Bread newsletter no.8
Sourdough chocolate cake 🍫 🎂
Dear bread friends,
It’s so nice that you’re here for my September newsletter (just! - right at the end of of the month!). September is always a month of change, it’s got that seasonal shift where you really physically can feel the change happening. I love to see all the new flowers appearing (those ranunculus below!) and noticing the days becoming just a little bit sunnier and a little longer.
For me this month has also come with a big change/event: it was the month of my PhD thesis graduation ceremony. I’d anticipated the ceremony since the very beginning of my PhD, always imagining that moment when I’d get to go on stage wearing the special PhD hat. And that moment finally came earlier this week. And it was indeed very special. I must say, it’s a strange feeling now, that after such a long line of moments of stress followed by joy at completeing the next step in the PhD process… finally all of those steps are done and that was really, truly the end of my time as a PhD and university student. Honestly, I’m a little bit sad, which I wasn’t qutie expecting.
Maybe you’re wondering, what? PhD? I thought this was about bread? Well, alongside making a lot of bread and writing a lot about bread (including my book about sourdough baking, Live Laugh Loaf), I’ve also been writing a PhD thesis about language learning this whole time! Perhaps a little ironically, writing the thesis really helped me (and motivated me, out of procrastination!) to write and structure my sourdough book. The world of academia is a strange place and I have to say, at the moment I’m happier spending relatively more of time amidst the world of bread and baking, but who knows what the future will hold for me. I hope I can find a balance and continue to have a little bit of both worlds in my life.
A special note for everyone who wrote me a kind message of congratulations or other encouragement: thank you! It really was so very heart warming to receive so many words of encouragment! And thank you if you’ve taken the time to have a look at my thesis on Language Learning and Identity too! It makes me so happy that it’s being read and enjoyed - even if you just take a look at the introduction and conclusion.
I’ve been spending a lot of time working on creating recipes. I’ve added discard recipes for crackers and cookies to the ebook version of Live Laugh Loaf, and I’ve been writing many more recipes for a new book I’m currently working on. Over the last few weeks I’ve also been creating a milk bread recipe for @abc_everyday. It'll be coming out in the next weeks (keep an eye out!). Creating this milk bread recipe has really shown me how very differently commercial yeast works from the wild yeast in sourdough. I’ve overproved loaves and under-kneaded them – all because I keep treating it like slow, independent sourdough where time does all the work for you. Baking with yeast, it’s like you have to do everything for the dough because time isn’t on your side. Many soft squishy but not quite perfect loaves later, I think I’ve found my perfect milk bread and I can’t wait to share it with you.
Back to talking about September! September amongst my friends and family is a month of many birthdays and so it is also a month of cakes. This is a recipe that I made with my dad in mind because of his love of chocolate cake. I made a video about this cake where I said that we usually get dad a chocolate cake from his favourite bakery, which is kind of true but actually the bakery is far away from where my parents live, so many years, although we’ve endeavoured to get him the cake from the special bakery, we’ve actually just ended up getting him a mud cake from Coles and honestly I don’t think he ever enjoyed those cakes any less than the special ones from the special bakery. Because birthdays aren’t really about the cake, they’re about the thought and the gesture and the time you spend together. Nonetheless, I set my standards high (hoping to outdo the Coles cake at the very least) with the cake that I made this year, which is a challenge because my dad loves things from the supermarket. In the end I decided not to ask him to make a comparison even though I kind of wanted to for the video! A homemade cake is a means to the end of someone knowing that you spent some time doing something with just them in mind. So, here is the recipe for my sourdough chocolate cake – a rich, delicious, moist chocolate cake that I served with a buttercream icing.
Sourdough chocolate cake for my dad
This is a special cake that I made for my dad on his birthday this year because he loves chocolate/mud cake. It’s a very moist chocolate cake inspired by one that I tried when I was in Berlin earlier this year. I went to Sofi bakery and they had sourdough cake – this was something I’d considered previously but for some reason had thought might not taste good and so never been motivated to try it out myself. But as soon as I saw it at Sofi I ordered a piece and it was so delicious, I knew when I got back home to Adelaide that I was going to try making my own version.
For the cake
80g sourdough discard
160g margarine (I used Nuttelex)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp baking soda
40g cocoa powder
80g sugar
230g milk
300g plain flour
For the chocolate buttercream icing (optional but delicious)
50g milk chocolate melts
100g margarine (I used Nuttelex)
190g icing sugar
20g cocoa powder
1tsp vanilla extract
30g thickened cream
To make the cake:
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Mix together sourdough discard, margarine, egg, vanilla extract, salt, baking soda, cocoa powder, sugar and milk (i.e. all ingredients except the flour). I use a wooden spoon for this part but you can also use electric beaters. Once these ingredients are well combined and you’ve eliminated any margarine clumps, add the plain flour and continue to mix until you achieve a lump free consistency.
Grease a cake tin (ideally round and about 20cm in diameter). The method I use is to give it a good coating of butter (or margarine) and then sprinkle flour into the tin so that it sticks to the butter and the tin is well coated.
Tip the cake batter into the tin.
Bake at 180C with the fan on (if possible in your oven, if not it may take a little extra time to bake) for approx. 55 minutes (or until a skewer comes out clean when poked into the middle of the cake).
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes. Then transfer from the tin to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. While the cake is cooling you can make the buttercream icing.
To make the icing:
Bring water in a saucepan to a low simmer and place a bowl on top of the saucepan. Don’t allow it to touch the water, it should be a few centimetres above it. Add the chocolate bits to the bowl and stir continuously until they melt.
In a separate bowl, mix together the icing sugar, margarine, vanilla extract, cocoa powder and thickened cream. I like to start out with a wooden spoon and then switch to electric beaters. Then add the melted chocolate and continue to beat until all is well combined.
Spread a generous amount icing onto the top of the cake. Any leftover icing can kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week (maybe longer?!) and used for future delicious cakes. If you’re feeling creative you could also add some 100’s and 1000’s (sprinkles) or almond flakes and a dusting of icing sugar.
Finally, serve on a pretty plate and enjoy with your favourite people.
Notes:
You can swap out margarine for room temperature butter. The main reason that I use Nuttelex in many of my recipes is simply that you never have to wait for it to become soft! But I’ve found despite having slightly different flavours and textures, in most recipes, most of the time they are interchangeable.
Ideally your discard shouldn’t be really old, because you don’t want it to be too acidic and sour, as this will give a stronger flavour to your cake. You can also use your sourdough starter when it’s bubbly. For example, if you have a little extra starter left over or if you fed your starter and then decided not to make a loaf after all, you could put it in the fridge and use it later (e.g. on the next day or later the same day) to make this cake.
If you don’t have any sourdough starter but you still want to make the cake you can, just mix together 40g of water and 40g of flour and have a ‘pretend’ starter – it won’t add any sourdough flavour to your cake but the cake will still taste great.
Will current owners of Live Laugh Loaf receive updates to cook book? Would love to try the chocolate cookies mentioned here. Thank you!
Thank you and congratulations🎓