Weekend Cooking: I'm a Baking Fool

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Snow winter weekends are the perfect excuse for baking. And I spent yesterday afternoon doing just that.


For weekday bread baking, I rely heavily on the bread machine to do the kneading and the first rise. The following recipe comes from one of my favorite bread machine books: The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger (p. 202).

Semolina Country Bread

1½-pound loaf

• 1⅓ cups water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1¾ cups bread flour
• 1¼ cups semolina flour
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon gluten
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons SAF yeast (2½ teaspoons bread machine yeast)

Place all the ingredients in the pan according to the order in the manufacturer's instructions. Set crust on dark and program for the French bread or basic cycle; press Start.

Beth Fish's notes: I use just 1 cup of water. I set the machine to knead and let the dough rise once. I take the dough out, punch it down, shape the loaf, and let it rise a second time. I bake it on a stone at 375°F until the internal temperature is about 200°F and the loaf looks golden brown.

Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook at an Indie

Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook at Powell's
Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook at Amazon
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Published by Harvard Common Press, 2000
ISBN-13: 9781558321564


What's a snowy weekend without a something sweet? Mr. BFR requested Texas sheet cake, and so I took the opportunity to try a recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond (p. 218). She calls it Chocolate Sheet Cake and her version is a bit sweeter than the recipe I normally use, but it was easy to make and came out moist and yummy.

Chocolate Sheet Cake

Makes one 18- × 12-inch cake

Cake

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ pound (2 sticks) butter
• 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder

Icing

• 1¾ sticks butter
• 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• ½ cup finely chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Stir together and set aside. In another bowl, mix the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and baking soda. Mix with a fork and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and add the cocoa. Whisk together to combine. Meanwhile, bring 1 cup water to a boil. When the butter is melted, pour the boiling water in the pan. Allow to bubble for a moment, then turn off the heat. Pour the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture. Stir together for a moment to cool the chocolate, then pour in the egg mixture.

Stir together until smooth, then pour into an ungreased jelly roll pan and bake for 20 minutes.

While the cake is baking, make the icing. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the cocoa powder and stir until smooth. Add the milk and vanilla. Add the powdered sugar. Stir together. Dump in the pecans and stir until well combined.

Immediately after removing the cake from the oven, pour the warm icing over the top. You'll want to avoid doing much spreading, so try to distribute it evenly as you pour.

Beth Fish's notes: (1) Pan size: the standard jelly roll pan is actually 17½- × 11½ inches, which is what I used. (2) For the cake: the boiling water was not listed in the ingredients. My advice is to start the water right away, I was stuck keeping an eye on the cocoa-butter mixture while waiting for the water to boil. (3) For the icing: I added another teaspoon of milk because it was too thick.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks at an Indie

The Pioneer Woman Cooks at Powell's
The Pioneer Woman Cooks at Amazon
These 3 links lead to affiliate programs.

Published by William Morrow Cookbooks, 2009
ISBN-13: 979780061658198