My Kitchen Clatter

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Pressure Cooker “Baked” Beans

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My mom has a great baked bean recipe for the crock pot. It takes anywhere from 3- 6 hours to cook in the crock pot and uses canned beans. I have tried and tried to convert her recipe to use soaked, dried beans in the crock pot, but I’ve finally decided I don’t have the patience for them to cook that long. Plus the sauce never got thick enough with the soaked beans. Enter the pressure cooker. After trying several different baked bean recipes for the pressure cooker, I finally found one that came close to what I wanted. A little tweaking and used the seasoning in my mom’s recipe, and I think we have a winner!

Pressure Cooker “Baked” Beans
Author: Andrea
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
This is an update of my moms crock baked beans. Plan ahead and soak your beans the night before. Soak extra and freeze them and save time the next time you make this recipe.
Ingredients
  • 2 cups of dried beans – navy is traditional, but I use a combination of pinto, black, butter and kidney.
  • 6-8 thick cut slices of bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 1 small onion, roughly chopped
  • 2 1/2 cup of water
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 T molasses
  • 1/4 c catsup
  • 1 t mustard
  • 1/4 t salt
Instructions
  1. The night before or morning of, rinse and soak beans in clean water. Cover by at least three inches of water. After 8-12 hours, drain. You should have about 4 cups of soaked beans, or about 2 pounds.
  2. Heat pressure cooker to sauté and brown bacon. When bacon is almost done, add onion and sauté another 3 or 4 minutes until onion is translucent.
  3. Add drained beans, 2 1/2 cup of water, brown sugar, molasses, catsup, mustard and salt. Stir.
  4. Lock lid on pressure cooker and cook at high pressure for 35 minutes. When timer beeps, turn pressure cooker off and wait 10 minutes. After 10 minutes use a quick pressure release to release any remaining pressure. Discard any beans that are floating. Check several beans to see if they’re tender. If not, pressure cook 5 minutes longer and check again.
  5. Leave lid off. Turn pressure cooker to simmer and simmer beans uncovered, stirring occasionally so the bottom doesn’t burn, until the sauce is the desired consistency.
  6. * If you don’t have time for an overnight soak, use the browning setting to bring 6 cups of water to a boil. Boil beans for two minutes. Turn pressure cooker off and let beans soak one hour. Proceed with the recipe as directed.

 

Easy Mini Chocolate Lava Cake in the Pressure Cooker

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This is a take on one of my favorite chocolate cakes. I’ve modified it to make individual cakes using my pressure cooker. I’ve also made this recipe as easy as possible to make – we often make it in my pressure cooking classes and I don’t like to unnecessarily complicate things during those classes!

The first thing you’ll want to do is find small jars or ramekins for baking the cakes. I use 4 ounce Ball glass jelly jars for making this recipe. I find that size is just about the right size for individual cakes in our house. You are welcome to use larger jars or ramekins – just adjust the cooking time up 2-3 minutes if you are using larger containers.

I typically make this in my 8 quart stovetop cooker, because I can easily fit eight small 4-ounce jars in this cooker. Once you make a layer of jars on the bottom of the cooker, you can stack a second layer on top of those. Stack the jars so they are slightly off-set from each other, kind of like if you were staking a solo cup tower. Depending on the size of your electric cooker, the second layer can be harder to fit – in that case, just cook them in two batches.

Also, I use chocolate chips in this recipe as the chocolate. I don’t use anything fancy for the chocolate – I use whatever is around the house, which is typically Kirkland brand chips. They end up tasting pretty darn good. I also think that the espresso powder that I use helps to intensify the chocolate flavor. I get mine from King Arthur Flour and I use the tiniest bit so my kids can’t taste the coffee –  a little of this special ingredient goes a long way. Feel free to leave the expresso powder out, if you don’t have it.

Easy Mini Chocolate Lava Cake in the Pressure Cooker
Author: Andrea
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
This is a super quick and easy chocolate dessert in the pressure cooker. If
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 4 ounces chocolate chips
  • 1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
  • 2 eggs at room temperature * see note at bottom of recipe.
  • 3 egg yolks at room temperature *see note at bottom of recipe
  • 1/2 t instant coffee granules or espresso powder (optional)
  • 1 t vanilla
  • 1/2 cup (2 ounces) flour – white or finely ground whole wheat pastry flour)
  • 1/4 t salt
  • whipped cream or ice cream for serving (optional)
Instructions
  1. Butter or oil 8, 4 ounce ramekins or jars.
  2. Chop up butter and melt with chocolate chips in the microwave. Cook for 30 seconds, stir, add 30 seconds and stir again. Be sure to stir – the chips don’t just melt and tell you they are melted. Let this mixture cool a bit to room temperature.
  3. Using a wooden spoon, stir confectioners sugar into melted chocolate.
  4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and egg yolks together.
  5. Stir eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, instant coffee granules (if using) into the chocolate.
  6. Using a wooden spoon, add flour and salt to the chocolate mixture, stirring until combined.
  7. Divide the batter evenly between the ramekins. Don’t overfill, because they will puff up a bit during baking.
  8. Put one cup of water and a steamer rack in your pressure cooker. Stack the ramekins in the pressure cooker. Use two layers, if necessary.
  9. Follow your pressure cooker’s instructions and cook at high pressure for 5 minutes. Turn off the keep warm setting. Allow to natural release for 5-10 minutes, depending on how gooey you like the center.
  10. After the natural release period, release remaining pressure using the quick release method and serve warm. These are great with whipped cream or a little ice cream.
  11. If not serving right away, you can set the lid back on the cooker after releasing pressure and they will stay warm for about 30-45 minutes.
  12. Note on eggs – the 2 eggs plus 3 egg yolks makes an excellent cake, but if you don’t feel like messing with the extra egg whites, you can make this recipe with four eggs. It will be a little less rich, but great, nonetheless.