Slow Cooker Chocolate Pudding Cake

Fudgy Chocolate Pudding Cake

When it comes to dessert, do you prefer one that requires a fork or a spoon?  I’m a spoon-person, all the way.  Ice cream, puddings, tiramisu, parfaits, things oozing with chocolate sauce – the creamier and oozier, the better, I say.

And that brings us to today’s cake.  It’s a pudding cake, which is a fancy way of saying “put away the forks, silly.”  So many gluten-free and dairy-free desserts are dry that it's nice to have one that actually oozes and clings to the roof of your mouth.  

This is the second recipe from the America’s Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution (2011).  I love this cookbook and have probably made twenty recipes from it in the two years that I’ve owned it, but this is, hands down, my favorite.  I'd made this pudding cake recipe several times before we had to cut wheat from our diet, but I was eager to see how well it would adapt to gluten-free flours.

Adapting the Recipe

Let me start by saying it adapts beautifully.  I’ve made this cake four times in the past four months, partially because it's that good, and partially because I've been trying to figure out the right balance of wet ingredients to dry.  The first time I made this recipe, I added 3/4 tsp. xanthan gum, but it soaked up all the excess liquid, leaving almost all cake and no pudding.   Still tasty, but I wanted more pudding.  After all, this is supposed to be a dessert you eat with a spoon.

Each successive time I made the recipe, I reduced the xanthan gum, and on my fourth try a week ago, I eliminated it all together and I liked that version best.  (And eliminating the xanthan gum means that it’s a less fussy recipe that has familiar ingredients even my mom would recognize).  Now we’ve finally got a good cake-to-pudding ratio.  It’s mostly cake, with a nice bit of chocolate goo on the bottom.

To make it dairy-free, I’ve substituted either margarine or canola oil for the butter (I like the margarine version a little better) and used non-dairy milk.  I’ve had success with soy milk and almond milk, and I suspect rice milk or coconut milk (the diluted kind in the dairy case, not the thick kind that comes in a can) would work well too.

Verdict?

I have found my happy place.  It’s cake, yes, but it’s one that begs for a spoon so that you can get every moist, gooey, and fudgy bite. 

This cake is dependable and it’s easy.  You can put all of the ingredients in the slow cooker just before a dinner party begins and it’s done by the time you’re asking “Would anyone like some dessert?”  The only downside is that it’s not visually stunning.  It’s comfort food, plain and simple.  You can serve it with whipped cream if you eat dairy or with some sliced berries if you don’t.

This cake has one expected bonus - it travels well.  I travel a fair amount, and I’ve begun to carry a small plastic container of this cake with me on flights.  I used to travel with my own homemade granola bars, but there are so many good gluten-free bars available in airports now (Kind bars and NuGo bars are popping up everywhere) that it’s only in the smallest airports that I find myself at a loss for a tasty bar. 

But a moist, gluten-free chocolate cake?  Heck, anything that’s moist and gluten-free can be hard to come by in a well-stocked grocery store, let alone in an airport.  I took a hunk of this cake with me on a recent trip to Duluth, Minnesota.  I didn’t get to my hotel room til after 11:00 pm that night, and after a long day of travel, I put my feet up, got out my plastic spoon, and dug in.  It’s a cake that makes anyplace feel like home. 

Not glamorous, but a gluten-free chocolate pudding cake that makes your shoulders slump with calm

Ingredients

1 C. all-purpose, gluten-free flour

1 C. sugar, divided

½ C. unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed for a richer flavor, also divided

2 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

½ C. dairy-free milk, either plain or vanilla (such as soy, almond, or rice milk)

4 T. margarine, melted (1/2 stick) or canola oil

1 large egg yolk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

½ C. chocolate chips (or chop up a bar of dark chocolate)

1 C. boiling water

Instructions

First, line the back of your slow cooker (the side where the cord extends to the wall) with a strip of aluminum foil.  Slow cookers tend to heat unevenly, and the aluminum foil will ensure that the parts of the cake nearest the heating element don’t overcook.  Start with a piece of aluminum foil that’s about 18-inches long.  Fold the long edge of the foil up like you’re folding a letter into thirds, folding up the bottom edge first, then folding the top edge over.  When you’re done, you’ll have a strip of aluminum foil that’s about 18-inches long, about 3-inches high, and has three layers.  Stand the aluminum foil strip up along the back of the slow cooker, making it snug against the back and curving it around the sides as best you can. 

