13 Easy Cast Iron Skillet Dessert Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What foods are best cooked in a cast iron skillet? ›

We recommend starting with vegetables as they are more forgiving than most proteins - they taste delicious and won't stick to your pan! Keep in mind that using a little bit of oil is necessary to help to keep food from sticking.

This chocolate cake topped with milk chocolate frosting couldn't be easier—it's made, and baked, right in a cast iron skillet. Stella Parks is a CIA-trained baking nerd and pastry wizard, dubbed one of America's Best New Pastry Chefs by Food & Wine. She was the pastry editor at Serious Eats from 2016 to 2019.

With each use, your cast iron cookware will slowly develop a deep, dark patina that indicates a well-seasoned skillet. While food grease builds flavor and acts as a natural non-stick surface, it's still important to regularly clean your cast iron skillet — or else the flavor may turn rancid.

All cooking oils and fats can be used for seasoning cast iron, but based on availability, affordability, effectiveness, and having a high smoke point, Lodge recommends vegetable oil, melted shortening, or canola oil, like our Seasoning Spray.

When cooking in cast iron, you should add a little oil to the pan before adding your food. This helps ensure the food doesn't stick, and it helps build layers of seasoning. You can generally use whatever oil you prefer, as long as the cooking temperature is below the smoke point of the oil.

It's hard to say exactly what happened to that skillet between the time it came off the factory line and when it arrived in your kitchen, so you'll want to wash it before starting to season. Give the pan a good scrub with warm, soapy water, then dry it thoroughly.

The cake was done in 65 to 70 minutes. If you bake it in a tube pan, it will take 75 to 80 minutes, as that pan is taller. So, cast iron pan cakes bake more quickly, I learned. The cake rested in the pan overnight, untouched, and it took a lot of willpower not to pinch off the crust.

The quality of absorbing heat and holding onto it makes cast iron ideal for any recipe that starts on the stove and ends in the oven. From searing a thick steak or spatchco*cked chicken that finishes in the oven to caramelizing apples for a tarte tatin, cast iron is the best possible choice for this kind of cooking.

Can you bake bread in cast iron? ›

Anna's Baking Tips:

It doesn't matter if you use an enamel-coated cast-iron Dutch oven or a traditional black cast-iron Dutch oven. As long as you have a lid to cover it, the bread comes out perfectly every time.

A thick-cut steak such as a ribeye or New York strip is best for cooking in a cast iron skillet because it can withstand the high heat of the skillet and develop a gorgeous crust, while remaining juicy and tender in the middle. Avoid lean cuts like flank steak or skirt steak, as they are prone to drying out.

The type of iron that comes from cast iron cooking is nonheme iron and is safe to consume. It is the same type of iron as found in plant sources such as beans, spinach and tofu. Children one to three years old only need 7mg iron daily, so if it's best not to cook every meal for children this age in cast iron cookware.

A thick-cut steak such as a ribeye or New York strip is best for cooking in a cast iron skillet because it can withstand the high heat of the skillet and develop a gorgeous crust, while remaining juicy and tender in the middle. Avoid lean cuts like flank steak or skirt steak, as they are prone to drying out.

Cast iron pans are popular, especially for searing, and are generally safe to use. But they can leach iron, which is a strong pro-oxidant. Those genetically at risk for iron overload should learn more about cast iron safety. For well over a thousand years, cast iron has been used as a reliable cooking surface.

Cast iron cookware makes food taste better.

Thanks to cast iron's incredible heat retention, there's no better way to get crispy fried chicken, flavorful roasted veggies, or a perfect loaf of bread.