Monkey Bread

For some reason or another, I only think to make Monkey bread during the holiday season--especially Thanksgiving. In my mind it is the sacred and essential Thanksgiving breakfast...a cinnamony beginning to the start of a day of feasting. This recipe can't be any more simple. You buy the cheap canned biscuits (Kroger has them for 48 cents a can), cut them into quarters, roll them in cinnamon and sugar, pour some margarine and honey on top, and you're done! Nothing is more fulfilling and strangely fun than picking off pieces of this dessert/bread masterpiece. (You can also easily add toasted walnuts or pecans to this and it would taste really great too).

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

4 cans of biscuits

2 tbsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. honey

1 stick margarine

Directions:

Cut biscuits into quarters. Mix sugar and cinnamon. Drop biscuits into sugar-cinnamon mixture. Place biscuits in a Bundt pan. Melt margarine. Pour margarine and honey into sugar-cinnamon mixture. Pour over biscuits. Bake 20 min. at 350 degrees. Turn out of pan immediately.

Pan Dulce

As I was flipping through the pages of one of my new cookbooks, the name of this bread caught my eye. It is a sweet bread made throughout Mexico. It has a dense bread-like texture with a sweet, crumbly topping. I would recommend everyone to try these simply because they are different. They are best served warm and in Mexico they are served with jam or marmalade for breakfast.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup lukewarm milk

2 tsp. active dried yeast

4 cups all-purpose flour

6 tbsp. caster (superfine) sugar

2 tbsp. butter, softened

4 large eggs, beaten

For the topping:

6 tbsp. butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 cup all-purpose flour

Recipe:

1. Pour the milk into a small bowl, stir in the dried yeast and leave in a warm place until frothy.

2. Put the flour and sugar in a mixing bowl, add the butter and eggs and mix to a soft, sticky dough.

3. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and dredge it with a little more flour. Using floured hands, turn the dough over and over until it is completely covered in a light coating of flour. Cover it with lightly oiled plastic wrap and leave to rest for 20 min.

4. Meanwhile, make the topping. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl, then gently mix in the egg yolk, ground cinnamon and flour. The mixture should have a slightly crumbly texture.

5. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and shape each of them into a ball. Space well apart on greased baking sheets. Sprinkle with the topping over the breads and press it lightly into the surface.

6. Leave the rolls in a warm place to stand for about 30 min. until they are about one and a half times their previous size (mine weren't that large). Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. and bake for 15 min.

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

With fall approaching I felt the impending desire to bake something involving the seasonal flavors: cinnamon, pumpkin, apple, etc. Thanks to the recent purchase of a few new cookbooks, I found a recipe that fit the majority of my "fallish" food cravings. These cinnamon and apple muffins are in fact supposed to be larger than pictured here, but I decided to make a few more smaller ones as opposed to six big ones...plus I didn't have any paper muffin liners and I thought that they would bake and come out of the tin more easily if they were smaller. Perhaps that logic is twisted because now that I think about it, it really makes no sense at all. :) Oh well, regardless the picture in my recipe book is of course much prettier and the muffins look much healthier and meatier, but I like my emaciated muffins just the way they are thank you. :) Feel free to use any kind of apple in this recipe as well. I chose the Gala apple because it is in season (and on sale [yes I am a cheap college student I admit]). Although Granny Smith apples are my favorite to eat by themselves, I wouldn't recommend them for this muffin because I think they would be a little too tart and clash with the flavor of the cinnamon. That of course is my own opinion...feel free to choose whichever apple you like. Ok enough of my ramblings and on to the recipe. Happy September all!

Ingredients:

1 egg, beaten

3 tbsp. caster (superfine) sugar

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon (I added a lot more)

2 small eating apples, peeled, cored, and finely chopped

For the topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. (or more) ground cinnamon

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large muffin tin with six paper cases (or in my case, not...)

2. Mix the egg, sugar, milk, and melted butter in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add the chopped apple and mix.

3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin cases. To make toping, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over the uncooked muffins.

4. Bake for 30-35 min.

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

How the candied pecans looked coming right from the stove.

...and how they look separated. They're all glossy!

When these came out the kitchen smelled like warm pumpkin and cinnamon.

Yet again it's another cold Saturday here in Memphis where the ice is coming down like mini hail. The weather predicts that soon it'll turn into snow. Yesterday the temperature was 63, and now it's 33 and icing...and people wonder why they're always sick here. I wanted something warm since it's so messy and cold outside, so what better than some warm bread?

