Read The Great American Slow Cooker Book Online
Authors: Bruce Weinstein
The Great American Slow Cooker Book (116 page)
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The sheet of foil used for the cover should be only a tad larger than the baking dish. Otherwise, it can hang down into the water; steam can then get under it and onto the cake.
Serve It Up!
Serve slices with this
Easy Chocolate Sauce
: Bring ¼ cup water and ¼ cup sugar to a boil in a small saucepan set over medium-high heat, stirring often. Boil for 1 minute, then remove from the heat and stir in 6 ounces chopped, semisweet or bittersweet chocolate until smooth. Whisk in 2 tablespoons unsalted butter and 1 tablespoon brandy, cognac, or Armagnac.
A LOT
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PREP TIME:
25 MINUTES
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COOK TIME:
3 HOURS
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KEEPS ON WARM:
1 HOUR
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SERVES:
8
INGREDIENTS FOR A 1-QUART, HIGH-SIDED, ROUND BAKING DISH
1 cup plus 2 tblsp all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the baking dish
3¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1⅓ cups chopped pitted dates
⅔ cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tblsp toasted walnut oil, plus more for greasing
2 large eggs, at room temperature
½ tblsp vanilla extract
⅔ cup finely chopped walnuts
1
Set a 1-quart high-sided, round soufflé or baking dish in the slow cooker, then add enough warm tap water to come halfway up the outside of the dish. Remove the baking dish, cover the cooker, and set on high while you prepare the batter.
2
Generously grease the inside of the baking dish with some walnut oil dabbed on a paper towel, then add some flour and give it a fine coating by twisting and turning it before knocking out any excess flour over the sink.
3
Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl until well combined, and set aside.
4
Use an electric mixer at medium speed to beat the dates, brown sugar, and oil in a large bowl until thick and pasty. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then scrape down the inside of the bowl. Beat in the vanilla until smooth. Scrape down and remove the beaters.
5
Pour in the flour mixture, then use a rubber spatula to fold it in just until there are no dry pockets of flour in the bowl. Fold in the walnuts.
6
Pour and scrape the batter into the prepared baking dish. Oil one side of a 16-inch piece of aluminum foil with some walnut oil dabbed on a paper towel, then set the foil, oil side down, over the baking dish and seal tightly to the edges. Set the baking dish in the hot water.
7
Cover and cook on high for about 3 hours, or until the cake is sticky but set, moist but still firm to the touch even under the foil. Remove the baking dish from the slow cooker, take off the foil, and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Either cut wedges right out of the baking dish or set a cutting board over the baking dish, invert the whole contraption, jiggle the cake free, remove the baking dish, and right the cake onto a serving platter.
TESTERS’ NOTES
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If you’re as old as we are, you may remember date-nut bread baked in a clean coffee can, a staple sweet at ’70s parties. This recipe replicates that classic without the metallic aftertaste.
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Don’t use desiccated baking dates for this recipe. You’ll need moist, sticky, juicy, pitted dates, such as Medjools. You must be able to mash the dates between your fingers.
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You really can’t overbeat the mixture in step 4. Keep going to make the dates as sticky as possible.
Serve It Up!
Smear every slice with cream cheese.
These desserts often haunt us professional food writers—or their success does. On the stovetop, they’re temperamental, no doubt about it. A vanilla pudding or a creamy custard won’t set without first coming to the right temperature—and holding there without nudging much above it, a razor’s edge of success without copious amounts of thickeners like flour or cornstarch.
The slow cooker takes care of those problems. Puddings and custards come out creamy every time. With this important caveat: you’ll get what’s considered among the mavens as the perfect set, never hard. After years of eating the instant stuff from chemical-laced packets, some of us have gotten the idea that you should be able to cut a pudding almost like a cake. But puddings should have a rich and creamy texture, velvety and smooth. They should also ride the line between a sauce and whipped cream—wet and moist, yet dense. When you scoop a bit out of a bowl, the rest should slowly flow in place to fill the void.
But don’t just think vanilla and chocolate puddings. We’ve also got Chocolate Fondue, a range of rice and tapioca puddings, and even three bread puddings. Why are these last not in the cake section? Because puddings and custards rely more heavily on eggs for their setting, not thickeners. And there’s no leavening in the mix, so they don’t rise well. Sure, a bread pudding may puff a bit, but that’s mostly about the hot air that gets trapped between the bread cubes. Once the thing cools, it settles. Although you won’t—because puddings are about the best desserts around. They make everyone happy. You should have seen us during recipe testing, giddy over pots and pots of custards!
A LITTLE
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PREP TIME:
25 MINUTES
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COOK TIME:
1 HOUR 10 MINUTES TO 1 HOUR 20 MINUTES
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KEEPS ON WARM:
NO
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SERVES:
4 TO 8
2- TO 3½-QUART
3 ounces
unsweetened chocolate
3½ cups milk
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 tblsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
3 yolks large eggs/yolks, at room temperature
4- TO 5½-QUART
4½ ounces
unsweetened chocolate
5¼ cups milk
1 cup plus 2 tblsp sugar
6 tblsp all-purpose flour
1½ tblsp vanilla extract
¾ tsp salt
1 whole plus 3 yolks large eggs/yolks, at room temperature
6- TO 8-QUART
6 ounces
unsweetened chocolate
7 cups milk
1½ cups sugar
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 tblsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
6 yolks large eggs/yolks, at room temperature
1
Grate the chocolate into the slow cooker with a microplane or the small holes of a box grater. Whisk in the milk, sugar, flour, vanilla, and salt until the flour has dissolved.
