Monkey Bread

Monkey bread is a funny sort of food. When I am thinking about making it, I have an internal battle. I know if I make it, I will eat it all. Yeah, yeah. That’s been said before, but seriously… it’s true. This stuff is crazy good and is better than a cinnamon roll any day of the week. Actually, it’s like eating the only part of a cinnamon roll that is any good…the middle. The whole pan is that way! It just takes a little planning ahead but is a great thing to make on a Saturday morning while you are enjoying some coffee in your pjs and perhaps a few children running and making shooting noises snuggling and giggling.

Monkey Bread:

Dough
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (divided, 2 T melted for dough and 2 T softened for bundt pan)
1 cup milk, warm (about 110 degrees F)
1/3 cup water, warm (about 110 degrees F)
¼ cup sugar
1 package instant yeast
3¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for work surface
2 teaspoons salt

Brown Sugar Coating
1 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (for fresh cinnamon look here)
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), melted

Glaze
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons milk

1 tsp of vanilla paste (optional but yummy)

Butter Bundt pan with 2 tablespoons softened butter. Set aside.

In a large measuring cup, mix together milk, water, melted butter, sugar and yeast. Mix flour and salt in standing mixer fitted with dough hook. Turn machine to low and slowly add milk mixture. After dough comes together, increase speed to medium and mix until dough is shiny and smooth, 6 to 7 minutes. Turn dough onto lightly floured counter and knead briefly to form smooth, round ball. Coat a large bowl with oil. Place dough in bowl and coat surface of dough with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in a draft-free area until dough doubles in size, 50 to 60 minutes.

For the sugar coating: While the dough is rising, mix brown sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl. Place melted butter in second bowl. Set aside.

Roll each dough piece into a ball. Working one at a time, dip the balls into the melted butter, allowing excess butter to drip back into the bowl. Roll in the brown sugar mixture, then layer balls in the Bundt pan, staggering seams where dough balls meet as you build layers.

Cover the Bundt pan tightly with plastic wrap and place in draft-free area until dough balls are puffy and have risen 1 to 2 inches from top of pan, 50 to 70 minutes.


Uncover and it will look like this –^


Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a platter and allow to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.

For the glaze: While the bread cools, whisk the confectioners’ sugar, milk, and vanilla paste in a small bowl until the lumps are gone.

Adapted from the Cook’s Illustrated Recipe

Cinnamon sticks


When you need to make monkey bread and you are out of cinnamon, you have no choice but to tear apart your pantry for solutions.  My solution came in the form of grinding cinnamon sticks until the looked like the above.  I had some extra sticks from Christmas projects that I wasn’t using so it worked out well increasing my storage space. Double score.  I was surprised how much the cinnamon tasted and smelled like those little red cinnamon bears.


Yes, these guys.

“Use it up” Pizza

Like many families, we love to make pizza on Fridays.  We’ve been making it from scratch almost every week since we first got married almost 8 years ago (wow!).  Personally, I prefer white pizza (like above) because it allows for a really great garlic flavor that is not being attacked by tomato sauce.  Don’t get me wrong, tomato sauce has its shining moments, but not today.

One of the reasons we make pizza on Fridays is to use up ingredients in the fridge or give leftovers new life again.  One of our favorite pizzas so far has been a steak, asparagus, and corn pizza.  All ingredients were from a previous meal and it was just…delicious. 

On this pizza, I started with a base of 1/4 c of olive oil and 2 cloves of pressed garlic.  If something is wrong with you and you don’t like a crazy amount of garlic flavor, I would suggest leaving the garlic in the oil for a day or so ahead of time or use 1 clove.  I used red onions left from hamburger toppings, some delicious local breakfast sausage from Homegrown Meats (a local grass-fed meat shop here in San Diego), mushrooms, thyme, chives and mozzarella

For this pizza dough, I tried out my snazzy new ipad bread app from Michael Ruhlman.

Pizza dough ratios:

20 oz bread flour

12 oz water

2 tsp salt

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

Measure the ingredients the bowl for your mixer.

Mix them until smooth and elastic and you can stretch a piece of the dough and almost see through it (usually 10 min).

Let it rise for a few hours until doubled.

Knead the dough for a few minutes then shape into a disc.

Cover it  and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Roll it out add add whatever you want!

Bake at 450 degrees.

I loved this crust for its soft insides but stable, crisp outsides.  I will make again, fo sho.

Everyone needs a sick day

Camper Crayons

My little buddy and I decided crayons in the shape of a camper would give his 4th birthday party an extra touch of awesomeness.  I immediately ordered the only camper mold (super good deal) I could find.  What I didn’t expect was this project to be one of the most relaxing, child-involved projects I’ve done TO THIS DAY.
Start with any chocolate mold or even the synthetic rubber ice cube trays from IKEA would work.

Now the fun part.  What phrase is always said while kids are using crayons? 

“Please, don’t peel the paper off”. 

How cool would you be to say, “Please, take the paper off of all 64 of these crayons”?  Very Cool.

They did this for 45 lovely minutes and never fought once.  We had a great chat about our favorite colors.

Any method is acceptable. Boots are optional.

These crayons are non-toxic.

I love them.

Leonard caught between his morning nap and mid-morning nap.

Melt desired colors in microwave and pour in the mold.  My molds were not microwave safe. Leave them to set for 20 min on the counter or put them in the freezer to speed up the process.

My molds were a little big but I would definitely try this again with smaller molds and my stash of crayon nubs.

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