Skillet baking 2

I had this long post I wanted to write about a funny thing that happened to me today that can be summarized by saying that I was interviews for a Georgian TV show.  But I am way to tiered to go into it.  

We just came back from dinner at our friend D's house.  Her parents are here visiting from Israel. so her mom made us dinner that was absolutely great.  Highlights included thini she made with orange juice (I'm guessing instead of the lemon, but maybe in addition to) and stuffed grape leaves.  Yum.  

We brought dessert.  As part of Spring break (woohoo!) I actually had time to bake.  I made two things:

1. Something recently called in the blogosphere "World Peace Cookies"  - a  very chocolaty cookie that was actually quite good.  I put in about twice the amount of chocolate chips (it was 5 ounces, but came out to 2/3 cup).  Also, I didn't freeze them for as long as it says - I was in a rush, so I just scooped some out on

 a pan, and stuck it in the freezer for 20 minutes.

2. Once again using our new skillet, I made an upside down apple cake.  I adapted the recipe from a, American Test Kitchen recipe for upside down pineapple cake.  I started off sauteing apples in brown sugar, then took out the apples, reduced the sugar with the apple juices to a caramel, and meanwhile made a fairly simple batter:

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (7 1/2 ounces)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1/4 teaspoon cardamon powde

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8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), softened but still cool

3/4 cup granulated sugar (5 1/4 ounces)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs at room temperature

1 egg white at room temperature

1/3 cup whole milk at room temperature.

Then, put the apples back in the caramel, the batter on the apples and, in the skillet - stuck it in the oven for 40 minutes.