Spray the bottom and sides of the slow cooker as well as the aluminum foil strip with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk the gluten-free flour, ½ C. sugar, ¼ C. cocoa, baking powder, and salt until the dry ingredients are uniform in color and the lumps of cocoa powder are broken up.  In a smaller separate bowl or Pyrex measuring cup, whisk the dairy-free milk, margarine or oil, egg yolk, and vanilla.  Stir the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, mixing well.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Spoon the batter into the prepared slow cooker, and use a spatula to spread the batter evenly to the edges. 

In a small bowl, mix the remaining ½ C. sugar and ¼ C. cocoa, then sprinkle this mixture evenly over the top of the batter.  Slowly pour the boiling water over the sugar-cocoa mixture, but DON’T stir.  Just pour.  Cover the cake immediately and cook on HIGH until the top of the cake looks cracked and the sauce is bubbling, about 1 ½ hours.

Turn off the slow cooker (or turn it to “Warm” if yours has that function).  Remove the foil strip and let the cake sit 10-20 minutes before serving.  Scoop into little bowls or cute serving plates and pass out the spoons.

Makes about 6 to 8 servings

Slow Cooker Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

-->

Strawberry-rhubarb jam, easily made in your slow cooker

I realize that most people think of slow cookers as an appliance to dust off in October or November, when they want to make homemade chili or a tender brisket with mashed potatoes.  When we think of slow cookers, we think of warm bowls, filled with soft comfort foods, perfect for a cold night.  Spring is about crunchy asparagus and light fresh foods, right?

But I love my slow cooker and am happy to find excuses to use it all year long. This week, I’m going to offer two recipes that you’ll be glad to make this month.  The first recipe is a strawberry rhubarb jam.  I’ve already posted one strawberry rhubarb jam recipe that you make in your microwave that’s fabulous – tart, sweet, thick and gorgeous.  But as much as I love that recipe, it does require a surprising amount of tending because the jam bubbles over easily.  I wanted a strawberry rhubarb jam that was a little less fussy.  And the slow cooker is about as un-fussy as you can get.  

This recipe comes from the America’s Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution (2011) by, of course, the Editors at America's Test Kitchen.  The original recipe was for “Fresh Strawberry Jam” and though it’s incredibly good, it’s also incredibly sweet.   My adult palate wanted something a little more complex.  A little more like something that would ooze out of a pie and that you’d want to lick off a plate.

Adapting the Recipe

This recipe was already gluten and dairy free, but I did make some changes.   First, I halved the recipe.  The original recipe made 10 whopping cups of jam and since I’m the only jam-eater in our household, that’s about 5 cups too much.  So I halved all of the ingredients except the lemon juice, which I kept at 1 tablespoon because I wanted a little tart flair to my jam.

I also added about 2/3 pound (or 10 oz., give or take) of rhubarb to take advantage of the spring bounty and elevate this good strawberry jam to what I hoped would be a great strawberry-rhubarb jam. 

Verdict?

I made a batch of both recipes – one batch of the microwavestrawberry-rhubarb jam and one batch of this slow cooker strawberry-rhubarb jam so that I could compare them directly.  (What can I say?  I bought a LOT of rhubarb).

Slow cooker recipe:  It’s much easier.  It’s also sweeter than the microwave recipe that I posted and has a stronger strawberry flavor (I think because of that added sugar).  It’s killer on a rice cake with peanut butter, and I made a loaf of gluten-free honey oat bread (pictured above) and it was a little bit of heaven.  And it makes a lot!  I canned most of the jam and know that I’ll be able to enjoy it all year round.  It made 6 cups, and that’s a good amount of jam!

