The Great American Slow Cooker Book (112 page)

1
Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

2
Butter the inside of the slow cooker’s canister, then dust it with flour to coat the surface finely but evenly. Tap out any excess flour.

3
Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy and smooth, most of the sugar dissolved into the mix, 5 to 10 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Finally, beat in the vanilla.

4
Scrape down and remove the beaters. Fold in the flour mixture with a rubber spatula, just until there are no bits of dry flour anywhere. Remove and save ¼ cup batter for a small slow cooker, 6 tablespoons for a medium one, and ½ cup for a large one; spread the rest evenly in the slow cooker.

5
Stir the Nutella into the reserved batter in a small bowl. Dollop this mixture by tablespoonfuls over the top of the batter in the canister. Use the blade of a flatware knife to run into, through, and out of these blobs, thus swirling them into the batter below.

6
Lay long, overlapping strips of paper towel across the top of the cooker, then set the lid in place. Bake on high for about 2½ hours in a small slow cooker, about 3 hours in a medium one, or about 3½ hours in a large one, or until the cake is puffed and set to the touch. Unplug, uncover, and cool for 1 hour before setting a cutting board over the cooker, inverting everything, and releasing the cake onto the board. Remove the slow cooker and turn the cake right side up onto a platter to serve.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
You can skip buttering and flouring the canister if you’ve got baking spray on hand.

•
Swirling in the Nutella mixture may well be the toughest part of this recipe. Insert the blade of the knife into the batter, then start moving it around, connecting the dots, as it were, moving back and forth among them as some of the chocolate mixture is dragged into the batter (and some of the batter is then dragged into the chocolate mixture).

•
Inverting the cake is a tricky process, given all the upside down and right-side-up fandango. For large cakes in a large slow cooker, they may well split in half from their weight. Unless you’re deft at these maneuvers, and quite strong to boot, you might be wise to cut your losses and use a nonstick-safe knife to slice wedges of the cake right out of the cooker. If your slow cooker doesn’t have a removable insert, it may well be an impossible task anyway.

•
This cake freezes exceptionally well. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, then a second layer of aluminum foil and store in the freezer for up to 4 months.

ALL-AMERICAN KNOW-HOW
There’s no need to soften butter before making most batters. In fact, cool butter, cut into little chunks right out of the fridge, will trap and hold
air bubbles more effectively than the loosey-goosey stuff you spread on bread. That said, if you have an old-model hand mixer, it might not handle cold butter; you’ll have to soften the butter for a few minutes before going at it.

INGREDIENTS EXPLAINED
Nutella spread is a mixture of chocolate and ground hazelnuts with sugar, oil, and fat-free milk. It has been widely popular in Europe since the early ’60s and can be found near the jams or the peanut butter in almost all North American supermarkets.

1
Generously grease the inside of the slow cooker canister by holding a small slice of butter with a paper towel and rubbing the butter all over the surfaces. Add some flour, then turn the crock this way and that to coat both the bottom and the walls with a fine, even dusting. Tap out any excess flour.

2
Set up a double boiler with about 1 inch of water in the bottom pan, simmering over medium heat—or place a large, heat-safe metal bowl over a medium saucepan with a similar amount of simmering water. Add the butter and both chocolates. Stir with a rubber spatula until about two-thirds of the chocolate has melted. Remove the top half of the double boiler or the bowl from the saucepan below, then continue stirring off the heat until all the chocolate has melted. Cool for 10 minutes.

3
Meanwhile, beat the sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until quite thick and pale yellow, up to 10 minutes.

4
Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture until smooth, then scrape down and remove the beaters. Fold in the flour and salt with a rubber spatula, using wide, gentle arcs to make sure every speck of flour has been moistened. Pour and spread this mixture into the slow cooker.

5
Lay long strips of paper towels across the top of the slow cooker, overlapping each other and hanging down the sides for stability. Set the lid in place, then cook on high for about 1 hour 20 minutes in a small slow cooker, about 1 hour 40 minutes in a medium one, or about 2 hours in a large model, or until the cake is firm to the touch and the edges are dry while the middle is dark and moist. Unplug, uncover, and cool in the canister for 30 minutes before cutting out slices with a nonstick-safe knife or setting a cutting board over the cooker, inverting it, and turning the cake out.

