Skillet Wonders

Recently, I listened to an episode of The Splendid Table featuring baking with cast iron. Besides corn bread, I had never baked anything in my cast iron skillet, but I was more than inspired. And on a recent camp out, we made Dutch Oven cobblers, so the idea has been swirling around in my head.

The first thing I baked this past week in my cast iron skillet was meatloaf. I preheated the pan beforehand so that the meat mixture sizzled and seared when I was putting it into the skillet, and it baked up in half the time of a normal meatloaf. It turned out so much better than normal, although normal is pretty good.

We ate on this mammoth loaf for two nights! #success

Meat loaf with Sweet Potato Mash and Pea

And then tonight I made brownies!

This is the recipe I ended up using (due to the ingredients I had on hand):

1/2 c butter, softened
Packet of Dark Chocolate Dream Peanut Butter
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
1 t Vanilla
1 t Baking Soda (subbed 1/4 tsp Baking Soda plus 1/2 tsp cream of tartar)
1/2 tsp Salt
1 2/3 c flour
2 T cocoa powder
1 c semi-sweet dark chocolate chips
1/2 c peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and leave the skillet in the over to preheat. In a large bowl mix together the butters, sugars, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. In another bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda and then add to the wet ingredients until a batter forms. Stir in 1/2 of the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the slightly cooled cast iron skillet. Even the batter out and press to within 1/2" of the edges of the skillet. Top with remaining chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.

Looking good already!

Place in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the edges are set and a toothpick placed in the middle of the brownie comes out clean. Let the brownie cool on a wire rack in the skillet until just warm - about 45 minutes. It will still be very soft in the middle, but as it cools, the brownie will set entirely.  Serve with vanilla ice cream that has been cut with milk to make it less sweet and more oozy...





I am excited about making other things in my skillet, like Irish Soda Farls and Lefse (with saffron) among other things. I have a few other pieces of cast iron in the set in the basement that need to be seasoned and cooked with this autumn... I am forecasting a yummy season.