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11/08/2017 11:01 PMI have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen, primarily playing with my new counter appliance, an Instant Pot. Am I good with it by now? Not even close, primarily because the manual it came with, especially the part about the pressure cooker, scared the crap out of me. I know all the things that could have happened if it were used incorrectly—like blazing hot soup blowing like a volcano over the ceiling.
Truth is, though, my mother never had a pressure cooker and my experience with one was to watch a friend use it before he bought one for me. I never used it, because I actually have the time to cook and would rather spend hours in the kitchen than anything else I can think of.
The reason I decided to buy one (and the largest available, an eight-quart behemoth) is because I could deep-six the slow cooker (which I love), sauté vegetable and meat in the same pot used in the Instant Pot instead of using a skillet on the stove, and make rice (I have a separate rice cooker; for some reason I have never been able to make fluffy rice on pot on the cooktop, so bye-bye rice cooker). Also, I love new kitchen gadgets.
So, playing all weekend (you will soon read about some of the things I am learning in later columns), I had nothing sweet to take to a dinner Sunday night. I decided to make two cakes at a time (just as easy as making one, and they keep for a few days and freeze beautifully). This recipe came from my ex-husband’s mother’s church cookbook (although the new recipe, below, calls for an egg). It is dairy-free and positively delicious. Also, it is likely that you have every ingredient you need to make one or two at a time.
Emergency Chocolate Cake
from Cook’s Illustrated, March & April, 2009, page 25
1 ½ cups (7 ½ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ table salt
½ cup (2 ounces) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
(although regular will do)
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
(use the best chocolate you can find)
1 cup hot coffee
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
confectioners’ sugar (for serving, optional)
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray 8-inch-square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in large bowl. In separate bowl, combine cocoa and chocolate; pour hot coffee over cocoa and whisk until smooth, then let cool slightly. Whisk in mayonnaise, egg, and vanilla. Stir mayonnaise mixture into flour mixture until combined.
Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out with few crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes.
Let cake cool in pan on wire rack, 1 to 2 hours. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, cut into squares, and serve straight from the pan, or turn cake onto serving platter and dust with confectioners’ sugar.