I found this recipe from http://www.joyofbaking.com It's a pumpkin bread with nuts and a swirl of cream cheese. I thought it looked pretty, and I had the ingredients, so I decided to make it. One bad thing about this bread is that it uses up a lot of dishes. Another bad thing is that after I finished everything (cleaning included), I looked down to see that my cream jacket I have on has nice little splots of orange pumpkin bread batter all over the front. This is what I get for wearing cream I guess. It's kind of like when you eat spaghetti it's inevitable that you'll be wearing white that day.

Moving on from my inability to bake with dirtying myself, this bread tastes amazing...well ok the batter tastes really good, the bread is still baking in the oven. I did tweak the original recipe slightly though. I added some maple syrup and I made some candied pecans to go on top for an extra layer of crunch. If you didn't know--I'm all about multiple textures. I hate eating something with one texture; it's just not fun. If you look at the ingredient list and freak out that there's so much sugar and butter in it, remember that it's making two whole loaves of bread. It's not like you're eating 2 sticks of butter on your own, which reminds me of Kate Hudson in Bride Wars where she was in her Butter of the Month club. :)

Ingredients

Cream Cheese Filling:

8 ounce package cream cheese, room temperature (I used reduced fat)

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 & 1/2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

Pumpkin Bread:

1 cup pecans or walnuts

3 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 15-ounce can of pure pumpkin 

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 & 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in center of oven. Butter and lightly flour two 9 by 5 x 3 loaf pans. Set aside.

Toast nuts by placing on a baking sheet in oven for 8-10 min. Cool completely and coarsely chop. Set aside.

Cream cheese filling: In a food processor, process cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and process just until smooth; add eggs one at a time, processing just until incorporated. Don't over process. Stir in flour. Set Aside.

Pumpkin Bread:

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg; set aside. In another large bowl, whisk the eggs until lightly beaten. Add sugar and melted butter and whisk until blended. Whisk or stir in pumpkin, water, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and toatsed nuts. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and stir JUST until the ingredients are combined. Do not over mix b/c it will make the bread tough.

Divide the batter in half. Take on half and divide it evenly between the two prepared pans. Divide the cream cheese filling in half and place each half of filling on top the two pans of batter, smoothing the tops. Top with the remaining half of batter. Bake breads for about 50-60 min, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Place pans on wire rack and let them for for about 10 min. before removing breads from pans. Can serve warm, cold,or at room temperature. Store leftovers in the refrigerator or else freeze for later use. 

Candied Pecans:

From my last experience with cooks.com, I should've known NOT to use their recipes again...but I'm a nice person and I thought I'd give them a shot. Their candied pecan recipe was again a joke, so I had to tweak that too and hopefully it'll turn out ok.

Ingredients

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

5 tbsp. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 & 1/4 pecans

Bring salt, sugar, cinnamon, and milk to a boil. Let boil on medium heat for about 5 min. I put in a candy thermometer and it read about 220 degrees F. Let the mixture thicken and remove from heat. Add in vanilla and pecans. Pour on wax paper and let set, separating with a fork. 

Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Pretzels

I recently had an inclination to try and make pretzels for the first time. I scanned through a few recipes online and all of them called for around 5 cups of flour, which seemed like a lot to me. I thought it would end up making way too many pretzels than I wanted. I finally settled for this recipe on cooks.com, and boy was it a mistake. I've never seen a recipe have such ambiguous language in it!

All of the mixings ready to be beaten until "smooth and glossy"

The shape that I formed looked like a calzone.

 

All formed into their pretzels shapes and ready to be put in the oven.

My personal favorite was to wait until the dough was "satiny." What is that even supposed to mean? Then it was supposed to be "soft" butter...does that mean butter softened or a spreadable butter? Another favorite was that the batter was supposed to be beaten until it was smooth and glossy. Dough doesn't get glossy! So I basically just used the recipe as guidelines and took over for myself...not like I had any option.

The end result tasted just like a pretzel! They weren't bland necessarily, but I might add more brown sugar and cinnamon in my b/c I have a huge sweet tooth...more like a sweet mouth. But they taste great, not an overload of sugar that will make your teeth rot. They also make the house smell like those little pretzel places at the mall that when you pass, you feel like if you don't have a pretzel at the very moment--you'll die. :) Definitely try and make these though! Pretzels taste so much better when they're hot and soft compared to those hard store bought ones. They would taste wonderful with a skinny Cinnamon Dulce' Latte from Starbucks.

Ingredients

Pretzel Dough

1 pkg. active dry yeast (or 2 & 1/2 tsp.)

1 cup warm water

1/2 cup nonfat dry milk

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

3 cups flour (I used whole wheat flour)

Topping

2 1/2 tbsp. butter, melted

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions (with no help from cooks.com thank you)

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast with warm water; add dry milk and stir. Let stand 5 min. until  yeast foams or bubbles. Beat in 1/3 cup butter, salt, egg, 2 cups flour until well blended. Beat in 1 more cup of flour. Let dough stand for 15 min.

