Picking at the Monkey Bread

I took a long hiatus, partly due to a broken camera, due to my vacation, and quite frankly, due to the summer and a distaste for heat!

Last week, I got a new camera and I saw a picture of monkey bread on Serious Eats. I've never even heard of monkey bread before, but I have a soft spot for anything containing a lot of brown sugar and covered in glaze! I absolutely had to try it, but between the fact that I don't regularly stock whole milk in the fridge and I wasn't sure if I could put aside enough time, I kept putting it off.

Today, I bought a small bottle of milk from the corner deli with the full intention to start right after getting back. However, I decided that I needed to rest my feet a while, but while I was watching TV, I found myself snoozing. Two hours later, I got up, started the dough and went to the gym (to lessen the guilt, for sure). It was actually nice to work in the steps between other daily activities. =)

monkeybread
Originally uploaded by lemonadestand

Monkey Bread
Cook's Illustrated via Picky Cook

Dough:
2 tbsp softened butter
2 tbsp melted butter
1 c warm milk
1/3 warm water
1/4 c granulated sugar
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp table salt

Coating:
1 c light brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
8 tbsp unsalted butter (1 stick)

Glaze:
1 c confectioner's sugar
2 tbsp milk

1) Heat oven to 200 degrees. When the over reaches the right temperature, turn it off. Butter the inside of a bundt pan with the 2 tbsp of softened butter. (I don't have one, so I just used a deep circular pan.)
2) In a large measuring cup, mix together milk, water, melted butter, sugar, and yeast. Set aside.
3) Mix flour and salt in a standing mixer fixed with the dough hook set on the lowest setting. Slowly add milk mixture. After dough comes together, increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough is shiny and smooth (6-7 minutes). *can add up to 2 tbsp flour if to sticky*
4) Turn dough onto lightly flowered counter and knead briefly to form smooth, round ball. Coat large bowl with nonstick cooking spray and place the dough ball in the bowl. Spray some nonstick spray over the dough. Cover in plastic wrap and place in prewarmed oven until the dough doubles in size, approximately 50 minutes.
5) While the dough is rising, mix the brown sugar (light brown!) and cinnamon together in a bowl. In a second bowl, heat up butter.
6) When dough has risen, gently remove the dough and pat into a 8"x8" square. Using a knife, cut the dough into 64 pieces (1 inch squares).
7) Roll each square into a ball. With one ball at a time, dip into melted butter, allowing excess butter to drip off. Roll in brown sugar mixture, then layer the balls in the buttered bundt pan.
8) Cover the budt pan tightly with plastic wrap and place in the turned-off oven until the dough balls have risen again (50-70 minutes).
9) Remove pan from oven and heat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap the pan and bake until the top is deep brown and the caramel has begun to bubble around th eedges ~30-35 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a platter (if left in too long, the pieces may fall apart when the pan is turned).
10) Whisk confectioner's sugar and milk in a small bowl until the lumps have disappeared. Drizzle glaze over the warm monkey bread. Serve warm.

Note: The first few bites oddly reminded me of Apple Jacks...Sweet cinnamon!

xoxo,
lemonie

Brown Sugar Craving...

sandwich cookies
Originally uploaded by lemonadestand

For some reason or another, I've been craving brown sugar. I was looking for brown sugar recipes online when I started thinking about browned butter. Browned butter is butter that is ever so slightly burnt and it makes a huge difference in taste. My first introduction to browned butter came via the Treats Truck and Kim's browned buttercream sandwich cookies. They're delicious...and it was a real treat to find a recipe with a picture of very similar looking cookies on the Land O'Lakes website.

This recipe is super easy. Except that I consistently fail at having the patience to make things pretty. The dough is supposed to be rolled into a log, chilled, and then sliced, but I barely rolled it into a log and I sloppily wrapped wax paper around it before tossing it in the freezer for 45 minutes. It was really lopsided when I took it out! I tried to redeem myself after slicing to make them more circular, but then the cookies weren't very neat anymore. Sigh! I guess this was a shortcut that really failed.

