Cooking and Baking in a Breadmaker

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

 

Baking cakes in a wood-fired oven

We have another page about making bread in a wood fired oven here.

Baking cakes and bread in a wood-fired oven can be a bit difficult: things tend to cook too quickly on the outside while remaining under cooked or raw inside. 

To get round this, it is a good idea to cover the cake or bread with foil for most of its cooking time. It is best to use a cake tin with high sides so that the cake mixture does not stick on the foil when it rises.

wood oven

Inside the wood oven

Through a process of trial and error, I have found that if a cake needs to be baked for 40-45 minutes, then what works best is to cover it with foil and bake it for 15 minutes. Have a look and if it seems to be cooking too quickly or too slowly, move it forwards or backwards in the oven. Turn it 180º and cover it again for another 15 minutes before having another look

Turn again through 180º and remove the foil. Let it cook for a further 5 minutes before checking. If it seems to be browning too quickly, replace the foil otherwise leave uncovered for another 5 minutes.

Test the cake and if it is still not done, put back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

A wood-fired oven retains the heat a lot better than a conventional oven so there doesn’t seem to be the same problem of opening the oven door and letting the heat out.

We have another page about making bread in a wood fired oven here.

Fudgy brownies

no butter chocolate brownies

Chocolate brownies

This is another recipe that doesn’t use butter. I only had a rectangular tin but next time I would make it in a smaller square tin so that it was a bit thicker.

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup boiling water
2 large eggs
2 cups brown sugar
1 1/3 cups plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Oil and flour a square baking tin.

In a mixing boil, combine the cocoa and baking powder and stir in 1/3 cup oil. Add the boiling water and mix well. Whisk in the sugar, eggs and another 1/3 cup of oil.

Stir in the flour, vanilla extract and salt and mix well.

Pour into the baking tin and bake in the oven (180ºC) for 35-40 minutes.