Sprinkle some flour on top of dough and turn onto a floured board. Knead for about 1 min., or until "satiny." Spray a large bowl well with nonstick cooking spray. Turn dough into this bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled, 1-2 hours. 

Turn onto lightly floured board. Roll to 12 x 14 inches. Spread half the dough with 1/4 of melted butter and sprinkle with 3/4 of sugar and cinnamon mixture. Fold unfilled dough over filling; press edges together (mine looked like a calzone). Cut into 12 strips. Separate strips and twist if the dough separates. Form into pretzel shape (see my picture if it helps...it's almost like a heart with the center touching the bottom). Lay pretzels seam side down on cooking sheets sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Use a baking brush to spread the remaining melted butter across the pretzels and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon and sugar on top. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 min. or until slightly brown and firm to the touch. 

Cappuccino Chip Muffins

I discovered this recipe off one of my new and favorite websites, http://www.cookiemadness.net It's actually a "celebrity recipe," apparently William Shatner likes these muffins a lot. The espresso powder is slightly hard to find so I suggest going to little Italian shops. I found this specific espresso powder at a place called Luccesi's. The espresso acts like a subtle background to the cake-lake muffins. The coffee also acts as the perfect counteract for the chocolate. I used mini muffins tins in my recipe, so adjust the cooking time to 8 min. Note: make sure the eggs, milk, and butter are all around room temperature, otherwise the muffins won't rise as well or they'll either be too tough. 

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. instant espresso powder

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1 large egg (room temperature)

1 cup milk (room temperature)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray. 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, cinnamon, and salt. 

In a medium bowl, whisk egg lightly. Whisk in milk, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and pour in milk mixture. Stir JUST until evenly blended (over stirring will make the muffins tough). Stir in chocolate chips.

Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake 8-15 min. for regular-sized muffin pans, or 7-9 min. for mini-muffins pans. 

Pomegranate Pistachio and Banana Bread

This bread is my favorite bread ever...hands down. I'm not a huge bread person in general, but oh my goodness this bread is so marvelous. The mashed bananas keep it moist, but the buttery pistachios add a nutty flavor and the darling little pomegranates add a citricy burst. Not only does this taste so wonderful, but when you open your oven door, the kitchen is filled with this overwhelming bread aroma. I had to look online how to score and de-seed a pomegranate. You chop off the tip of the pomegranate, score it in four sections (slide your knife down four sections), and put it in water where the membrane will float to the top and the seeds are easily pulled off. Here's a link just in case my instructions didn't make sense. Each slice of bread has around 162, depending on how small or large you cut it. http://video.about.com/gourmetfood/Pomegranate.htmhttp 

Ingredients:

1 cup arils (the pomegranate seeds. I used two pomegranates)

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 & 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2-3 bananas, mashed (1 cup)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup shelled pistachios, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease one 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan. In a large bowl stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl stir together bananas, oil, milk, and egg; stir into flour mixture with the arils and chopped pistachios just until moistened; do not over-mix. Spoon batter into prepared pan. If desired, sprinkle a few whole shelled pistachios and a few additional arils over the batter for garnish. Bake for 50-60 min. until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 min.; remove loaf from pan and cool on wire racks. Store bread tightly covered; or wrap tightly in foil and freeze for up to 1 month.

Cranberry Whole-Grain Muffins

The tender muffins, studded with cranberries and nuts and scented with orange are 100% whole-grain. This traditional Thanksgiving flavor combination, in muffin form, make a delicious and healthy start to your day of feasting. Pair this with the cider and you've got a great combination!

For Muffins:

1 & 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cup quick-cooking oats

1/4 cup nonfat dry milk

2/3 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup fresh, frozen, or dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts *(I toasted mine and sprinkled them with cinnamon when they were still hot. Toasting the nuts always enhance their flavor and make a huge difference)

1 tbsp. finely grated fresh orange zest

2 large eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

For glaze:

2 tbsp. orange juice

3 tbsp. sugar

Directions:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin  cups or line muffin cups with liners. Whisk together flour, oats, powdered milk, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.  Add cranberries and nuts. Whisk together orange zest, eggs, ilk, and oil. Stir into dry ingredients until just combined. Divide batter among muffin cups and bake for 18-20 min., or until they are golden brown. Cool in pan on rack for 5 min., then turn out onto rack. 

To make glaze:

Stir together orange juice and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Brush the tops of the muffins with the mixture while still warm.