2
Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes, then whisk well. Cover and continue cooking on high for 30 to 40 minutes, whisking every 15 minutes, or until thickened and bubbling.
3
Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl, then whisk in about 1 cup of the hot pudding until smooth. Whisk the combined mixture back into the slow cooker until smooth. Set the temperature to low and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes, stirring twice.
4
If possible, remove the canister from the slow cooker and refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 4 hours before serving. Or spoon the pudding into a bowl and refrigerate for up to 2 hours. Afterwards, cover the canister with its lid or the bowl with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to 3 days.
TESTERS’ NOTES
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Although the chocolate will firm up in the fridge, this pudding is still a little thicker than the buttery Brown sugar Pudding (below). That said, it’s soft and rich rather than chewy or stiff.
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Make sure you tap any bits of chocolate stuck in the box grater or on the microplane into the slow cooker.
A LITTLE
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PREP TIME:
15 MINUTES
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COOK TIME:
1 HOUR 10 MINUTES TO 1 HOUR 20 MINUTES
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KEEPS ON WARM:
NO
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SERVES:
4 TO 8
2- TO 3½-QUART
3 cups milk
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
1 tblsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
3 tblsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
5 large egg yolks, at room temperature
4- TO 5½-QUART
4¾ cups milk
⅔ cup packed dark brown sugar
½ cup plus 1 tblsp all-purpose flour
1½ tblsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
5 tblsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
8 large egg yolks, at room temperature
6- TO 8-QUART
6 cups milk
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
⅔ cup all-purpose flour
2 tblsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
6 tblsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
10 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1
Whisk the milk, brown sugar, flour, vanilla, and salt in the slow cooker until no bits of undissolved flour or sugar remain in the mix. Stir in the butter bits.
2
Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes. Whisk well, then continue cooking on high for 30 to 40 minutes, whisking every 15 minutes, until thickened and bubbling.
3
Whisk the egg yolks in a medium bowl, then whisk a cup or two of the hot pudding into them until smooth. Whisk the combined mixture back into the pudding in the cooker.
4
Set the temperature on low and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes, whisking twice, until again somewhat thickened.
5
Remove the canister from the cooker if possible and chill the canister in the fridge for at least 4 hours. Or spoon the pudding into a large bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Cover and store in the fridge for up to 3 days.
TESTERS’ NOTES
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Puddings from a slow cooker will never get solidly thick unless there’s so much flour or cornstarch in the mix that they become almost gelatinous. But that’s the good news! You’ll end up with a more traditional set, certainly nothing akin to what comes out of instant pudding boxes.
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Be fairly aggressive with your whisking, both in steps 1 and 4. You need to make sure you break the pudding up so it stays soft and velvety.
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Use a nonstick-safe whisk if your cooker has a nonstick finish.
ALL-AMERICAN KNOW-HOW
The pudding will definitely form a skin as it cools, the result of a large milk protein coming to the surface and drying out as it meets the air. If you’re a skin-o-phobe, seal plastic wrap right against the pudding’s surface when it goes into the fridge. The lack of air contact will keep a skin from forming.
A LITTLE
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PREP TIME:
25 MINUTES
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COOK TIME:
1½ TO 2 HOURS
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KEEPS ON WARM:
NO
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SERVES:
2 TO 4
2- TO 3½-QUART
8 ounces Cream cheese (regular or low-fat), at room temperature
2 tblsp packed light brown sugar
1 whole large eggs/white, at room temperature
3 tblsp Raspberry jam
2 tsp Chambord or other raspberry liqueur
2 tblsp Graham cracker crumbs
4- TO 5½-QUART
12 ounces Cream cheese (regular or low-fat), at room temperature
3 tblsp packed light brown sugar
1 whole plus 1 white large eggs/white, at room temperature
4½ tblsp Raspberry jam
1 tblsp Chambord or other raspberry liqueur
3 tblsp Graham cracker crumbs
6- TO 8-QUART
1 pound (16 ounces) Cream cheese (regular or low-fat), at room temperature
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
2 whole large eggs/white, at room temperature
6 tblsp Raspberry jam
4 tsp Chambord or other raspberry liqueur
¼ cup Graham cracker crumbs
1
Place two 1-cup, high-sided ramekins in a small slow cooker, or three in a medium model, or four in a large one. Pour enough warm tap water into the slow cooker to come 1 inch up the sides of the ramekins. Remove them from the cooker, then cover it and cook on high while you prepare the batter.
2
Beat the cream cheese and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the egg, scrape down the inside of the bowl, and beat in the jam and liqueur. Divide this mixture among the ramekins; set them in the cooker.
3
Cover and cook on high for 1½ to 2 hours, or until the pudding is set but still wiggles in its center when the ramekin is tapped. Remove
the ramekins to a wire rack and cool for 1 hour. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 2 days. Serve by sprinkling each pudding with graham cracker crumbs.
TESTERS’ NOTES
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These are really a cross between a pudding and a cheesecake. They can be kept in the fridge for several days—dessert ready when you are.
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Four ramekins may not fit in some large cooker models. Check before you begin: if you can’t get four ramekins in your model without crowding, use only three—and thus the ingredients listed for the medium cooker.
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Substitute any jam and liqueur combination for the raspberry—apricot jam and apricot schnapps, cherry jam and Cheery Herring, and so forth.
A LOT
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PREP TIME:
30 MINUTES
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COOK TIME:
1 HOUR 45 MINUTES
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KEEPS ON WARM:
NO
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SERVES:
6