Category Archives: Breadmaker

Carrot Cake

Posted on by
cortijoblog carrot cake

CARROT CAKE

I am still experimenting with using the breadmaker to make cakes and this is the recipe for a carrot cake I have just made. Next time, I will use two rectangular cake tins so that I can sandwich the two halves of the cake together.

carrot cake

Carrot Cake

This recipe is easy to prepare and only requires turning after 20 minutes.

 

INGREDIENTS for the cake

  • 85g walnuts, roughly chopped
  • 1 orange, zested and juiced
  • 225g self-raising flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 175g brown sugar
  • 175ml sunflower oil
  • 1 heaped teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3 eggs
  • 280g carrots, roughly grated

INGREDIENTS for the ICING

  • 50g icing sugar
  • 50g butter, softened
  • 100g cream cheese
  • 1 orange, zested and juiced
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice

METHOD

  1. Oil and line the cake tins
  2. Measure out the flour, baking powder and salt.
  3. Add the sugar and oil to a bowl and whisk well.
  4. Break in the eggs and continue mixing.
  5. Gradually tip in the dry ingredients and beat well.
  6. Stir in 2 tablespoons of orange juice, orange zest, cinnamon, carrot and nuts, and mix well.
  7. Divide the cake mixture between the two tins and cook each one for 35 minutes (or until cooked) on the breadmaker BAKE setting.
  8. Leave to cool for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a baking rack.
  9. To make the icing, cream the butter and icing sugar together until smooth.
  10. Beat in the cream cheese.
  11. Add the orange zest and lemon juice, and mix well.
  12. Put some of the icing on top of one of the cakes.
  13. Spread out with a knife and sandwich the two halves together.
  14. Spread the rest of the icing over the top of the cake.

Lemon and Olive Oil Drizzle Cake

Posted on by
 

LEMON AND OLIVE OIL DRIZZLE CAKE


Lemon and Olive Oil Drizzle Cake

This cake is made from lemons and extra virgin olive oil. It is one of the cakes that I make in the bread-maker.

 

INGREDIENTS

  • 250 g sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 lemons
  • 120 ml olive oil
  • 100 ml milk
  • 275 g self-raising flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder

For the drizzle

  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 50 g sugar

METHOD

  1. The recipe uses 3 lemons. Zest all the lemons and use 2/3 of the juice for the cake and 1/3 of the juice for the drizzle.
  2. Place the silicone liner in an 18cm cake tin.
  3. Whisk together the sugar and eggs.
  4. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil and milk, and mix thoroughly.
  5. Fold in the flour and baking powder.
  6. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake in the bread-maker on the BAKE cycle for about 1½ hours until cooked.
  7. Take the cake out of the tin and cool on a wire rack.
  8. Prepare the drizzle by heating the remaining lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan.
  9. Prick the top of the cake with a skewer and pour over the drizzle.

Baking Sourdough Bread in a Bread Machine

Posted on by

sourdough bread in a bread machine

MY SOURDOUGH LEARNING CURVE – UPDATED 25/9/2021

I’ve been making sourdough bread now for about a year now and today I think I’ve made my best loaf yet. Although I had originally been using 350ml water to 500g of flour, I’ve recently decreased the amount of water to 320ml and this seems to work better and the texture of the bread is not so gummy. The original proportions might work better in a conventional oven where there might be more evaporation, but I tend to bake the bread in a bread machine and these proportions seem to work better.

 

PREPARATION

The day before I am going to bake the bread, I take the sourdough starter out of the fridge at about 17:00 and leave it for a couple of hours to warm up.
I don’t want to have to throw any of the starter away and so I save the smallest amount possible to bake the next loaf. At the moment, I am saving back 60g.

I use rye flour (centeno) to feed the starter and add 60g flour and 60g of water to the starter. I transfer 60g to a new jar and put this back in the fridge. I then add another 15g flour and 15g water to the remaining starter and mix well. This is the starter for the next loaf and it should weigh approximately 150g. I leave this out on the worktop, wrapping it in a towel in the winter.

 

AUTOLYSING THE DOUGH

I have recently been experimenting with autolysing the flour overnight before mixing with the starter and this seems to work really well. Autolysing is basically mixing the flour and water together and leaving it for a number of hours for the gluten bonds to form. You generally leave white flour for around an hour and brown flour for about 4 hours.

At about 21:00, I weigh out 250g strong white flour, 250g brown flour, stir in 320ml water and gently knead the mix to bring in all the ingredients. I then cover the bowl with a plate and leave overnight.

 

ADDING THE STARTER

The next morning, I test the dough to see if it can make a window pane. I then sprinkle in 12g salt and 320ml water, mix well and leave for 60 minutes.
After 60 minutes, I stretch and fold the dough gently about 8 times and coil fold the dough about 4 times.
I do another 4 series of stretch and folds and coil folds every 30 minutes.
I then shape the dough into a ball, creating surface tension by pulling over and towards me a couple of times, turning the bowl as I go.

 

BAKING THE BREAD

I transfer the ball of dough into the breadmaker. I select the yoghurt cycle on the menu and time the breadmaker for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, I stop the machine and choose the bake cycle. On my machine, this takes 60 minutes.

Cooking and Baking in a Breadmaker

Posted on by

bake brownies breadmaker

USING THE OVEN

Here at the cortijo, we generally don’t often use the wood-fired bread oven unless we are planning to cook a number of different dishes on the same day. These might include a typical roast dinner or pizzas, bread and possibly cake, then it makes it worthwhile heating up the wood-fired bread oven for several hours.  I’ve recently been experimenting with baking cakes and cooking things in the breadmaker. I normally make sourdough if it is sunny and it means we can cook it using purely solar energy. I use the BAKE program which is No. 12 on our Princess breadmaker and it takes 60 minutes.
 

COOKING JACKET POTATOES

My first experiment was jacket potatoes. I chose 2 medium-sized potatoes, pricked them with a fork and wrapped them in foil. I took the paddle out of the bread tin and placed the potatoes on either side of the spindle. At the end of the cooking time, I opened up the parcels and cut each potato in half. I pricked the surface with a fork and smeared over some butter and seasoned with salt and pepper. I put a couple of slices of cheddar cheese on one side of each potato and then wrapper them up again and put them back in the breadmaker. There was still a lot of residual heat left from cooking the potatoes and so by leaving them for another 30-40 minutes, they could finish cooking and the cheese could melt.
 

BAKING A CAKE

My second experiment was to bake some brownies and this is the recipe I used. I didn’t want to use the pan that came with the breadmaker so bought an additional one. I measured the machine and reckoned that if I bought one for a maximum width of 18cm I would be OK and chose a 7″ or 17.8cm round PME cake tin. As it turned out, although that was the size of the base and sides sloped gradually outwards and the final edge diameter was 19.6cm. Luckily it was possible to squeeze and force the tin slightly to get it in.

breadmaker"cakeI didn’t want it to sit too near the base and the heating element, so put an upturned ramekin on the turning spindle.

Here are some links to recipes that I have tried in the breadmaker.

RECIPE 1: Brownies