Foodie Friday - Apple Skillet Cake

 

 

 

I love cast iron skillets. I'm Southern woman, it's a requirement. I grew up cooking with my mother's perfectly seasoned cast iron skillets and they do make all the difference in the world for certain dishes. Perfectly cooked deer tenderloin? Perfectly fried chicken? Beautiful sausage gravy (or really any gravy of any kind)? That's right I break out the black cast iron.

When I got married and people found out I liked to cook I got a plethora of skillets. I received a three piece set of Bayou Classic skillets (great brand, pre-seasoned), a cast iron grill pan, and then my husband already had a huge Lodge skillet, and right after we married we found an old, seasoned, ready to go griddle on eBay. I mean a woman just can't call herself a wife unless she has what we call a "baker" in my family. When my father in law passed away my husband brought me one of his 10 inch skillets. I don't know the maker, it looks like it's a 100 years old, and it's perfect and I love it. I get to think of Mr. Jackie every time I use it. I've got several other things like a cornbread stick pan, never can get my cornbread not to stick in that thing, and several cast iron Dutch ovens.

My pots and pan storage runneth over.

Oh, and the Le Creuset enameled cast iron Dutch oven. A thing of true beauty.

Yea, I love my cookware ok? Don't judge me. I could collect something horrible like snakes or something.

If you're just getting started with cast iron pan cooking all you really need to get is a 10 inch skillet. You can fry in it, you can sauté in it, you can bake in it, it makes glorious gravy, and they are super common and easy to find. Go to any yard sale, garage sale, flea market, or junk sale and I promise you'll find one for cheap. Make sure it's seasoned, there are tons of tutorials online - Lodge has great videos on their website on seasoning, care, and cleaning.

I can hear you say, "Ok, Lana, I have a cast iron skillet, it's seasoned, ready to go, and you somewhere in here promised a recipe so let's get on with it." I hear ya. I have a recipe that will show you how simple it is to go from stovetop to oven to table with this wonderful piece of cooking equipment. (Really, it's bad enough I put things in parenthesis, now I'm going to talk like a bad Food Network host? Bear with me gentle reader.)

 

 

This my lovelies is Apple Skillet Cake. I've had apple skillet cake where it was more like a cake/coffee cake someone baked in a skillet, but this recipe is more like a custard or Dutch baby. If you don't know what a Dutch baby is we need to talk. Anyway, this is a beautiful dessert. You can serve it alone or with a scoop of ice-cream or whipped cream or I think it would make a great breakfast. Drizzle with a little maple syrup or dust with powdered sugar and dig in with a cup of coffee. Ridiculously easy and just a few ingredients. Ready? Let's go.

Apple Skillet Cake

Preheat oven to 375F

2 Tablespoons butter
3 Granny Smith apples peeled and sliced
2 Tablespoons light brown sugar
3/4 cup all purpose flour sifted
1/4 cup of sugar
1/2 Teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 cups of milk
3 eggs
2 Teaspoons Vanilla extract

Melt butter in a 10 inch iron skillet over medium high heat. Add apples and cook for two to three minutes. Add the brown sugar, white sugar, salt, and cinnamon, stir well and continue to cook until the apples are fork tender.

In a bowl combine the eggs and milk and whisk together well. Add the flour and stir until combined and there are no lumps. (I sifted my four directly into the bowl, one less dish to clean up.) Add in the vanilla and stir well again.

When the apples are done pour liquid mixture over apples and stir until combined. (You might want to temper the liquid mixture as it does have eggs and pouring a cool mixture with eggs into a hot pan might not be the best idea. The original recipe did not mention doing this but I did.)

Bake for about 50 minutes or until golden brown and set. This will puff up but once cool will settle down into the pan much like a Dutch baby or baked pancake.  The only thing I hate about this particular one I made is it puffed up so much in the middle it cracked.  It doesn't hurt the taste any, and I'll just be like the Pioneer Woman and call it rustic.  Becuase honestly, that's what this is.  A fancy French dessert this is not. 

Again, serve as a dessert or as a breakfast either way it's wonderful. I looked up the nutritional facts on this at http://caloriecount.about.com and it's not too bad. If you cut this into 8 servings this is only 169 calories per serving! I hope you like it and as always if you do make it please let me know!