Microwave recipe:  Even though it’s made in the microwave, this recipe for strawberry-rhubarb jam more complicated because you have to keep checking the jam so that it doesn’t boil over (and fishing out the wax paper, which keeps falling in).  The microwave jam is more tart and has a truer rhubarb taste.  I like this one on rice cakes too, but it’s especially good stirred into some Greek yogurt.  It also makes a smaller batch (about 3 cups), so I didn’t have to go to the trouble of canning anything.

So if you want the easier jam or a lot of jam, go with the slow cooker recipe. If you want a little bit of jam and don’t want to have to can anything, go with the microwave recipe.  And then there’s taste – if you prefer a dominant strawberry flavor with a hint of rhubarb, again, go with the slow cooker, and if you want a more prominent rhubarb taste, go with the microwave recipe.

You'll have plenty of jam to give away, or enjoy year-round

Ingredients

2 pounds strawberries

3 ½ C. sugar

2/3 pound (10 oz.) red rhubarb stalks, each stalk chopped into 1 to 2-inch pieces

1 T. lemon juice

pinch of salt

1 (1.75 oz.) box of powdered fruit pectin*

Instructions

Hull the strawberries.  Trim the ends and the leaves off the rhubarb. 

Pulse ½ pound of strawberries (1/4 of the total amount) until almost smooth, about 12-15 pulses.  Pour the strawberry puree into the slow cooker.  Working in batches, pulse the remaining 1 ½ pounds of strawberries and all of the rhubarb in the food processor until coarsely chopped, about 5-7 pulses for each batch. Transfer the chopped strawberries and rhubarb into the slow cooker.

Stir the sugar, lemon juice, and salt into the fruit mixture.  Cover and cook until the fruit is very soft and beginning to disintegrate, which should be 3 ½ - 4 hours on low. 

Place several saucers or small plates in the freezer to chill about 15 minutes. 

Now it’s time to thicken the jam.  None of the liquid has been able to escape in the covered crockpot, so we’re going to thicken it on the stove.  Carefully ladle or pour the jam into a large pot and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat.  Once it’s boiling, stir in the pectin and boil the jam for 1 minute longer.  Then remove the pot from the heat.

Spoon a little bit of jam onto a frozen plate and tilt the plate to a 30-degree angle.  If the jam mostly stays in place and just moves a little, it’s set. If the jam runs down the plate like spilled juice, continue to boil it in 1-minute increments and repeat the frozen plate test until it does.  I had to boil my jam for 3 more minutes until it was thick.

You can either store the jam in your refrigerator – it will be good for approximately 1 month or you can follow a standard canning procedure so that the jam can be stored at room temperature for up to 1 year.   See the directions that come with your canning jars for canning instructions.

Makes about 6 cups of jam

*Be sure to use the powdered pectin, not the liquid kind.

Thick jam, bursting with strawberries, and begging for a lazy Sunday morning

Freebie Files – The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

April's featured cookbook, The Smitten Kitchen

I think I’ve lingered long enough.  I've been pawing my way through Deb Perelman's The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook (2012) for three weeks now, so it’s high-time to list the gluten-free and dairy-free recipes and move on.  To be honest, I just want to stay here a while and adapt a few more recipes from this charming book. 

But I have a great slow-cooker Strawberry Rhubarb Jam that I’m eager to share with you from another cookbook, and that makes it a little easier to let go of this one.  

I count 13 recipes that are both gluten- and dairy-free in The Smitten Kitchen.  Not a huge number, but many of Perelman’s recipes have a sprinkle of feta here or a layer of Monterey jack there, so if you can eat dairy, you’ve got lots of gluten-free options.  And the recipes I have made have all been so tasty.  I'd much rather have 13 amazing gluten-free recipes than 2 or 3 dozen so-so ones.  

I’ve listed 9 of the gluten- and dairy-free recipes that sound the tastiest to me.  What do I think I’ll make first from this list?  Well, halibut is fresh and on sale in our local markets, so the Seared Halibut and Gazpacho Salsa with Tomato Vinaigrette might be on the menu this weekend.  The Spritzy Ginger Lemonade sounds like fun for a backyard party and the Roasted Baby Roots with quinoa and beets sounds like roasted heaven.  I love my roasted beets.

