I love baking in general, but steaming was not necessarily my daily way of cooking. I challenged myself to try pressure cooking lately and a whole new world opened to me. In fact, cooking with pressure was not a new thing for me. My mother gave me a big pressure cooker pot as a present at my wedding. I need to recognise it was a love and hate relationship... I was using it for a while then it was staying for months on the shelf. Now that I think back, I think the main reason was the practicality of that pot.
So, two lovely ladies told me about their experience with the Instant Pot and I convinced myself I want to try it. I can say it was a real turning point in how I am preparing my daily meals. In a short description: healthier and faster. I added as well to my family meals new dishes that looked so complicated before. Now everything happens in one pot...
I love to explore, to test the limits and I tried to bake cakes in it also. I understood what works in it and what is not. Instant Pot cooks with steam and moist types of cakes are appropriate. I baked a classic bundt and turned out OK but it was too dense for my taste. Then, I tried a creme caramel and worked perfectly. This time I made the yoghurt cake with a recipe from my mother. Of course, I had to adapt certain things but I am happy with the result.
This type of cake is usually baked in the oven between filo pastry sheets. I used a biscuit layer instead. I replaced raisins with dried cranberries (to be more accurate I think the ones that I have are actually lingonberries - in French is "airelles", please correct me if I am wrong).
What I love about it is that it is super simple to make it and it is firm enough to keep a slice on your hand and walk away. I gave it also to my kids at school as a snack.
You can play with some decorations and it will look as fancy as you wish.
If you do not have dried cranberries, use raisins or any dried fruits. I haven't tested but I think it works perfectly with fresh berries also. Good idea, I must try this too, could be very interesting.
This cake can be called a pudding. It works with the same principles, a cereal that expends in a diary liquid. What is special though is that I use homemade yoghurt, not milk. Almond essence and lemon zest give a specific and fantastic aroma to this cake.
It will for sure enter into my regular bakes due to its simplicity and delicious taste.
Here are the ingredients...
Ingredients (* for a higher cake see the alternative at the end):
- 140g biscuits (petit beurre)
- 3 eggs
- 50g sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 500g yoghurt
- 1/2 cup (~90g) semolina
- 125g dried cranberries
Directions:
- Prepare a non-stick spring pan, putting parchment paper on the bottom. My pan is 20cm large (9").
- Crash the biscuits on the bottom of the pan. If you prefer, you can avoid crashing them and simply arrange them nicely on the bottom of the pan.
- In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add the sugar.
- Add the almond extract.
- Add the lemon zest.
- Add the yoghurt and mix well.
- Sprinkle semolina over and continue to mix.
- Add the cranberries and stir everything well.
- Pour the composition over the biscuits in the pan.
- In the Instant pot put a trivet on the bottom and add 1-2 cups of water.
- Put the spring pan on the trivet inside the instant pot and cover it with the lid. Using a lid is optional but it will prevent water to drop over the cake.
- Set the Instant Pot on a high level of Pressure Cooking for 35 minutes. Use the natural steam release if you are not in a hurry or you can simply use the Quick Release option.
- Remove the cake from the instant pot and let it cool until it is comfortable to touch the spring pan. During cooling, the cake will retract and it will detach itself from the walls of the spring pan.
- Decorate the cake if you prefer. I used cocoa powder to make a decoration using a stencil.
- Serve it when cooled completely. It can be cooked in advance and kept in the fridge and a few days.
Post edit:
In the same pan, for a taller cake, you can use the following quantities (33% more than above). I used raisins in this alternative:
- 150g biscuits (petit beurre)
- 50g melted butter
- 4 eggs
- 70g sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 665g yoghurt
- 120g semolina
- 160g raisins
Compared to the previous one, I mixed the biscuits with melted butter, put them on the bottom of the pan and keep the pan in the freezer while I prepared the composition.
For this quantity I suggest to extend the pressure cooking to 45 minutes to be sure that the center is cooked evenly.
This is my second higher version.
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