Caramel Cherry Upside Down Cake

This week, Nolan housesat for his parents while they were in Mexico. For me, I stayed home with the dogs and chickens and did the usual chores. I pulled the couchbed out in the living room and sprawled my books and writings and computer and bags of chips across the flannel sheets and sat in silence, save for the dogs snoring and the rain gutters overflowing.

There's a routine to the way we live now. The way we argue. The way we spend our Sundays. The way I do the chickens and the way I play with the dogs. It's not mechanical, but it is familiar. I like it. I myself am a frenetic ball of stress, so the calmness of monotony is good for me.

And when I am home alone, I don't eat that great. I pick like a bird. I graze on candy and yogurt and forget to eat. I'm too wrapped up in the small luxury of expansive hours of reading to care. And when I wanted to bake this weekend, I did it in the simple way--thrown together with leftovers from the fridge.

Caramel Cherry Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:

• 15 oz frozen cherries
• 1/4 cup caramel sauce
• 10 TB unsalted butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs + 1 egg white
• Zest and Juice of 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup whole milk or buttermilk
• 1/2 TB vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cup AP flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375*F
2. Heavily grease and line the bottom of a 12-inch cast iron skillet
3. Pour cherries and caramel sauce onto parchment and evenly distribute with a rubber spatula
4. In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar
5. Add eggs, zest, juice, milk, and vanilla
6. Sift together your dry ingredients
7. With mixer on low, slowly add in flour mixture a 1/2 cup or so at a time
8. Mix on high for one minute
9. Pour over top of cherries and caramel
10. Bake for 40 minutes. Because of the moisture of the cherries, it may not be done at this time, so keep checking every five minutes until middle is tanned and set
11. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes before turning onto a plate

Caramel Apple Brie en Croute

The nights are cold and I can see my breath and the days are cloudless, relentless. The backyard is dappled red, then orange, and brown and brittle grass pokes through. It's the perfect weather for reading out on the porch, cuddling up under a blanket to watch a bad horror movie, or drink a beer while the sun fades to bruised clouds that stretch out over the fields by my house.

It's fall now, a fall that's been going on for weeks but never fully committed itself to sweater weather and foggy breath. I'm still waiting on that. But in the meantime, I was inspired by Farmhouse Pottery's Baker's Rolling Pin to create a dish that highlights all the beauty of autumn, but can be made year-round. I think I found the perfect mix in this caramel apple brie en croute dish.

Caramel Apple Brie en Croute

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup of spiced orange caramel sauce (you will have a lot leftover, but it keeps well and is good on everything!)
• 1 wheel of brie
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
• 3 tablespoons vegetable shortening, cold
• ½ tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Pinch of salt
• ¼ cup ice water
• 7-8 slices of a honeycrisp apple (or whatever variety you like!)
• 1 egg, whisked with 1 TB water to create an egg was

Directions:

1. Place butter, shortening, vanilla, flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the blade attachment.
2. Pulse processor five or six times, or until fats are the size of peas and incorporated into the flour.
3. With motor running, pour water in a slow and steady stream through the tube until dough forms and sticks away from the walls of the bowl. You may need a little more water to get a solid dough.
4. Dump dough onto a floured work surface and pat into a disc.
5. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit at this time.
7. When thirty minutes are done, roll dough out onto a floured work surface and roll out into a circle shape about ¼” in thickness
8. Now, for ease, use a dinner plate as your pattern and cut dough into a large circle
9. Reserve the remaining dough for another use and just focus on the dinner plate-sized circle now
10. Place brie wheel in center of your dough and lay apple slices on top
11. Pour your caramel over the apple and brie
12. Now, paint edges of dough with a pastry brush and your egg wash
13. Take edge of dough and fold into center of apples, pinching slightly to hold shape
14. Repeat with remaining edges to seal into a dumpling
15. Brush with more egg wash and sprinkle with a little sugar
16. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, or until crust is puffed and golden, but check at the 15 mark as cheese may leak out and you might have to clean this up to prevent burning!
17. Allow to cool slightly, but serve warm with more apple slices and carame

Oat Pancakes with Spiced Orange Caramel Sauce: In Partnership with Falk USA

I grew up slowly and then all at once. A cicada soul, a heart that I kept in soil, in old husks. Jewel-toned eyes and an incessant buzzing. I was old and feeble, gravity left me awkward on 6 feet or two wings.