And of course, you can find the three recipes I've adapted from her cookbook and the one recipe I've adapted from her blog:  Low Fat Apple Cake, Maple Walnut Granola, Kale Salad with Honey-Mustard Dressing, Dried Cherries, and Toasted Pecans, and Rhubarb Lemon Coffee Cake.  All keepers.  Thank you, Deb!

Gluten-free and dairy-free recipes from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Vinegar Slaw with Cucumbers and Dill, p. 54

Roasted Baby Roots with Sherry-Shallot Vinaigrette, pp. 76-77

Roasted Tomatoes and Cipollini Onions with White Beans, pp. 141-142

Seared Halibut and Gazpacho Salsa with Tomato Vinaigrette, pp. 159-161

Flat-Roasted Chicken with Tiny Potatoes (made with olive oil, not butter), pp. 173-174

Harvest Roast Chicken with Grapes, Olives, and Rosemary, pp. 175-176

Maya’s Sweet and Sour Holiday Brisket and Roasted Fingerlings and Carrot Coins, pp. 183-185

Spritzy Ginger Lemonade, p. 301

Muddle Puddle Battle, p. 302 (a cocktail made with berries and tequila!  Just be sure to go with the more pricey tequila to be sure it’s made from 100% blue agave plant and is gluten-free)

Low Fat Apple Cake

A moist, low-fat apple cake, with 3 pounds of fresh fruit

I’m really tempted to call this gluten-free treat an “Apple Pie Cake.”  As you can tell from the picture above, it's literally brimming with apples.  But this recipe is also pretty low in fat and calories for an apple cake, so I’m torn on the name.  Here’s what I suggest:  if you’re serving this cake to your mother-in-law and she's told you three times in the past week that she's on a diet, call it “Low Fat Apple Cake.”  If you’re serving it to your supper club who loves the edgy and unusual, call it “Apple Pie Cake.” 

Typically, I only adapt 2 recipes from a given cookbook, but I’ve been so charmed by Deb Perelman’s The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook (2012) that I had to make one more.  This is an adaptation of her “Mom’s Apple Cake,” a cake that Perelman’s mom usually makes for Rosh Hashanah dinner.  Although it sounds wonderful, it had a lot more sugar and fat than I wanted in an apple cake.  (Too much sugar and fat in a chocolate dessert is a given, but when fruit is the headliner, I want something a little healthier). 

If your office has a “take-your-cake-to-work day” (for those of us who don’t have daughters), this is the cake to bring.  It makes a huge cake that serves a lot of people – easily 16 pieces.  And because it’s lower in sugar than those heavily frosted cakes you eat on someone’s birthday, you’re less likely to fall asleep at your desk an hour later. 

Adapting the Recipe

To make the cake gluten-free, I substituted gluten-free, all-purpose flour for the regular flour.  (Trader Joe’s now has a gluten-free, all-purpose flour and I used that here).  I also added some xanthan gum to improve the texture of the cake.  The cake was already dairy-free, so no big changes there.

To make it healthier, I reduced the oil from 1 full cup to 2/3 cup of oil and substituted applesauce for the rest.  After all, it is an apple cake, so the applesauce should pair well.  I reduced the sugar by about 25%, and I also reduced the walnuts slightly, from 1 full cup to ¾ cup.  Walnuts are quite good for you in moderation, plus they offer a wonderful texture contrast to the juicy apples.  I did toast the walnuts to bring out the maximum flavor.  And if you don’t like walnuts, leave them out.

Verdict?

This easily gets a 4 ½ stars out of 5. It’s moist and tender, juicy with apples, and crunchy with walnuts.  It's sweet without being too sweet, and you could serve it for breakfast, afternoon tea, or dessert.  It’s the kind of cake that sneaks up on you in the very best way.  Your first bite, you think “That’s pretty good.”  In your third bite, you’re thinking, “I really like this.”  By the time you finish that first piece, you’re thinking “That’s amazing,” and you’re wiping off the knife for a second round.  At which point, you’ll be reassuring yourself that it’s low fat.