TESTERS’ NOTES

•
Because of the way the slow cooker traps moisture inside, brownies come out fudgy, dense, and moist. The edges, however, will dry out a bit—and be a boon to those who like cakey brownies.

•
When you’re melting chocolate over a double boiler, control the heat so the water below barely simmers. Too much steam can condense into the chocolate, causing it to
seize
—that is, break into threads and a thin liquid. If the chocolate seizes, there may be no help for it. Try stirring in a little cream to see if the mixture will cohere. You may have to start over, even with the best of intentions.

•
Room-temperature eggs stabilize batters, building structure in tiny air pockets that create that vaunted
crumb
, the hallmark of good baked fare. To bring eggs to room temperature, leave them on the counter (but still in their shells) for 20 minutes, or immerse them (again, still in their shells) in a bowl of warm (not hot) tap water for 3 to 4 minutes.

•
We also like these with a little kick from up to ½ teaspoon cayenne added with the salt.

SHORTCUTS
Omit greasing and flouring the slow cooker and instead use baking spray, a mix of oil and flour.

INGREDIENTS EXPLAINED
Good-quality chocolate is most often sold with a percentage on the label—55 percent, 60 percent, 70 percent, and so on. The number refers to the percent of cocoa solids (the bitter chocolate stuff) as opposed to the sugar, cocoa butter, and certain stabilizers. As a general rule for this book, 40 to 55 percent is semisweet chocolate, 60 to 65 percent is bittersweet, and 70 to 85 percent is dark chocolate.

Milk chocolate is just that: chocolate with milk added to the mix. And unsweetened chocolate, sometimes called
baking chocolate
, has no (or in some brands, very little) sugar in the mix.

ALL-AMERICAN KNOW-HOW
For the best baked goods, beat and beat and beat the sugar and eggs. The more air you add, the more loft you’ll get. Yes, you can beat in so much air that the cake will not hold together when cut; but in general, beat until you think you’ve got a smooth, thick mixture—then beat it some more.

However, once you add the flour, stop beating altogether.
Fold
the flour mixture into most batters with a rubber spatula (yes, there are exceptions). Beating will elongate the flour’s glutens, resulting in tough, chewy cakes. Folding will hold off said elongation. Don’t overdo even the folding: work just until you see no more dry pockets. Some graininess from moistened but undissolved flour is expected—and encouraged.

1
Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; set aside.

2
Butter the inside of the canister, then toss in a little flour and tilt the canister this way and that to coat the interior with a fine dusting. Shake out any excess flour.

3
Set up a double boiler over about an inch of slowly simmering water—or set a heat-safe metal bowl over a medium saucepan with a similar amount of simmering water. Add the dark chocolate, butter, and unsweetened chocolate; stir until about two-thirds of the chocolate has melted. Remove the top half of the double boiler or the bowl from the heat; continue stirring until all the chocolate has melted. Cool for 5 minutes.

4
Beat the sugar into the chocolate mixture with an electric mixer at medium speed, until creamy but dense. Beat in the sour cream until smooth, then beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Finally, beat in the vanilla before scraping down and removing the beaters.

5
Fold in the flour mixture with a rubber spatula just until there are no unmoistened bits of flour in the mix. Scrape and spread this batter into the slow cooker.

6
Lay long, overlapping strips of paper towels over the top of the slow cooker, hanging down over the sides. Set the lid in place and cook on high for about 1½ hours in a small slow cooker, about 2 hours in a medium slow cooker, or about 2½ hours in a large one, or until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the cooker, the cake’s edges are higher than the middle, and that middle is darker and fallen a bit from its wet density but still a bit soft when touched. Unplug, uncover, and cool for 30 minutes. Afterwards, set a cutting board over the crock, turn it upside down, and release the cake before inverting it right side up on a platter.