How Ree Drummond Makes Her Chocolate Sheet Cake So Rich
When you are making a dessert for your office potluck or a kid's school bake sale, a chocolate sheet cake is a showstopper. Young and old will lick their plates clean in under 60 seconds flat. But if you want an even richer bite, you should grab a page out of Ree Drummond's book for making Texas sheet cake. The Pioneer Woman unlocks the flavor of a key ingredient by blooming it.
Drummond mixes hot water into the cake batter. While some might think this is overkill, this simple step releases a bold and rich chocolate flavor from the cocoa powder. This method is similar to brewing a cup of coffee or steeping a cup of tea. The hot water brings out all those layers that make your taste buds want more. This is because cocoa contains compounds that need a little heat to release that intense deliciousness.
If you are worried about the hot liquid prematurely cooking your other ingredients, that's a fair flag. For this reason, you may want to mix other ingredients (like flour and sugar) in a separate bowl and then add the mixture to your batter. This will give it enough time to cool slightly before adding it to the rest.
There's a science to it
Blooming cocoa powder isn't magic, but there is some science to why it works. As it turns out, cocoa powder is a suspension. Some say it has a fear of water. The science world calls it hydrophobic. This means when you try to mix it with unheated water and stop, you end up with floaters. This is because it is dressed with fats that push water away. Hot water melts the cocoa bits so they blend, which will make a chocolate go from good to great.
Blooming the chocolate is going to have another effect on your cake batter. It will turn your cake crumb into a moist, soft, fluffy forkful of goodness. This approach is adaptable to other cakes and baked goods. You can give cookies an intense chocolate flavor by mixing warm liquid — be it milk or water– with your cocoa before adding it to your batter. This trick is one for the books, so make certain to bookmark it. Additionally, Ree Drummond uses double butter when she makes her Texas sheet cake, which also makes for a tender, buttery crumb.