Monkey Bread

After swim meets in college, the parents would often provide the swimmers with home-baked treats. During my sophomore year of college I lived with 5 other swimmers which meant that on swim meet weekends we were bombarded with sweet treats from our well meaning parents. I was first introduced to Monkey Bread (or as we called it “Monkey Balls”) when one of the other mothers left it at our apartment post meet. Although I have never made this myself until now (for a boating weekend with friends), I still have fond memories of that gooey goodness consumed over a good game of post-swim meet game of tetris with the roommates.

MONKEY BREAD

Ingredients:

* 4 cans refrigerated biscuits
* 1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup brown sugar, packed

Pre-heat oven to 350. Pull your biscuits apart and rip into smaller pieces (roughly 4 per biscuit). Try not to eat too much of the raw biscuit dough, like I always do! Mix your biscuit bits with the cinnamon and white sugar and pack into a buttered bundt pan. In the meantime, heat the brown sugar and butter together until melted, and pour over the top of the biscuit mix in the pan. Bake for about 45 minutes, let cool, and invert onto plate. Enjoy!

Reference: www.brokeassbride.com

Yukon Gold Cinnamon Rolls

This past weekend was my pseudo-birthday as Mr. E. and I were traveling home from a wedding weekend on my real birthday AND I was sick with bronchitis... no fun! So we pretended that this weekend was my birthday and so I made cinnamon rolls to welcome in my birthday weekend. You may ask why I made the rolls for my birthday (rather than Mr. E.). Well to put it simply, I love to bake and I would have been so impatient watching him have all the fun of kneading the dough and seeing the fruit of his labors. So I decided to create the breakfast for us and it was delicious. Not too rich, and not too sweet... just right and of so comforting to start the day. And yes, these cinnamon rolls are made with mashed potatoes :)


Ingredients
DOUGH
* 1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut into 2-inch pieces
* 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
* 3 large eggs
* 4 1/2 cups (or more) unbleached all purpose flour
* 1/2 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
* 3 1/4-ounce envelopes active dry yeast (scant 2 tablespoons)
* 2 tablespoons sugar

FILLING

* 1 1/3 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
* 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
* 3 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour
* 9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, room temperature
GLAZE

* 2 cups powdered sugar
* 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
* 2 tablespoons (or more) whole milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/8 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

Preparation
DOUGH

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Combine potatoes, 2 cups water, and 1 tablespoon coarse salt in large saucepan. Boil until potatoes are very tender, 15 to 18 minutes. Mash potatoes with water in pan (do not drain water). Add butter and mash until butter is melted. Whisk in eggs, then 1 cup flour; mash until very smooth. Let potatoes stand until barely lukewarm, about 10 minutes.
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Meanwhile, pour 1/2 cup warm water into large bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment; stir in yeast and sugar. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes. Add potato mixture to yeast mixture; mix on low speed until well blended, 2 minutes. Mix in 3 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, beating well. Beat until sticky dough forms.
*
Spread 1/2 cup flour on work surface. Scrape dough out onto floured work surface. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour by tablespoonfuls if dough is very sticky, about 8 minutes.
*
Coat large bowl with butter. Transfer dough to bowl and turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, make filling

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Mix brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour in medium bowl. Using fork, mix in butter.
*
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 425°F. Line large rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Turn dough out onto well-floured work surface. Roll out dough to 24x16-inch rectangle. Sprinkle filling evenly over dough. Starting at 1 long side, roll up dough jelly-roll style, enclosing filling. Using large knife dipped in flour, cut roll crosswise into 12 pieces. Transfer rolls to baking sheet, spacing rolls about 3/4 inch apart. Cover baking sheet loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 20 minutes (rolls will be very puffy).
*
Bake cinnamon rolls until golden, about 20 minutes. Cool rolls 10 minutes on baking sheet.

Meanwhile, make glaze

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Whisk powdered sugar, melted butter, 2 tablespoons milk, vanilla, and coarse salt in small bowl. If glaze is too thick to spread, add more milk by 1/2 teaspoonfuls as needed. Spread glaze over warm rolls.

Bon Appetit Magazine, March 2009

Cranberry Spice Bundt Cake

Mr. E. and I will be spending our Day of Thanks with my family and with his grandmother. In the same day. Therefore I decided to make a cake as my contribution that could double as a breakfast treat. This recipe came along in the November issue of my Bon Appetit magazine and sounded unlike anything I usually bake (i.e. no chocolate and/or lacks a creamy filling) so I thought it would be nice to try something different. It smelled divine baking in the house (when Mr. E. returned from work he walked in and said it smelled just like Thanksgiving in our home). I have not tasted the deliciousness yet but from comments online it sounds like the cake gets better with age so I will let it sit out on the counter for two days before serving it at the home of Grandma E.! One sidenote... the almond flour/meal can be found at most grocery stores in the organic aisle but it was $12 for the bag so I am going to share some with my mom.

CRANBERRY SPICE BUNDT CAKE

* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 3/4 cup almond flour or almond meal* (about 2 1/2 ounces)
* 2 1/2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder**
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
* 3 large eggs
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 cup plain reduced-fat (2%) Greek-style yogurt
* 1 cup chopped toasted almonds
* 1 cup halved fresh or frozen cranberries (do not thaw)
* 1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries

ICING

* 2/3 cup powdered sugar
* 4 teaspoons (about) orange juice

How to Prepare Cake:

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Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Whisk first 8 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add both sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract, then Greek-style yogurt. Add dry ingredients; beat just until blended. Fold in almonds and all cranberries. Transfer batter to prepared Bundt pan.
*
Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool cake in pan 10 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack and cool completely.

ICING

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Stir powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons orange juice in small bowl until sugar dissolves. Mix in more juice by 1/2 teaspoonfuls to reach consistency of heavy cream. Spoon icing over cake, allowing it to drip down sides. Let stand until icing sets, at least 30 minutes. DO AHEAD Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover with cake dome and store at room temperature.
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*Sometimes labeled "ground almonds"; available at specialty foods stores and natural foods stores.
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**A spice blend that usually contains ground fennel seeds, Szechuan peppercorns, cinnamon, star anise, and cloves; available in the spice section of most supermarkets and online at penzeys.com.
*
MORE INFO: Greek-style yogurt is especially thick and rich, even the reduced-fat variety.

Recipe from Bon Appetit, November 2008.