Alton Brown's Individual Upside-Down (Nectarine) Cakes

Well, in our case, right-side up. Only because I forgot to invert them. They smelled sooo good. You would understand, really, had you been here. On Good Eats, Alton Brown used peaches, I used white nectarines. I bet you could also use apples or pears…even pineapple. Ha!

The cake part seeps down, even though there doesn’t seem to be much batter after you divide it all up. Don’t worry, it appears to work just fine. So, go ahead and makes these and revel in the brown sugary, fruity, warm goodness.

Upside-Down Nectarine Cakes
3 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 medium nectarines, peeled (or other fruit)
3 tbsp finely chopped crystallized ginger
1/2 cup AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Divide 2 tablespoons of the butter between 4 (6-ounce) ramekins. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter and set aside. Evenly divide the brown sugar between the ramekins; sprinkling it into the bottoms of the dishes.

Cut each nectarine (or fruit of your choice) into 12 to 14 pieces. Lay the fruit pieces on top of the sugar; evenly dividing them between the dishes and sprinkle with the ginger. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl whisk together the sugar, buttermilk, vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of melted butter. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir just until combine. Pour the batter over the fruit, dividing the mixture evenly between the dishes. Tap the ramekins on your counter a couple of times to encourage the batter to even out a little.

Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Remove from the oven to a rack and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of each dish and turn upside down onto a serving plate. Repeat with each cake. You can also just pile ice cream on top of it and eat it right out of the dish. Guess which we did…

Speaking of ice cream, here’s the recipe for a honey-thyme ice cream I made to go with these cakes.

Thyme & Honey Ice Cream
1/2 cup honey
2 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups half and half
3 sprigs thyme
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the honey, sugar and the egg yolk until thickened and pale. Set aside.

Bring the milk and the thyme sprigs to a simmer. Turn the heat off and let steep for 10 minutes. Remove the thyme and slowly whisk the hot milk into the yolk-honey mixture.

Return back to the pan and place over low heat. Stir until the custard thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and pour through a strainer into a clean bowl Refrigerate until cold or overnight.

Freeze in your ice cream making and serve with the cakes. And the leftover ice cream?

Goes well with a diced nectarine.

Oh and on an administrative note, I’ll soon be adding a spam-blocking feature to the comments. I just can’t take all the gambling-milf-porn-pharmaceuticals crap postings anymore that I have to weed through while trying to approve legit comments.

Nothing big on the real commenters end — you will just be asked to do a little basic math before posting a comment (as in, “add 1+3”). Not yet but soon. Stay tuned…