Recipe 56: Monkey Bread

Last night I was unmotivated. I had a long week, baked so much and overall was just worn out. I didn't even want to cook dinner (bowl of cereal, toast and fruit, VERY unlike me unless is 7am). But I forced myself to bake it, and bake it with love.

I mixed together the first 2 cups of flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Then I warmed the water and butter (to make the bread more rich I'm assuming) to what was suppose to be between 120 and 130 degrees. I went a little long, and it was closer to 140 degrees, whoops! Can't be too bad, right? Just activate the yeast more? Anyway, I added the really hot water/butter to the flour, then added an egg. Turned Sally (my mixer) on and mixed up the dough. Sally was not happy. The batter climbed up her beaters and made her VERY sticky. I mixed in the rest of the flour with a wooden spoon, so the flour totaled about 3.5 cups. Dumped it out onto my pastry board and kneaded the hell out of it. I didn't knead the full 10 minutes, but after about 7 she was smooth and near translucent when stretched. Probably high intensity kneading because of all my pent up stress and energy. But it was the best and most thorough kneading job I've done. I covered the bowl and put her in the oven (not turned out) to rise for an hour and a half.

An hour and a half later...

The dough had doubled in size, so I melted 1/2 cup of butter and combined the cinnamon and sugar (in a seperate bowl of course). I rolled the dough into 28 balls, a few more than the 25 BC recommended. Dunked each ball in the butter, then rolled in the cinnamon sugar. I did have to mix up more cinnamon sugar, but that is easy enough to do. I put the balls in my 12 cup bundt pan and let it rise again. What was suppose to be 40 minutes ended up being 1 hour and 20 minutes...thanks to parking on the East Side. Love my new apartment, but parking is a bitch.

When the second rise was done, I turned the oven up to 375 and baked the monkey bread for 35 minutes. They were a bit over-done. My new oven is so hot, the bread probably could have cooked in 25 minutes, easily.

It was very cinnamonny and sugary, and quite addictive. And my whole apartment smelled fabulous. I can't wait to try making it again, but cooking it for less time.

from Betty Crocker Baking Basics, 2009

Ingredients

3.5-4 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 pkg. regular or fast acting yeast

1 cup water

1/3 cup butter or margarine, room temperature

1 large egg

Cooking spray to grease bowl

Baking spray with flour to grease pan (I used regular cooking spray)

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup finely chopped nuts (I omitted because of an allergy)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup butter or margarine

Directions

1. In a large bowl, stir 2 cups of flour, 1/3 cup sugar, salt and yeast with a wooden spoon until well mixed. In a 1-quart saucepan, heat the water and 1/3 cup butter over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until very warm and an instant-read thermometer reads 120 to 130 degrees. Add the water mixture and egg to the flour mixture. Beat with a wire wisk or an electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, stopping frequently to scrape batter from side and bottom of bowl with a rubber spatula, until smooth. Beat on medium speed 1 minute, stopping frequently to scrape. With a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour, 1 cup at a time, until dough is soft, leaves side of bowl and is easy to handle (dough may be sticky).

2. Sprinkle flour lightly on a countertop or large cutting board. Place dough on floured surface; roll ball of dough around 3 or 4 times to cover with flour. Knead by folding dough toward you, then with the heals of your hands, pushing dough away from you with a short rocking motion. Move dough a quarter of a turn and repeat. Continue kneading about 10 minutes, sprinkling surface with more flour if dough starts to stick, until dough is smooth and springy.

3. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray. Place dough in bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap; let rise in a warm place 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes or until dough has doubled in size. Dough is ready if an indentation remains when you press your fingertips about 1/2 inch into the dough.

4. Spray 10-inch angel food (tube) cake pan or 12-cup fluted tube cake pan with baking spray. (If angel food cake pan has removable bottom, line pan with foil before spraying to help prevent the sugar mixture from dripping in the over during baking.) In a small bowl, mix 3/4 cup sugar, nuts and cinnamon. In a 1-qt. saucepan, heat 1/2 cup butter over low heat until melted.

5. Gently push your fist into the dough to deflate it. Shape dough into about 25 balls, 1.5 inches in diameter. Dip each ball into melted butter, then into the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Place a single layer of balls in the pan so they just touch. Top with another layer of balls. Cover pan loosely with plastic wrap; let rise in a warm place about 40 minutes or until dough has doubled in size. Remove plastic wrap.

6. Move the oven rack to a low position so that the top of the pan will be in the center of the oven. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. (If bread browns too quickly, cover loosely with foil.) Run a metal spatula or knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the bread. Place a heatproof serving plate upside down on pan; holding plate and pan together with pot holders, turn plate and pan over together. Let pan remain 1 minute so butter-sugar mixture can drizzle over bread, then remove pan. Serve bread while warm.