Bakefest 2011: Monkey Bread

Hi everyone.  It’s been a while hasn’t it.  The blog may have been quiet but my kitchen hasn’t, hence the title.

Recently, my husband and son went away on a “Boys weekend” (actually it was a weekday but it doesn’t sound as catchy).  So, before they left I decided I needed to send them on their way with a hearty breakfast.  I found a recipe for something I had never heard of before. Monkey Bread.  It checked all the boxes – doughy, sugary, buttery, warm with cinnamon.  Yum!  It rang my bell and it was immediately put on my menu.

Bells and I have discussed a lot about preparing bread overnight so that it can be popped into the oven in the morning.  She has proven it is possible, but I needed to try it myself.

Thankfully Ken (my Kenwood Chef) took a lot of the kneading responsibilities for the bread.  He’s such a compliant little appliance.  All I had to do what stand and marvel and then give my dough a warm place to rise.  After the first rise, the dough is cut into many pieces (recipe says 64 pieces) but I didn’t count.  You roll each piece of dough between your hands and then (this is the best part), dip them in melted butter and THEN brown sugar and cinnamon!!!  How about that!

And then they rose overnight in the cold fridge!

All crispy and golden from the oven and then iced with a simple mix of icing sugar and milk.

 

The fun thing with this bread was slowly piling up all the delicious little balls in my bundt pan.  It was so relaxing and gave me a great sense of achievement as I kept peaking in the fridge at the little morsels growing by the hour.  I loved serving it up to the boys (and myself).  Obviously, it was way too much for the three of us to devour at once.  We found ourselves nibbling on it during the morning.  I have frozen the remainder for another day…soon…maybe tomorrow…

You may wonder why I have titled this blog post “Bakefest 2011”.  Well, as my boys were going away for a few days I decided to have a few girlfriends over to feast on some sweets and chat the night away.  So I went a little crazy and baked a few things for their arrival.

A gorgeous Lemon Meringe Pie from another blogger’s site (mine tasted great but was not as pretty – so you can see her creation instead). Nigella’s Crunchy Peanut Nut bars and some gorgeous little mini-cupcakes.

 

Of course, I over catered.  I couldn’t help myself.  Never mind… my workplace benefited the next day.  However, I am now temporarily “baked-out” after Bakefest2011.  But I think it’s safe to say that I will be back in the kitchen any moment now…

 

Delly