 A year ago I was buying my car in Colorado, six months ago I was chasing Milo in melted snow and getting my hair cut. Nothing ever felt like home, and I thought that boys were archipelagos, their sternums small islands to cradle my head and then crack when they woke up and stretched. I’ve moved more times for love than for opportunity, more times because of strangers than for myself. And each time, I would recreate a space, a home, a candle in the window to signal I’m waiting. And each time the wick got wet, the light went out, I stopped keeping my window open.

And when I went to drop a check in the mailbox, I got stung twice. And when I forgot to tell my brother, “Happy Birthday,” no one seemed to notice. He’s having a boy in December and I’m not sure if I’ll be around. If I’ll miss it, if I’ll even be in the same city, time zone, or country in time for it. He’ll name him Matthew. He won’t look like me or my sister or my dad.

But right now, I have to pack. Gone for two weeks, to New Orleans for work. Two bags and four suits. A boy to follow. Creating another home, however brief this one will be. In a flooded bayou, a Pittsburgh Marriot, or a Chicago terminal. And before it all hits at once, I made pancakes to relax and enjoy a moment at the table, staying warm in front of the stove. These were covered in caramel from a recipe my mother gave me, and topped with peaches. The orchard down the road is only a mile away and my mind doesn’t wander too much farther than that on mornings like these.

Oat Pancakes with Spiced Orange Caramel Sauce

Ingredients for Pancakes

• 1 egg, separated + 1 additional egg white
• 2 TB honey
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 3 TB butter, melted
• 1 TB vanilla extract
• 1 cup AP flour
• ½ cup oat flour
• 1 TB cornstarch
• 1 TB baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 cup oats

Directions for Pancakes

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, whip your egg whites on high until stiff peaks form. Set aside
2. Put yolk in a large measuring cup. Add honey, buttermilk, milk, butter, and vanilla and whisk with your egg yolk until fully homogenous. Mixture will be a pale, pale yellow
3. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flours, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and sugar (do it twice if you want them even fluffier). Stir in oats with a fork to gently aerate the mixture without deflating
4. Using a wooden spoon, create a well in your dry mixture and slowly pour in the wet mixture, stirring as you do so. Do no over stir!
5. Finally, take a rubber spatula and fold in the egg whites you have set aside and gently stir until just incorporated
6. Put a tab of butter in a skillet or griddle on medium heat and all the butter to melt and the skillet to heat up
7. Using a half-cup measuring cup, scoop your batter into the middle of the pan. Do this one at a time, so you do not crowd your pan
8. This is a thick batter with oats, so the pancake will be rough on the edges and a little softer in the middle. Your pancake is read to flip when the edges begin to brown and bubbles dot the top of your pancake
9. Using a wide spatula, flip your pancake and cook for an additional minute or two—like salmon, this side will take less when flipped
10. Repeat with remaining batter, may have to re-butter your pan

Recipe for Spiced Orange Caramel Sauce (adapted from my duck fat caramel)

•  3 cup light brown sugar
• 1 ½ cup half and half
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• Squeeze of half an orange

Directions for Spiced Orange Caramel Sauce

1. In a premium saucepan (my favorite is, of course, my Falk saucepan), heat your sugar, half and half, and butter and allow for butter to melt without stirring more than once or twice to coat the sugar
2. Allow to simmer your mixture and bring to a gentle boil. It will begin to thicken and caramelize slowly and will take on a nutty smell, about 5-8 minutes (faster in a copper or cast iron pot)
3. Begin stirring and your caramel sauce will be thick, yet very pourable (if you are using a thermometer, it should be at around 235-240*F, but it is not necessary to use one for this recipe, as you want the caramel to be viscous)
4. Quickly stir in remaining ingredients and remove from heat
5. Allow to cool slightly before pouring over your pancakes
6. Can keep in an airtight container or jar for up to 2 weeks in your refrigerator

Assembly: Put your stack of pancakes on a plate. Chop a peach into roughly equal cubes and roll in 1 TB of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Top your pancakes with this peach mixture. Then, pour over your desired amount of caramel sauce. Serve immediately. 

This post was created in partnership with Falk USA copper cookware. Since 1958, this brand has established itself as one of the most trusted names in the culinary world. With its timeless designs and its multi-use products, every kitchen can benefit from Falk--I know mine has. You can learn more about Falk USA by visiting their website, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.