Pineapple Upside Down Cake

 

My great-grandmother made pineapple upside-down cake all the time when I was a kid, and I absolutely loved it. I loved it so much, it is one of the first recipes I tried when I was first learning how to bake. It was not an easy one to start out with, though. I remember countless times flipping the cake only to find that some of the cake stuck to the pan, or the brown sugar/butter mixture didn't absorb into the cake and ran all over the counter top. I still ate it, and I'm sure I gained a few pounds in the process.

Thinking back on it now, I'm not sure my great-grandmother turned the whole cake upside-down before serving it. I remember the cake staying in the pan, with her flipping the individual pieces over as they were served. I was always anxious to see how much pineapple I got, or if I was lucky to get a cherry. I did a write-up on my great-grandmother's recipe over on Family Tree-Eats if you'd like to check it out, but this is the Alton Brown version I went to after failing on hers so many times.

The recipes are pretty similar, except this one uses cornmeal and is baked in a cast iron skillet.  Baking a cake in a cast iron skillet!?  That's what I'm talking about! The finished product is perfectly crispy around the edges and moist and fluffy on the inside.  The cake is sweet, but the pineapple helps cut the sweetness considerably.  The original calls for nuts, but I omitted them because my great-grandmother never used nuts in hers.  The cake is very rich, so a little bit goes a long way, but it is absolutely delicious!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Printable Recipe

Ingredients
3/4 cup whole milk
1 cup coarse ground cornmeal
4 ounces unsalted butter
8 ounces dark brown sugar, approximately 1 cup
6 slices canned pineapple in heavy syrup
6 maraschino cherries
3 tablespoons juice from canned pineapple
3 whole eggs
4 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 1 cup
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 3/4 ounces sugar, approximately 3/4 cup
1/2 cup canola oil

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil, turn off the heat, and immediately add the cornmeal. Stir and let stand for 30 minutes. 

Melt the butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the brown sugar to the butter and stir until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes.

Turn off the heat.  Place one slice of pineapple in the center of the pan and arrange the other 5 slices around it. Put the cherries in the centers of the pineapple.  Pour pineapple juice over top.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk to combine. In another mixing bowl, add the sugar to the eggs and whisk to combine; then add the canola oil and whisk. Add the cornmeal and milk mixture to the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Add the wet mixture to the flour and gently stir until just combined.

Pour the batter into the skillet and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. After removing it from oven, let the cake cool for 30 minutes before inverting. Set a plate on top of the skillet and carefully flip the cake.

Slice and devour. 

Granola Bars

I am a creature of habit.  Ever since I started riding my bike to work, I had been sticking to same the same eating schedule during the day.  I had Spiru-Tein for for breakfast, a Tiger's Milk bar on my morning break, and a some fruit for lunch.  It was the perfect amount of nourishment to get me through the day.  Then, disaster struck, The Sunspot stopped carrying Tiger's Milk! 

It turns out the Tiger's Milk bars were being made with high-fructose corn syrup, which is a no-no for Sunspot standards.  I was sad, but I understood their position.  I had been eating Tiger's Milk bars since I was a kid, and I always bought them at The Sunspot.  Since I didn't have the Tiger's Milk bars anymore, my eating routine was altered as well.  I didn't have that morning snack, and the piece of fruit for lunch wasn't enough to get me through the day.  I needed a solution!

I remembered the Good Eats episode 'Power Trip' where Alton Brown made granola bars from scratch.  I found the recipe and decided to give it a try.  I purchased all the ingredients from The Sunspot and went home to make the granola bars.  The application was quite easy, and I had a fresh batch of granola bars in no time.  For the bars pictured above, I used dried pineapple as my fruit of choice.

Then came the first test.  How did they taste?  Scrumptious!  The bars have a wonderful flavor and a nice crunch without being too hard.  Then came the second, and more important test.  Would it be enough to get me through the day?  Yes!  The bars may be small, but they are quite filling; and with my fruit at lunch, it is plenty of food to get me through the day.  What a relief.

I am so happy with the granola bars.  For one thing, I learned to make something new from scratch, which is a lot of fun.  Secondly, it is always nice to know what exactly goes into the food you're eating.  Third, I get to have pineapple granola bars, which is something I've never seen at the store, and they are delicious.  Fourth, they are a lot cheaper to make from scratch than buying a box at the store, and taste better, too.  They are also nice to carry in a backpack during hikes or long bike rides.  What a treat!

Granola Bars

recipe courtesy Alton Brown

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

8 ounces old-fashioned rolled oats, approximately 2 cups

1 1/2 ounces raw sunflower seeds, approximately 1/2 cup

3 ounces sliced almonds, approximately 1 cup

1 1/2 ounces wheat germ, approximately 1/2 cup

6 ounces honey, approximately 1/2 cup

1 3/4 ounces dark brown sugar, approximately 1/4 cup packed

1-ounce unsalted butter, plus extra for pan

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

6 1/2 ounces chopped dried fruit

Directions

Butter a 9 by 9-inch glass baking dish and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread the oats, sunflower seeds, almonds, and wheat germ onto a half-sheet pan. Place in the oven and toast for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime, combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, extract and salt in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook until the brown sugar has completely dissolved.

Once the oat mixture is done, remove it from the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees F. Immediately add the oat mixture to the liquid mixture, add the dried fruit, and stir to combine. Turn mixture out into the prepared baking dish and press down, evenly distributing the mixture in the dish and place in the oven to bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Pineapple = Yum

I guess you could say I have recently developed a passion for pineapple. Ha! I was shopping with the family in Meijer the other day; and on a whim just picked one up and put it in the shopping cart. It turned out to be quite hazardous because Ari kept poking himself on it since he was in the back of the cart. We then tried putting it up with Emilie, but she couldn't keep her hands off it either. So we had to put it on the bottom of the cart so no one would get hurt. Once we got it home, I immediately dissected it into wedges and quickly savored its juicy sweet goodness. Heavenly, to say the least.

I can't remember the last time I had purchased a fresh pineapple before that. I was always intimidated by them. What if I didn't pick out a good one? What if it isn't ripe? How do I cut it up? Et cetera, et cetera. My main experiences with pineapple came from the canned variety and I usually used the rings to make Pineapple upside-down cake. Not the healthiest of uses for it, I know. I've recently noticed I'm becoming less and less afraid of foods and techniques that I've never worked with before, and I don't know what to attribute it to. It's quite exciting really. I hope I continue to expand my horizons.

So, if you haven't done so before or even of you have; go out and buy yourself a fresh pineapple. Here are some tips for picking out a good one; look for one that is heavy for its size with plump glossy eyes. The color to look for usually depends on the variety, but green usually means it is not ripe. Another trick is to pull on one of the top leaves; if it comes out easy, you're good to go. Then, just cut it up and consume in mass quantities!