Looking for a vegan gluten free chocolate cake that everyone can love? Look no further than this Moist Chocolate Cake from Jill Nussinow’s new cookbook Vegan Under Pressure. (Wait – pressure?!?! That’s right – it’s made in a pressure cooker!) We know that’s a lot of information to process in just a few sentences. So just to recap: It’s chocolate cake, it’s vegan, it’s gluten free, it’s made in a pressure cooker. And it’s delicious.
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We first tried this vegan gluten free chocolate cake when we met Jill at at event at Melissa’s Produce. And we knew it was going to be a popular recipe soon after we posted the above picture of it on social media. Within a matter of hours, messages flooded our inbox. (“I need that recipe!”)
To be fair, the entire book contains beautiful plant-based recipes that you can make in the pressure cooker. But there’s just something about this rich and gooey chocolate cake that makes everyone, vegan or non-vegan alike, want to say, “May I please have just one more slice?” (Quick refresher: Vegan refers to a diet or foods made with no animal products, so there are no eggs, milk, or butter.)
Vegan Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Recipe
Vegan and Gluten Free Pressure Cooker Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- Vegetable cooking spray
- 1 cup all-purpose gluten-free baking flour
- 1/3 cup almond flour Note: We used oat flour in place of almond flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 6 T cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
- 1/4 cup Sucanat Note: We used 3/4 cup granulated sugar in place of both of the sugars mentioned here
- 3 T. golden or brown flaxseeds ground
- 1/2 cup plus 3 T. water
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1 T. white vinegar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips or chocolate pieces
Instructions
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Spray a 1 1/2 - to 2-quart casserole dish that fits into your pressure cooker with cooking spray. Prepare the dish with a "helper handle" to enable you to lift the dish out of your pressure cooker: Cut two two-foot lengths of aluminum foil, and fold them lengthwise to make two long straps. Cross one over the other and staple in the center to make an x-shaped handle. Place the bowl on top of the "x"
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In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa, and mix well.
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In a medium bowl, combine the sugar(s), flax, water, applesauce, vinegar, and vanilla. Let sit for five minutes, until the flax seeds get a little sticky.
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Quickly stir together the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients, along with the chocolate chips, until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared dish. Cover the dish.
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Add 1 cup water to the pressure cooker. Add a trivet or rack to elevate the dish above the water. Lower the dish into the pressure cooker using the helper handles.
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Lock on the lid. Bring the cooker to high pressure; cook for 22 minutes. Let the pressure come down naturally. Carefully open the cooker, turning the lid away from you. Use the helper handles to carefully remove the casserole dish, and uncover it.
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Let the dish cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes, and then invert it to turn out the cake. Turn the cake back over so the top side is up. Cool and serve with desired garnishes (we used powdered sugar and raspberries).
To make the cake, start with a mix of gluten-free flours. Then add the wet ingredients, including ground flax seeds that have had a chance to sit in liquid and turn “sticky.” Then pour the batter into a prepared casserole dish. To make the casserole dish easy to lift in and out of the pressure cooker, we prepared custom aluminum foil “helper handles.”
Recipe Notes
A few extra notes on the recipe: 1) We didn’t have almond flour on hand (almond meal is not the same as almond flour, just FYI) so we subbed oat flour for the almond flour without any noticeable difference. 2) We didn’t have coconut palm sugar or Sucanat on hand, so we used regular granulated sugar, and it was perfectly delicious. 3) As far as the pressure cooker goes, don’t get flustered by having to make a “helper handle.” It’s basically just a little foil cradle for your casserole dish so you can lift it easily out of the pressure cooker.
Last but not least, we made this recipe with Sitram’s Sitra Pro stovetop pressure cooker. However, you can also make it with an electric pressure cooker (Instant Pot being the most familiar type).
And… voila! Here’s your perfect moist and rich vegan gluten free chocolate cake. As we mentioned, it’s appealing to just about anyone. Jill says she serves it for her son’s birthday parties, and we recently served it at a dinner party. Were there leftovers? Ha ha ha ha! Don’t be silly. Not a crumb was left behind.
Seriously – give the book a look, and don’t just stop at the cake. There’s a whole array of beautiful vegan dishes that you can cook in your pressure cooker. And then go ahead and make the cake.
P.S. Looking for another delicious vegan and gluten-free cake? Try our fresh fig cake !
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Blogger disclosure: I was given a complimentary copy of Jill Nussinow’s cookbook “Vegan Under Pressure,” as well as a complimentary pressure cooker from Sitram at a Melissa’s Produce press event. I did not otherwise receive compensation for this post. This post contains affiliate links to my Amazon affiliate account. All opinions expressed are my own.
This recipe sounds really yummy! Perfect for my chocolate-loving, GF kiddo! Such pretty pics too! 🙂
Thanks, Valentina! It is so tasty – I hope you get to try it!