Go ape for monkey bread
Go ape for monkey bread
On a crisp Friday morning, a man walked into Wayne’s Spring Mill Bread Co. and wondered aloud what to order. “Maybe monkey bread,” he said.
“Monkey bread is always good,” replied co-owner Lori Kerpius. “For the office? They will love you.”
“They’ll go bananas,” the customer quipped.
“The monkey bread has proven to be a top seller,” Kerpius later explained. “It’s a cinnamon pull-apart bread. It’s our white bread with cinnamon chips inside the dough. And then on top, it has cinnamon, brown sugar and butter.”
The final ingredient: nostalgia for her mother’s monkey bread.
“I don’t know if we called it ‘bubble bread’ or ‘monkey bread,’ but I remember her making one,” she said.
“It reminds me of when I was younger,” agreed Timothy Mourer of The Happy Mixer Gluten Free Bakery in Chalfont. “My mom used to make monkey bread as a special thing on the holidays, which was fun.”
He expects to sell “close to 400 loaves” during Christmas week.
“I think at the holidays, people really like to treat themselves to something unique,” Mourer described.
Author and baking guru Rose Levy Beranbaum slips chocolate inside her classic brioche dough for “Monkey Dunkey Bread,” so named “because each ball of dough is dunked into a butter-sugar mixture before placing it in the pan.”
But monkey bread can be savory too. Sabrina Quairoli of Collegeville serves Greek monkey bread with feta, sun-dried tomatoes and kalamata olives.
“I love to experiment and tweak recipes just like my mother used to do,” said the home cook and professional
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
No monkey bread story would be complete without addressing its name. “The name ‘monkey bread’ is believed to have derived from the casual way in which the balls of dough are piled into the pan before baking,” wrote Rose Levy Beranbaum in her book “The Baking Bible.” Some think it resembles a monkey puzzle tree. But Nancy Reagan, who served monkey bread at the White House, offered another reason. ‘’Because when you make it, you have to monkey around with it,” she explained in a 1982 New York Times article.
Meet the author
Meet award-winning author Rose Levy Beranbaum on Saturday, Dec. 17 from 12 to 2 p.m. at Fante’s Kitchen Shop, 1006 S. 9th St. Philadelphia. organizer, who shares tips on her blog, Sabrina’s Organizing. “You could probably even make it with pizza dough in little balls.”
“The kids love it,” she added. “It was gone within maybe four hours.”
Greek Monkey Bread
Servings: 8 to 12
INGREDIENTS
2 to 3 jumbo cans Pillsbury Grands! biscuit dough 1 1⁄4 cup grated Locatelli Romano cheese 1⁄2 cup feta cheese 1⁄2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, diced 1⁄2 cup kalamata olives, diced 2⁄3 cup of olive oil (extravirgin) 3 tablespoons dried oregano 1 teaspoon granulated garlic 1⁄2 teaspoon red pepper flakes Salt and pepper to taste (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Use cooking spray and coat a Bundt pan. Set aside. Cut each Grands! biscuit into quarters and roll each quarter into a ball. Set aside on a cookie sheet, so they don’t stick to one another. Mix the grated Romano cheese, feta cheese, sundried tomatoes (diced), kalamata olives, oregano, garlic, red pepper flakes. Then add the oil slowly and stir it into the mix. Add the Grands! biscuit balls a few at a time until you add the entire amount into the bowl. Coat completely. Layer the coated balls into the Bundt pan. Bake until golden brown or about 45 minutes. Let sit for 15 minutes before removing from mold. Note: if you have an issue with the center not being cooked, just put the slice back and return it the Bundt and bake an additional 10 minutes or more. Serve warm or room temperature with tomato sauce.
Monkey Dunkey Bread
Makes about 32 (2-inch) buns
INGREDIENTS
Dough: Classic brioche dough (See NOTE 1) (make 1 day ahead) About 1 cup chocolate pearls or bittersweet mini chips, 55- to 62-percent cacao Dunking sauce: 10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter 1 tablespoon corn syrup 1⁄2 cup, firmly packed light brown muscovado sugar, or dark brown sugar Special equipment: One 10-inch (16 cups) two-piece metal tube pan, lightly coated with nonstick cooking spray and a foil-lined baking sheet
INSTRUCTIONS
Making the dunking sauce: In a medium microwavable bowl (or in a saucepan over medium heat), melt the butter with the corn syrup and brown sugar, stirring once or twice (or constantly, if over direct heat) until the mixture comes to a boil. (An instant-read thermometer should read about 200 degrees.) Set it aside to cool just until warm, about 1 hour, and then set it in a warm place. Roll and fill the dough: Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and divide it in half. Cover one half and refrigerate it. Roll the other half into a 4- by 4-inch square. Use a sharp knife to cut it into 1- by 1-inch squares to make 16 pieces. Roll the dough into balls, flouring your fingers lightly if necessary. Keep the dough covered as much as possible, so that it doesn’t dry. With a small rolling pin or wooden dowel, roll each ball into a 2-inch disc. Use your fingers to press the edges gently to make them thinner. Set about 1 teaspoon of the chocolate pearls or chips on the center. Bring up the dough to encase the chocolate and pinch the top firmly to seal the dough. Place the dough, pinched side down, on the counter, and with a cupped hand placed over it, roll it into a smooth ball. Place it on a baking sheet. Cover the balls as they are shaped with plastic wrap that has been lightly coated with nonstick cooking spray, and roll the rest of the dough. Set the dough balls in the refrigerator. Repeat rolling, filling and shaping with the second piece of dough. When rolling the dough balls, it is best to work quickly so that the dough does not start to rise. Compose the bread: Whisk the dunking sauce to a uniform consistency. Starting with the refrigerated balls, gently dunk them 1 at a time into the dunking sauce, coating all sides. Set the coated balls in the prepared pan, pinched side down and slightly apart, because they will expand during rising. (A flat whisk, fork, or small slotted spoon works well for dunking the balls and placing them in the pan, but you can also use your fingers.) Stir the dunking sauce often to keep it from separating. When completed, the dough balls will fill the pan about one-third full. Drizzle any remaining dunking sauce over the balls. Cover the pan with plastic wrap that has been lightly coated with nonstick cooking spray. Let the dough balls rise in a warm place (ideally at 75 to 85 degrees) for 50 minutes to 1 1⁄2 hours until they expand and when pressed lightly with a fingertip, the depression
fills in very slowly. The buns will expand sideways rather than in height. Preheat the oven: Twenty minutes or longer before baking, set an oven rack at the lowest level and set the prepared baking sheet on it. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the bread: Set the pan on the hot baking sheet. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the bread is golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. (An instant-read thermometer inserted into the dough part of one of the balls, between the outside and the center tube of the pan, should read about 190 degrees.) The balls will have risen to fill the pan about half full. Make the glaze (See NOTE 1): While the buns are baking, make the caramel drizzle glaze (alternatively, the glaze can be made up to 3 days ahead). More NOTE 1: Find the classic brioche and caramel drizzle glaze recipes on our website. NOTE 2: Some 10-inch tube pans will measure only 12 cups, which is fine. The buns will rise to fill this smaller pan about threequarters full.