But the cookies were good. Very similar to what's offered at the Treats Truck. I made the frosting before the cookies, so they had dried out a bit before I sandwiched them and they cracked when I squished the two cookies together. Still tasted good. I really liked the browned butter cream. The cookie was pretty good, too, and just hard enough to properly press into sandwiches, but still soft enough to not be crunchy when bitten into.

Browned Butter Sandwich Cookies. Adapted from Land O'Lakes

1 c soft butter (2 sticks)
2/3 c firmly packed brown sugar
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c ap flour
1/4 tsp salt

1) Beat butter and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy.
2) Add egg yolks and vanilla, beating until well mixed.
3) Reduce speed to low, add flour and salt. Beat until mixture becomes a dough.
4) Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a log about 1 1/2" in diameter. Wrap in plastic and chill for 3 hours or overnight.
5) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a sharp knife, cut each log into 1/8" slices. Place 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheets and bake until edges are lightly browned ~9 minutes.


Cream Filling

1/4 c butter
2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp heavy cream

1) Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until butter starts to brown. Immediately remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes.
2) Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tbsp heavy cream. Add more cream as necessary for desired spreading consistency.

Note: So I learned that flour is added last and at the lowest speed to help prevent too much gluten from building up. I wonder what the texture of a cookie with too much gluten is like. Perhaps breadlike?

New Year and Sticky Buns

Happy New Year!

To celebrate 2009, lemon-slice and I went into the kitchen and baked up a storm. We cracked open a Williams-Sonoma cookbook and made blueberry scones, lemon-slice muffins, and sticky buns. The scones were unsightly, the lemon-slice muffins were far too tart, but the sticky buns...oh the sticky buns were wonderful!

My NYE was quiet...curled up with the family, watching Mamma Mia and munching on unhealthy snacks (popcorn, chocolate covered pretzels...). I couldn't imagine it better any other way!

My resolution this year is to run a mile in 7 minutes. About a month and a half ago, I stared running on the treadmill as part of my warm-up. By running, I mean, I managed to run for like 3-4 minutes and then I'd have to stop and pant for two minutes, before running another 3-4 minutes. Then I'd just "walk it off" for another 5. Now that I can run a full mile without stopping, I'd like to be able to do that within 7 minutes!

Sticky Buns

4 1/2 - 5 unbleached bread flour
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
1 package quick-rise yeast
1/2 c water
1/2 c milk
3/4 c unsalted butter (room temperature)
2 eggs (room temperature)
1 c firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2/3 coarsely chopped pecans

1) In a large bowl, or the bowl of an electric stand mixer, combine 1/2 cus of the flour, the granulated sugar, salt, and yeast.
2) In a saucepan over low heat, combine the milk, 1/2 c water, and 1/4 c of the butter and heat to lukewarm.
3) Gradually beat the milk mixture into the flour mixture.
4) Beat in the eggs, then gradually stir in 2 1/2 c more flour to make a soft dough that holds its shape.
5) Knead by hand or with a dough hook, adding flour as needed. Knead until smooth and elastic.
6) Form the dough into a ball and place in a clean, greased bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover and let rise about 1/2 hours in warm place.
7) Turn dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Cut in half. Using a rolling pin, roll out each half into an 8 by 15 inch rectangle.
8) Spread the rectangles with 1/4 c of the remaining butter, dividing it equally.
9) In a bowl, mix 1/2 c of the brown sugar, and the cinnamon and sprinkle half of it over the dough pieces.
10) Starting with a long side, roll up tightly andpinch the seams to seal. Cut each log crosswise into 10 equal slices.
11) Butter one 9 inch round and one 8 inch square cake pan.
12) Add the remaining 1/2 c brown sugar and 1/4 c butter to the remaining brown sugar mixture and stir.
13) Toss in pecans and sprinkle over the pan bottoms.
14) Place 9 dough slices, cut sides down and almost touching in the square pan. Place 11 in the round pan.
15) Cover with kitchen towel and let rise until doubled. (60-75 min)
16) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Uncover loaves and bake until golden brown, about 30-35 minutes.
17) Invert pans onto a plate and serve warm.

Notes
One sister was really not into the idea of pecans, so we omitted them on the pan version and they became delicious cinnamon buns!

xoxo,
lemonie