Cookbook Countdown: Chocolate Pudding

I'm hoping to find a recipe for a fast and easy dessert from the pressure cooker. Tonight we had Chocolate Pudding (p205), from Patricia Phillips' Pressure Cooking is Pleasure Cooking. This was tasty, but more cake-like than pudding-like, and not definitely not fast to assemble.

The "pudding" is made very like a cake. First you cream together butter and sugar*, then add a beaten egg. Dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa) are sifted together. These are added alternately with milk.

* Because this is is a U.S. cook book, I cut the sugar from 3/4cup to 1/2cup. This is one of the few times when reducing the sugar wasn't actually necessary.

The batter goes in a buttered mold; I used the middle of my three nested Pyrex bowls. This is covered securely with aluminum foil. As advised in one of my pressure cooker books, I also used a long strip of folded foil placed under the bowl to help lift the bowl from the cooker.

This is cooked for 15 minutes at no pressure, just the steam escaping from the exhaust. Then for 25 minutes at pressure. Finally, you let the pressure drop of its own accord. A very cake-like "pudding" emerged.

Topped with a bit of cream, this was pretty tasty.  Not the pudding I expected from the title (if not from the ingredients and procedure), but still good.

January starts a new year with Cookbook Countdown. Why don't you choose a book, or two, or more, from your cookbook shelf and join in?

Cookbook Countdown: Peach Pudding

Dessert from the pressure cooker is an intriguing idea. I have marked a couple of recipes to try this month. Tonight I used one of my earliest pressure cooker cookbooks, Pressure Cooking is Pleasure Cooking, by Patricia Phillips.

I made Peach Pudding (p203). I didn't do the best job of this but it was quite tasty if not pretty. First of all, I neglected to butter the mold, so the pudding didn't come out in very good shape. 

And, I was a bit rushed putting it together and omitted the sugar and salt—oops. We served sprinkled a bit of brown sugar on at the table and it was fine. We used so little sugar that I'd guess that the sugar in the recipe could easily be reduced by half.

This pudding is quite easy to assemble. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. (I just stirred these together, overlooking the sugar and salt in my haste.) Cut in some butter. In a smaller bowl, beat two eggs lightly and add milk. Stir this into the flour mixture, then stir in sliced, canned peaches. Pour into a buttered mold. I used the middle of the three nested Pyrex bowls. It was slightly fuller than the 2/3 full recommended, but this turned out not to be a problem. Tightly cover the mold with aluminum foil. Place on a rack in the pressure cooker, add five cups of water, and close it up. 

A new technique to me, the pudding cooks for 15 minutes with no pressure, just letting the steam escape. Then you add the regulator or turn it to full pressure and let the dish cook for 30 minutes. Release the pressure quickly, remove the foil, and let the pudding stand before removing it from the bowl.

This is the pudding just out o the pressure cooker, which is in the sink on the right. On the left behind you can see the foil and the lid to the cooker. 

Since I neglected to butter the mold, the presentation wasn't pretty, but you don't eat the presentation, do you? It was very tasty. Two of us piggies ate half of what should serve 6-8.

January starts a new year with Cookbook Countdown. Why don't you choose a book, or two, or more, from your cookbook shelf and join in?