Monkey Bread

Ok, so I had envisaged posting lots of photos of my Christmas baking, but got so excited in the spirit of Christmas that I wrapped them all up. Duh !!! I also blame this on the fact that I have been ultra organised with Christmas preparations as we are off to Whistler for Christmas. Whoop whoop!!! My Christmas hamper is beginning to fill up slowly, the shortbread is wrapped and the mulled wine spices are prepared. At present there are two monkey breads in the oven, one is for the hamper and the second is possibly for works pot luck tomorrow, that's if I don't demolish it first.

Not all my Christmas baking has turned out as well as I had anticipated. I tried to make these cheese and rosemary crackers which were advertised in a wine magazine, they smelt great even before baking, but once baked they tasted awful. All I could taste was flour, they were quickly passed into the trash can. Blah!!! But I guess you never know until you try.

Anyway, back to my monkey bread. I use the same recipe for the dough as the cinnamon rolls. Once the dough has risen I pinch off little clumps and roll them into balls before coating them in butter and rolling them around in cinnamon sugar before throwing them into a cake pan. These little balls all get baked together (for around 20-30 mins or until the bread turns golden brown)  and the sugar turns into a sticky goo holding the pieces together. When its time to eat you just pull off the dough balls. mmm mmm. This is going to be our breakfast for Christmas day.

Having started to write this post one hour ago. I can now tell you that the second monkey bread will not be going to work, due to the fact that it didn't come out of the pan in one piece. I failed to line it with parchment!!! I did eventually get it loose from the pan but it does not look to esthetically pleasing, tastes good though. Hey ho, more for Ian and I.

The 2nd collapsed bread

Which is now being devoured

Back to work

I have thoroughly enjoyed having my days of this week, I have finished inputting all the recipes into the book and I have made a list of new dishes that I want to experiment with. I feel proud of what I have achieved. Yesterday I celebrated my achievement by making some cinnamon buns, which I can take to work each morning for the next few days (It will remind me of my pleasurable days off). At first I was a little disappointed with the filling of my cinnamon buns. I didn't stick to the original recipe and I found it a bit dry, but today I changed my mind. After popping one of these iced buns into the microwave for 30 seconds, the icing melted into the bun making it more gooey and moist. The recipe I am going to share with you is the original recipe with the original filling recipe which I advise you to follow. The buns turn out much more gooey if you do.

Cinnamon Buns/Rolls

For the bread:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup unsalted butter

4 1/2 cups flour (unbleached, whole wheat, or a mix)
1 package instant yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoons salt
3 eggs

For the filling:
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup demerara sugar
1 1/2 tbs cinnamon

Heat the milk, water, sugar and butter until butter is melted. Check temperature. Depending on the temperature, let cool to 120F. Carefully beat in eggs. Mix 2 cups of the flour, yeast, and salt. Mix into the milk mixture. Stir in the rest of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Beat well after each addition. When the dough pulls together, (it will form a soft ball) turn it out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. This should take about 5 minutes. Let rise for 1 hr – 1hr 1/2. When dough has almost doubled punch down an push out onto a baking sheet. To make the filling mix the butter flour and sugar together to create a crumble mixture. Sprinkle the dough with ground cinnamon, raisins (optional) and crumble mixture. Allow to rise for 10 mins. Roll dough onto itself like a swiss roll Cut into twelve equal pieces and lie on a grease proofed baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. When cooled ice with icing sugar mixed with cream or water. I like to ice them when there still a bit warm as it drips into the roll and makes it gooey. I also make non iced ones but coat the tops of the rolls with melted apricot jam before baking.