Sourdough rye chocolate cake

My new chocolate cake recipe is from my new favorite baking
book, 100% °F
Rye by Shannon Stonger
.

I believe there are actually health benefits to cooking with
sourdough and whole grain flour and maybe even rye versus
wheat. But the reason I’ve adopted it over my previous bread
machine sprouted wheat chocolate cake is that it’s so moist.

The picture is of the version I baked for the twentieth
anniversary of the West
Gallery Quire
. People said it was good, and most of it disappeared.

Recipe

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cups rye flour
  • ½ cup starter
  • 1 cup milk (I used almond milk)
  • 1 cup honey, softened to a pourable consistency
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup melted butter or coconut oil (I have coconut oil
    somewhere, but I can’t find it, so I used almond oil, which I
    keep on hand for oiling musical instruments.)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¾ teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

Whisk together the flour, starter, milk, and honey in a medium bowl until just combined. Cover tightly and set aside to ferment for 6-12 hours, or longer if desired.

Preheat the oven to 350°F and prepare a 9×13” pan (I
have one somewhere, but I can only find a 10×14″ pan, so it bakes
a little faster) by buttering and flouring it. Add the eggs,
melted butter, and vanilla to the fermented dough and just begin
to stir it together. Sprinkle over the cocoa, baking powder,
baking soda, and salt and finish mixing until all ingredients are
homogenous.

Scrape batter into prepared pan and place pan into the preheated
oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted
into the center of the cake comes out clean. (I use an
instant-read thermometer, and it’s done when the probe comes out
clean, but just to check I make sure it’s in the 190-200°F
range.)

Allow to cool before slicing and serving.

Variations

I’ve only baked it twice. The first time I baked it plain, and
I loved the texture but thought the flavor was a little boring.
For the pictured version, I made a chocolate ganache frosting, and
used almond slivers and dried apricot pieces for decoration. Next
time I’ll try doing what I did with the bread machine cake, which
was add chocolate chips and dried cherries.

News of the week of October 15, 2019

Meeting report

We played:

Passereau non identifié

Schedule

We meet Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, as
long as enough people have told me by Monday night that they want
to come.

We will not meet on Tuesday, November 5.

News of the week of October 8, 2019

Meeting report

We played:

Danse de Salomé Bruxelles Couv Cordeliers 5620

Schedule

We meet Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, as
long as enough people have told me by Monday night that they want
to come.

Tuesday, November 5, is election day in Cambridge, so I will be
working at the polls. We have decided not to
have a meeting that day.

News of the week of October 1, 2019

Meeting Reports

Jean Louis Forain - Prisoner of War Writing a Letter - 1925.1059 - Cleveland Museum of Art

September 24

We played:

October 1

We played:

Schedule

We meet Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, as
long as enough people have told me by Monday night that they want
to come.

Tuesday, November 5, is election day in Cambridge, so I will be
working at the polls, so there may be a
different place or repertoire for the
meeting.

News of the week of September17, 2019

Meeting Report

Adriaen van de Velde - Sleeping Shepherds - 1966.12 - Cleveland Museum of Art

We played:

Schedule

We meet Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, as
long as enough people have told me by Monday night that they want
to come.

News of the week of September 10, 2019

Meeting report

We played:

Mary, Joseph, the ass and the ox genuflect before the infant Wellcome V0034623

Schedule

We meet Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, as
long as enough people have told me by Monday night that they want
to come.

Playing opportunity

The Boston Recorder
Society
schedule is now up on their website,
as well as links for registering.

News of the week of September 3, 2019

Meeting report

Henry Meynell Rheam - Sleeping Beauty

We played:

Schedule

We meet Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, as
long as enough people have told me by Monday night that they want
to come.

Playing opportunity

The Boston Recorder
Society
has announced their schedule for the
year. The first meeting is Sunday, September 23,
at 6:30pm at Lesley University’s University
Hall. (The old Sears building in Porter Square. I can’t find a
street address, but it’s Mass Avenue a bit
towards Harvard Square from the Porter Square T stop.)

The information about the new season isn’t up on the website
yet, but let me know if you want it, and I’ll
forward you the newsletter they sent me.

The BRS has recorder groups on several levels, which also
welcome bowed and plucked strings, and a loud wind group coached
by Liza Malamut which is
one of better (only?) places around to play Renaissance winds regularly.

News of the week of August 27, 2019

Meeting report

We played:

Charles de Groux - Ash Wednesday

Schedule

We meet Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, as
long as enough people have told me by Monday night that they want
to come.

News of the week of August 20, 2019

Meeting report

A Post Medieval – Modern gold finger ring probably dating 18th or 19th century. (FindID 421188)

We played:

Schedule

We meet Tuesdays at 7:45 pm, at 233 Broadway, Cambridge, as
long as enough people have told me by Monday night that they want
to come.

Playing opportunities

The West
Gallery Quire
will resume meeting on
September 8 at 2pm at the Newton Highlands
Congregational Church
. It’s open to all
singers and players of melody instruments. It’s
a different take on church music than what most
of us grew up with, and it’s also your best place
to sing with a serpent.

The Boston Recorder
Society
will also presumably start up again in September, but
they haven’t gotten around to telling anybody when. I hope it’s
because all the people who do that work have been off having
summer fun and are just starting to get back to organizing
meetings. I will let you know when I find out the details, or you
can check their web page.