Rise or Not To Rise...

I recently came across a recipe for Potato Bread in a Cooking Light Magazine. I always run... very fast... not looking back... hair flowing in the wind, from anything that calls for yeast. It's just something that I've never been good at. I think it boils down to patience.... and the fact that I wasn't born with that gift (my kids and husband can vouch). It really is a gift, both patience and bread-baking.

Usually when I become brave enough and put my big-girl panties on and go for it, it does one of two things: it rises, it's beautiful, and it leads to twisting and turning the recipe into new experimental bread endeavors... or, it falls flat (pun intended) and it goes in the garbage. I live just outside of Memphis, so I know humidity is not the issue. No, I'm pretty clear this "rising" incompetence has nothing to do with the weather, the yeast freshness, or the procedure. It's definitely me.

This recent reproduction of the Cooking Light Potato Bread turned out beautifully. We ate two loaves in 1 week. I decided I would try the same recipe but with sweet potato (leftover from the cupcakes). I also substituted a bit of white-whole wheat flour. It was a tad more dense, but still came to a rise, and tasted great (especially toasted with honey and butter). However my creativity turned it's back on me and became cruel with these two words: Cinnamon-Raisin.

Now see, here's where they would freeze-frame the movie and the narrator would make some quip and then they would rewind the movie so that the characters could start over with different dialogue that the narrator had referred to during the freeze-frame. I should have stopped while I was ahead.

My Cinnamon-Raisin venture was flat and inedible, verifiying of a couple of things: don't fix it if it ain't broke (that's said with the Southern-most twang imaginable) and a Chef and a Baker are very different things. Not that I'm trying to justify my failure (yeah right).

That Potato Bread recipe just wasn't meant to be tampered with. It was perfect all on its own. I might try the sweet potato substitution again, but right now I'm happy with my new biceps after all that kneading. On to new things....

Original Potato Bread

Upside-Down Goodness

You'd think, being a Southerner and having gone to culinary school, I would have made a Pineapple Upside-Down Cake before.....never! This cooking adventure started while taking our 8-year old out for a special dinner a few days ago. We went to Central BBQ for ribs (I've now switched from Corky's to Central as my fave). We went to a place called Sweet for a dessert treat. What does that name say to you? Bakery, desserts, cookies, pastries, maybe confections? Oh, they had desserts...in a case...about 8...and a decent dessert & food menu. But the restaurant was dark with flittering candles, looking a bit too melodramatic for our impetuous sugar fix. That's when I saw the full name of Sweet Bistro. That's also when my daughter saw a mini pineapple upside-down cake and wanted it as her treat. We decided not to stay and pay $10 for the cake, plus tip, plus tax, plus all that ambiance lost on kids, plus getting home waaaayyyy after bed-time. We opted, instead, for cookies, M & M's, and egg-shaped chocolate candy-coated malt balls at Mamaws house down the street and with a pinkie-promise we would make a Pineapple Upside-Down Cake together on the weekend. Well, it's Saturday and I did promise....

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Yield: One 10-inch cake

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
One 14-oz. can crushed, sliced, or chunk pineapple, drained but not dry (juice reserved)
2/3 cup sugar
8 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup cake flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup reserved pineapple juice
Whipped cream, toasted pecans, and maraschino cherries (optional garnish)

Preheat the oven to 350. In a 10-inch cast iron skillet, melt the 6 Tbsp. of butter. When melted, add the brown sugar and let come to a low boil (medium heat) for 1 minute. Spread or lay the pineapple in the brown sugar to cover the entire bottom of the pan. In a large bowl, beat the 8 Tbsp. of butter with the 2/3 cup sugar until light in color, about 4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla. Add both the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, pineapple juice, and buttermilk. Mix to combine. Pour the batter into the skillet on top of the pineapple. Bake for 35 minutes or until the center comes out clean when a toothpick is inserted. Cool for 5 minutes and invert onto a cake plate. Serve with toasted and chopped pecans, whipped cream, and a maraschino cherry.