Continue reading]]> I used to have a crock pot, a rice cooker, and a steamer.  Now I just have an instant pot pressure cooker.  It slow cooks, steams, and pressure cooks.  Best of all, it makes the most amazing rice in about 15 minutes!  It’s so easy, all you do is pour the rice and water in, put the lid on, plug it in and press a button to start it.  It’s that easy!

Instant Pot Rice Recipe

2 cups white rice

3 1/2 cups water

1 tsp coconut oil

1/4 tsp. salt

Check out our pressure cooking section for more instant pot recipes!  We add more all the time so stay tuned.

Continue reading]]> I love using my new Instant Pot Pressure Cooker so much I use it to cook pretty much every single dinner I make!  It was important to me to get a pressure cooker that was easy to use, safe, and didn’t have a Teflon insert because of so many health concerns coming from Teflon peeling and getting into food.  Most of the new modern 5-in-1 pots are made from Teflon, so I chose the Instant Pot because it’s stainless steel and I’m so happy I did.  It did cost a bit more than the teflon counterparts, but it’s much more durable and heavy duty and conducts the heat much more evenly for consistent results.  It also has more settings.  It can bake, steam, brown, pressure cook, rice cook, slow cook.  I can get rid of my slow cooker and rice cooker so it saves space.  You can just about make any recipe in just one pot.  Brown onions and ground beef right in the pot, then add sauce and noodles and pressure cook.  After it’s done it will stay on warm for as long as you leave it.  It’s wonderful!  It makes great soups as well.

Anyhow, here’s the pressure cooker chocolate cake recipe.  It’s adapted from a recipe from my sister in law, Sara. I am gluten free, so here is the gluten free version.  It is very moist, you won’t even know it’s GF!  You can make it non-gluten free just by substituting a regular cake mix.  The recipe made 2 cakes in the small bunt cake pan that I had, so you can half the recipe if you only want to make 1 small cake.  However, I suggest making the whole batch, because everyone will want seconds or you can eat one and freeze one. *note: if you use a non-gluten free cake mix, it may make 3 cakes, as GF cake mixes generally are only a half  or three quarters of a regular cake mix).

RECIPE:

1 box Gluten Free Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix
1 6 ox. box of chocolate pudding
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. melted Earth Balance butter (dairy free)
1/2 c. + 2 Tablespoons water
1 c. dairy free chocolate chips
1 c. vegan sour cream substitute

Step #1 Place trivet and 1 cup water in your pressure cooker as shown

Step #2 Mix Ingredients

Mix cake/pudding mixes and sugar. Add oil and water. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Add sour cream and chocolate chips. Make sure you have a bundt pan that will fit in your pressure cooker. Grease and flour your bundt pan (I used cocoa powder instead of flour so the cake wouldn’t have white on the outside). Pour in cake batter to 1/2 to 3/4 full and leave uncovered.  Place filled bundt pan on trivet in pressure cooker.

Step #3 Cook

Put lid on.  Manual pressure cook (high pressure) for 28 minutes.  Release steam after cooking cycle is done by flipping the switch on the top of the lid from seal to venting.  Remove lid carefully as not to get water on the top of the cake. Remove bundt pan with tongs or a fork and cool for 5 minutes.  Invert bundt onto a cooling rack and let cool for 40 minutes.  Serve with fresh blended fruit sauce (1/4 cup pureed fruit, and a few tablespoons powdered sugar blended up) or fresh whipped cream (coconut milk whipped cream would be tasty and dairy free too).

The cake didn’t rise as much as I thought it would.  In fact I’m not sure if it rose at all, so it’s possible you could fill the pan more full than I did.  Also, I think this cake would be wonderful with other mixins besides chocolate chips.  How about coconut, peanut butter, strawberry or orange flavor (not all together of course).  I bet it could be made with a white cake with lemon zest and white chocolate chips as well.  Yum!

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I just discovered this fall and winter fruit and it’s exotic tasting!  I love persimmons, I think they’re so cute!  They taste a little spicy (like fall) and a little sweet.  They are good to eat just like an apple or to cut up like a tomato (you don’t eat the core of the persimmon).  I bought a lot of persimmons at Costco and wanted to use them to make a cake.  Holy Hannah, it was gone in less than 2 seconds.  It was carmely and moist and oh so good!

I had just received my pressure cooker in the mail so I wanted to try out a cake because I heard they are so moist.  Yes, they are!  However, I would suggest a separate cake pan insert.  I cooked mine right in the pressure cooker pan and it got kindof burned on the bottom.  The taste was still heavenly, and no one cared, but just so you know (see photo below).

Here’s what the finished product looked like and I know it looks kindof bland and boring, but it tastes a lot better than it looks, especially when served warm.  It’s pretty heavenly.  I hope you will have a chance to try our this persimmon cake recipe for yourself!

If you have any questions, please post a comment and I will answer as soon as I can.  Enjoy!