Jen wrote:

> If anyone has baked a pie in a cast iron skillet, please let me know!
> I saw some recipes when I did a search but I'd like real experience
> stories, if there are any out there.
>
I'm more of a bread guy than a pie man, but I do have a few years of
playing with cast iron under my belt.

Cast iron distributes heat very evenly, but also very slowly. As a
result, I'd worry that the top crust would be done long before the
bottom. Enough so, that I don't know if covering the top with foil
would be enough. When I make corn bread in a cast iron skillet, I
always preheat the skillet to make sure the bottom is nice and crisp and
doesn't stay wet. I don't think I'd like to drop a pie crust into a
pre-heated red-hot cast iron skillet - you only get one chance, and
there are lots of opportunities to burn yourself.

I did see a very neat recipe on TV. Sadly, I have no idea which show,
or even which network. It was a French recipe, and my Francophobia
means the name was out of my memory before it had a chance to settle
in. Anyway, the cooks cut up apples,. put 'em in the skillet, added
butter, lemon juice, cinnamon and brown sugar and cooked the apples on
the skillet. While they were doing that, they preheated the oven to
350F or so, and made a pie crust. They topped the hot skillet full of
apples with the pie crust, tucking it into the sides, rather than having
it go over the edge of the skillet. They sprinkled some cinnamon sugar
on top and put the skillet into the oven. When the crust was done, the
skillet came out of the oven.... and here's the interesting part...

they put a serving platter over the skillet, flipped the whole mess over
and lifted away the skillet. This left the pie crust on the serving
platter, covered with steaming and savory apples. Te quickly sprinkled
confectioners sugar on top and served it at once.

It looked very, very nice, and was a nice variation on the classic
American pie.

If you were so inclined, you could probably add some sort of French
liqueur to kick up the taste another notch. And you could also make it
wit pears and raisins and honey and cinnamon. As with pies, there are
a lit of options here, and this approach does get around the heat delay
of the cast iron.

Mike



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