Chocolate Almond Pudding Cake with Raspberry Sauce

This is as rich and dense as fudge, as gooey and moist as pudding, as light and springy as a cake. It's hard to pinpoint a single description, except maybe"intense chocolate dessert." The recipe is an adaptation of a dish Susanna Hoffman and I developed when we were writing The Well-Filled Microwave Cookbook. It works for the pressure cooker for the same reasons it works in the microwave: almost no flour to toughen or weigh down the batter and steam cooking as the method of choice.

 

Makes one 1-quart pudding cake, or 6 to 8 servings

 

	Unsalted butter and granulated sugar, for preparing the dish
2	ounces bittersweet chocolate
2	ounces semisweet chocolate
6	tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter
2	tablespoons Triple Sec or other orange liqueur
2	large eggs, separated
¼	cup granulated sugar
⅓	cup blanched almonds, pulverized in a food processor
2	tablespoons all-purpose flour
2	tablespoons confectioners' sugar, for topping
2	cups Raspberry Sauce (recipe follows), for topping

1. Lightly butter a 1-quart soufflé dish or heatproof glass bowl that will fit inside the pressure cooker. Sprinkle with sugar, turning the dish to coat the bottom and up the sides. Place a trivet in the pressure cooker and pour in 2 cups water.
2. Place the bittersweet and semisweet chocolate, butter, and Triple Sec in a medium-size microwave bowl or small saucepan. Microwave on high for 2 minutes or warm over medium heat until the butter melts and the chocolate softens. Stir, if necessary, to smooth the chocolate. Set aside.
3. Beat the egg yolks with the granulated sugar in a medium-size mixing bowl until pale yellow and thick. Blend in the chocolate mixture, almonds, and flour.
4. In a clean mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold them, one third at a time, into the chocolate and almond mixture. Spoon into the prepared dish and cover with aluminum foil, pinching around the edges to seal. Set the dish on the trivet in the pressure cooker, lock on the lid, and bring to pressure over high heat, about 4 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit for 5 minutes to finish cooking.
5. With the steam vent pointed away from your face, gently release any remaining pressure. Remove the lid and lift off the foil with kitchen tongs. Let sit, uncovered, for at least 20 minutes, or up to 4 hours.
6. When ready to serve, lift the dish out of the pressure cooker. Run a knife around the edge of the dish, set a plate over the top, and invert to unmold the pudding cake. Sift the confectioners' sugar through a fine-mesh sieve over the top of the pudding cake. Serve, accompanied by the raspberry sauce on the side.

Raspberry Sauce

At the height of the season, when raspberries are fragrant to the point of being heady, I take every opportunity to sauce desserts with them. With these, I never sieve out the seeds. Out of season, frozen, dry-pack raspberries make a fine sauce too, but then the seeds should be strained out because they are no longer supple and sweet.

 

Makes about 2 cups

 

2	pints fresh raspberries or two 10- to 12-ounce packages frozen dry-pack raspberries
2 to 3	tablespoons confectioners' sugar, to your taste

Puree the raspberries in a food processor. If desired, press through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the seeds. Sift the sugar into the raspberries and stir to mix. Use right away or refrigerate for up to 3 days.