The only thing keeping this cake from a full 5 stars out of 5 is that it’s hard to cut into nice, neat slices.  It looks gorgeous whole, especially with the powdered sugar on top, but it’s so dense with apples that the cake falls apart a bit when you move it from the serving platter to individual plates.  It still tastes incredible, but it’s prettier before you cut it.

The finished cake, dressed in confectioner's sugar

Ingredients

6 apples (2 ½ to 3 pounds, or 1 1/8 to 1 1/3 kilos), washed and dried

1 T. ground cinnamon

1 ½ C. (300 grams) plus 5 T. (65 grams) granulated sugar

2 ¾ C. (345 grams) gluten-free, all-purpose flour

1 ¼ tsp. xanthan gum

1 T. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/3 C. vegetable oil (80 ml) vegetable oil

2/3 C. unsweetened (155 ml) applesauce

¼ C (60 ml) orange juice (preferably freshly squeezed, but go with what you’ve got)

2 ½ tsp. vanilla extract

4 large eggs

¾ C (95 grams) walnuts (optional)

Confectioner’s (powdered) sugar, for decoration

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius) and move your top oven rack just below the middle position.  You want plenty of room above it for the tall cake pan.  

Spread the walnuts in single layer on a baking pan or sheet.  Toast the walnuts for 7 minutes.  If they smell delicious, they are done.  If they don’t smell delicious yet, stir them around, spreading them back in a single layer, and toast for 2 minutes more.  If they still don’t smell delicious, stir, spread, and toast for 1 minute more.  At this point, the walnuts should be done, and baking longer risks burning them.  Set the pan aside to let the walnuts cool.

Coat a 10-inch tube pan with nonstick spray, being sure to get the center column on all sides and to spray the inside edges where the sides of the pan meets the bottom of the pan.  These 90-degree angles are where the cake is most likely to stick.

Core and chop the apples into ½- to 3/4-inch chunks.  You can peel the apples if you like, but the peels hold so many of the nutrients that I prefer to leave the peels on, and you won’t notice them in this cake.  In a large bowl, toss the apples with all of the cinnamon and 5 T. of the sugar, then set them aside.

In another large bowl (yes, this takes multiple bowls, but at least you don’t have to make a frosting!), combine the gluten-free flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt, whisking until the dry ingredients are well-combined and the xanthan gum is evenly distributed.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, applesauce, orange juice, remaining 1 ½ cups of sugar, vanilla, and eggs.  Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture, scraping down the bowl as you mix to make sure none of the dry ingredients are being hold-outs.  Stir in the cooled walnuts if you are using them.

Pour half of the well-stirred batter into the greased pan.  Spoon half of the chopped apples over the batter.  Pour the rest of the batter over the apples, then arrange the remaining apples on top in an even layer.  Some of these apples will sink into the batter, but most of them will remain on top, and that’s going to look special. 

Bake the cake for 1 hour 40 minutes – 1 hour 50 minutes, or until a tester inserted near the center column comes out clean.  Transfer the cake to a rack to cool, cooling it completely in the pan.

Once it’s cooled, run a thin knife between the outer edge of the cake and the pan to loosen the cake.  You’re going to flip the cake twice to get the prettiest side up.  Place a sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper on a plate (not your serving platter). Place the inverted plate on top of the cake, and flip the cake onto the plate, tapping it lightly to loosen the cake from the pan.  Now the flat part of the cake is facing up – we want this to be on the bottom and get those gorgeous apples back on top.  Place the actual serving platter on top of the cake, and flip the cake one more time.  Peel away the plastic wrap or wax paper.  Cover the cake until you’re ready to serve.

When you are ready to serve the cake, sprinkle it generously with powdered sugar.  It looks best if you sprinkle it through a sieve, but do whatever is easiest for you.  The powdered sugar will absorb into the cake, so you want to do it right before you serve it for the prettiest effect.

Serves 12 people who really love apples or 16-18 office colleagues who are trying not to look like gluttons