Even if you forget your brownies are in there for TWO HOURS, they won’t burn. (Yep, I’ve done that.) Since these brownies are cooked with steam pressure, they also won’t dry out or brown around the edges. This means you don’t have to worry about acrylamide forming, like you might in the oven.
Because the Instant Pot keeps baked goods so moist, your batter needs to be thicker, almost like play-doh. Instead of pouring it into a pan, you’ll need to use your hands to flatten it into the bottom of the pan and then gently press the dark chocolate chips on top, if you want a double-chocolate-style brownie. (I highly recommend this.)
How to Make Instant Pot Brownies
To “bake” these brownies, you’ll need to pour a cup of water into the bottom of your Instant Pot. This is the water that will boil and will bring your pot to pressure. Place the trivet that comes with your electric pressure cooker over that water, then place the pan of brownies on top of that. I like to cover my pan to protect it from condensation that could drip on the brownies, so I do that with an upside down plate. (Just make sure it’s oven safe and the same diameter as your pan.) Alternatively, you could cover the brownies with another sheet of parchment paper or with foil.
These brownies only need to cook at high pressure for 15 minutes, but keep in mind that you’ll need to wait roughly 10 minutes for the pot to come to pressure before the cooking cycle begins. You’ll also need to wait another 10 minutes after the cooking cycle is over before you can take off the lid, so plan on these brownies taking closer to 30 minutes total. But all of that time is totally hands-off, so you can do something else around the house.
Recipe Notes:
You can make this recipe vegan by using a flax egg instead of a chicken egg, and adding 1 teaspoon of vinegar to help react with the baking soda. In this case, increase the pressure cooking time to 25 minutes and follow the rest of the instructions as given. Feel free to use cashew butter, sunflower seed butter, or peanut butter instead of almond butter, if you like. I have not tested these brownies with another sweetener, so experiment at your own risk, and please leave a comment below if you try something different. We can all benefit from your experience!
– Reader Feedback: Have you tried baking in your Instant Pot yet?
