Cast Iron Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

I took a risk and used first time company as gunny pigs for this recipe....

AND I DIDN'T REGRET IT!!

To quote my 18 year old brother: "This is AMAZING!!" 

Here is how to do it!! 

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Melt 1/2 Cup Butter in your favorite CAST IRON skillet. 

Add 1 Cup Brown Sugar and mix till it is melted into the butter.

Drain a 20 ounce can of Pineapple (sliced or diced - I used diced cause that's what I had on hand) and reserve 1/3 cup of the juice. Drink the rest :D

Arrange the Pineapple over the brown sugar and butter.

Sprinkle 1/3 cup chopped Pecans over the top.

In a large mixing bowl, beat 3 Egg Yolks (set the whites aside) until thick and lemon colored. 

Gradually add 1 cup white Sugar.

Blend in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and reserved pineapple juice. 

Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and a dash of salt - beat well!

Beat your 3 egg whites on high speed till stiff peaks form.

Fold into batter. 

Spoon into your CAST IRON skillet.

Bake at 375* for 30 -35 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes our clean. 

Let cool for 10 minutes. Invert onto a plate. 

ENJOY!!! 

I think it was a hit!! The next time I walked by these pieces were gone too! 

Fryin' in Cast Iron

One of my hearts desires is to go to Israel someday!
So I've been thinkin' that I should sharpen up on my Israeli cooking skills!
Well.....one thing about having little ones in the house is that appearance is key to their opinion of the meal.
That being said...my first attempt at an Israeli dish did not go over so hot with them.
Israeli Shakshuka I though it tasted great and will make it again someday but as you see.... is not the most visually appealing....

So....my second attempt at Israeli cooking was a little bit more KID friendly :)

SUFGANIYOT

I have read that during Hanukkah in some Israeli communities, vendors sell these filled buns by the basket full! 

Here is how you make them! 

Place 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 (1/4-ounce) packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons) and 1/2 teaspoon fine salt in a stand mixer and whisk to combine. 

Add 2 egg yolks and 3/4 cup of warm (115*F) milk and mix for 1 minute. 

Add 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter (room temp.) 

Increase mixer speed to medium and mix until smooth, shiny, and elastic (about 5 minutes).

Form dough into a ball and place in greased bowl.

Cover and let rise for 1 hour. 

After an hour lightly flour a baking sheet; set aside. 

Punch down dough, transfer to a lightly floured work surface, and roll until about 1/4 inch thick. 

Using a 2-inch round cutter, stamp out as many dough rounds as possible and place on the prepared baking sheet about 1/2 inch apart. 

Cover loosely & let rise in a warm place until puffy and about 1/2 inch thick, about 30 minutes.

Place 6 cups of vegetable or canola oil in a deep CAST IRON pan and set over medium heat until the temperature reaches 350°F on a candy/fat thermometer. 

While that is heating, line a second baking sheet with paper towels and set aside. 

Place 2/3 cup jam or jelly  in a piping bag fitted with a 1/4-inch round tip; set aside.

Once your oil reaches temp. transfer the dough rounds into the oil. Leaving at least 1 inch of space in between and keeping the oil temperature at 350°F. Fry until the bottoms are golden brown, about 1 1/2 minutes. Carefully flip with tongs and fry until the second side is golden brown, about 1 1/2 minutes more. Remove with a slotted spoon or tongs to the wire rack. Repeat till all are fried. 

When the buns are cool enough to handle make a  puncture in one side, place the tip of the piping bag into the hole and pipe about 1 teaspoon of jam or jelly inside. 

Dust with powdered sugar and ENJOY!!! 

The little people ASKED if they could have MORE!!! SUCCESS!! :D 

In the Kitchen

I <3 to cook and bake, try new recipes and create my own concoctions! Sometimes they are good and other times they are.... well...."tasty". This is a very neutral term you see....everything has flavor right? ....whether or not it is a good flavor or bad :P In our family "tasty" is a more gentle way to say "you don't need to make THAT again" :P I am in no way going to tern this blog into one of those cooking blogs. I have far to many other things that I would rather spend my time doing. But, just for sheer fun every now and then I may post a recipe :)

This morning I was about to start breakfast and Luke piped in that he had a hankerin' for some fried apples. Hmmm...fried apples and apple/pecan pancakes...that sounds good! Luke joined me in the kitchen this morning and fried up some amazin' apples!

I very highly dislike that recipes are always written out with the list of ingredient and then at the bottom are the instructions. You have to scan back and forth, back and forth from top to bottom. It's quite tedious. I kind of understand that you want to be able to see at a glance all the ingredients required but I personally would prefer to have the process alongside the ingredients! So since this is my blog, I can do it how I like right! :D

APPLE PECAN PANCAKES

Mix together: 

1 Egg

1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 Cup Rolled Oats

1 Cup Milk

1 T Baking Powder

1 t Baking Soda

1 T Sugar or Honey

Dash Salt

2 t Cinnamon

Shot of Vanilla Extract  

Chop 3/4 Cup of Pecans to desired fineness and add to mixture 

Heat CAST IRON griddle till a drop of water sizzles when splashed on the service.

Grease griddle with some kind of fat product. I like to use bacon grease!

Apply 1/3 cup of batter to griddle and cook till bubbles on the service of the pancake begin to pop.

Cook on opposite side till the edges are no longer gooey. 

FRIED APPLES 

Luke did this process for me! He is such a cool brother! :) 

Slice apples 

Heat a skillet and apply a hardy layer of butter.

Arrange Apples in the skillet.

Apply a good coating of Cinnamon Sugar, flip and repeat.

Allow apples to fry till beginning to caramelize, flip and repeat. 

Make sure that you don't get the skillet so hot that the sugar burns! :/

Scoop apples into a bowl including the syrup that has formed in the skillet!

Server over pancakes! 

ENJOY! 

Seriously....you don't even need maple syrup on these! :)