanwhile, place the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Start whipping the egg whites to soft peaks on medium speed. The goal is to have the egg whites whipped and ready, waiting for your syrup to be drizzled in. If they’re whipping faster than your syrup is coming to temperature, just stop the mixer (or turn to lowest speed) until the syrup is ready.
-When the syrup reaches 240°F, set the mixer to low and slowly drizzle a tiny bit of syrup, a couple tablespoons’ worth, into the egg whites to warm them. (If you add too much syrup at once, the whites will scramble). Slowly drizzle in the rest of they syrup and then increase the speed to medium-high. Beat until the marshmallow crème is stiff and glossy, 7-9 minutes; towards the end of the beating, beat in the vanilla.
-Use immediately or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
Please note that the publisher, Quirk Books, sent me a copy of this book.
Double-Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Glaze
February 27, 2012 at 7:29 pm | Posted in bundt cakes, cakes & tortes, simple cakes, sweet things | 17 CommentsTags: baking, bundt, cake, chocolate, dessert
I had wanted this post to be a recipe for a citrus loaf cake, but something went amiss in the preparation…namely, my brain when I tried to do some “cake math” to downsize the recipe. I was a math major in college, too. Seriously, Wellesley should revoke my degree for not being able to handle basic fractions. Anyway, that greasy disaster used up all my blood oranges and a copious amount of olive oil, so that was that for that– time to get over it and move on with chocolate!
I’ve made this Double Chocolate Bundt Cake from Food & Wine twice, and R and I like it a lot. It’s a homey, old-fashioned, easy peasy, hand-whisked thing. It’s kind of cake I imagine making for my imaginary children. Also, I have a particular fondess for chocolate cakes made with oil (I use grapeseed). They have a dense/moist crumb that I’m really into and they keep for days. The first time I baked this cake, used Dutch-processed cocoa, but the second time I decided to give natural a go, seeing as how baking soda is used as the leavener. While I didn’t notice any difference in rise between the two, I think the one made with natural cocoa tasted better…a little more chocolatey, maybe, although that could just be a difference between the two particular brands.
The ganache glaze and sprinkles may be mandatory for me, but if you can do without, a simple sift of powdered sugar on top of the cake would look really great. Don’t forget a little scoop of vanilla ice cream.
There’s a little Bundt cake trick I’ve learned at the shop where I work. Sometimes even a well-greased and floured a Bundt can have trouble releasing from the pan and can get a bit torn up. Right after you take the Bundt out of the oven, using potholders, give the bottom of the pan a good, swift rap on your counter (only if it’s heatsafe, though!). This helps the cake to settle a bit and come away from the sides of the pan, especially around the tube area, where it can sometimes get caught. I would not do this with most types of layer or loaf cakes, but a sturdy Bundt can take it– as long as it’s baked all the way, of course.
Double-Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Glaze– makes 10-12 servings
adapted from Food & Wine (November 2006)
Steph’s Notes: I made half a recipe in my 6-cup Bundt pan, but still used the full egg (I just chose the smallest egg in my carton). Also, my smaller cake baked in about 35-40 minutes.
vegetable oil spray or softened butter for the Bundt pan
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup canola or grapeseed oil
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup strong-brewed coffee
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 tablespoon corn syrup or golden syrup
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
-Preheat the oven to 350°F. Thouroughly grease a a 12-cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray or softened butter. (I did not, but if you’d like added insurance, you can flour the pan as well.)
-In a small saucepan, melt 2 ounces of the chopped chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. Scrape the chocolate into a medium bowl and let cool slightly. Whisk in the oil and sugar until smooth, then whisk in the egg.
-In a small bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add half of the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture along with 1/2 cup of the coffee and 1/2 cup of the buttermilk; whisk until smooth. Add the remaining dry ingredients, coffee and buttermilk and whisk until smooth.
-Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the lower third of the oven for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Swiftly rap the pan on the counter once or twice right after pulling it from the oven…this will help the cake settle and release. Let the cake cool on a rack for 10-15 minutes, then turn it out and let cool completely.
-In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. In a heatproof bowl, combine the remaining 3 ounces of chopped chocolate with the corn syrup (or golden syrup) and butter. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let stand until melted, about 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Let the ganache glaze cool until thick but still pourable, about 5 minutes.
-Pour the ganache over the cooled cake. Let the cake stand until the glaze is set, at least 30 minutes, before serving.
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