Monkey Balls! (I mean bread, Monkey Bread)

Wow, I have not proved myself to be much of a blogger of late. I plan on being better, just so ya know. To make it up to all of you, I made Monkey Balls! No it's bread, no it's balls! It's bread in the shape of balls with the taste of scumptious cinnamon buns. I had never heard of these till my lovely Jennifer brought it to my attention and Oh WOW are they good! She sent me the link to the recipe on the awesome smitten kitchen website, which I highly recommend. Thank you Yen! I wish I had taken pictures of us eating them, just set out on the table with forks. Pick the balls off one at a time and enjoy. You can drizzle the cream cheese glaze over the top, or have it on the side and dip'em in! They prove to be a hit for all. So, make some bread, shape it into balls, dip all the balls in some butter, sugar and cinnamon, rise and rise again, bake and partake. Dribble dribble slurp slurp.

Serves a lot.

Dough
4 tbsp. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter (divided- 2 tbsp. softened, 2 tbsp. melted)
1 cup milk, warm (about 110 degrees)
1/3 cup water, warm (about 110 degrees also)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 package (or 2 1/4 tsp. of rapid rise, instant or bread machine yeast)
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for work surface
2 tsp. table salt


Brown Sugar Coating
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)

Cream Cheese Glaze
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 tbsp. powdered sugar, plus more if needed
2 tbsp. milk, plus extra if needed
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Make sure the oven rack is in the middle or middle-lower position. Heat the oven to 200 degrees, and once it hits 200, turn it off and keep the door closed. Grease the Bundt pan with 2 tablespoons (or less) of butter and put it aside.

In a bowl, mix together the milk, water, melted butter, yeast and sugar.

To make the dough with a standing mixer, use the hook attachment. First, mix the flour and salt together. Then, turn the machine to the low setting and slowly add the milk mixture. When the dough comes together, turn the machine to the medium-high setting and mix till the dough is smooth and shiny, about 6-7 minutes. If the dough is too sticky to come together, add flour a tablespoon at a time. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead into a smooth, round ball.

To make the dough by hand, mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Dig a small hole-type of well into the flour and slowly pour the milk mixture in. Using a wooden spoon, stir the milk and flour together till it becomes a hard-to-stir sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and begin to knead it all back together. Knead until it's smooth and shiny, about 10 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball and keep on going...

Coat a large mixing bowl with your choice of lubricant, nonstick cooking spray, or a tablespoon of neutral oil. I just used more butter. Put the dough in the bowl and lubricate it with more cooking spray, oil or butter. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place in the warm, and turned off, oven to let it rise till it's doubled in size, for about an hour.

Flip the dough out of the bowl and onto a floured surface.

Pat gently into an 8 inch square.

Using a kitchen tool of some sort (I used a simple butter knife) cut the dough into 64 squares, to become balls in the next step. Before you do this, now is a good time to melt the butter and let it cool for the dipping process.

You'll want to separate the pieces right away, otherwise they'll band back together, re-conjoin to become one big piece of dough once more.

Ball up the dough (by rolling around in the palms of your hands) and submerge in the melted butter. A fork made this much easier.

Still using the fork (unless you don't wanna) roll the balls in the sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Place the butter covered, sugar/cinnamon covered balls in the greased up Bundt pan in a non-uniform, staggered non-pattern.

Cover the Bundt pan tightly with plastic wrap, and put it in the turned-off oven to let it rise once again. Give it about 50-70 minutes to rise, till the bread balls are puffed up and have risen to about 1-2 inches from the top of the pan.

Bake the Monkey Balls at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes, until they are brown in color and the sugar has caramelized (slurp). They may or may not bubble, mine never did, but were just so good! Excuse me while I get some water, for I am now salivating...

After baking, let the bread cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. The recipe on smitten kitchen says not to leave it in the pan for more than 5 minutes as you'll have a hard time getting it out. I found that it needed a few more minutes, maybe 7 or 8 to cool, so it would all come out in one piece. The following photo is what happened when it didn't come out in one piece. Still amazingly delicious, just not as attractive.

The next couple photos is when it came out all in one piece, beautifully.

And the glaze...

Beat the cream cheese with the powdered sugar till it's smooth and light. Add the milk and vanilla, which amounts can be adjusted as you please to make the texture thin enough to dribble down the sides, yet thick enough so it stay stuck to the Monkey Balls.

YUM!

It's New Years Eve, this is my first blogging!

...Wake up. 9:30. Let the cat in, as her vocal talents exceed my own first thing in the morning.

Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day! Southern California can be annoyingly perfect weather but some days that's just what you want. Yesterday was rain, today we move on from the rain.

...Joe leaves for work, I get up. Splash my face with water, the morning business. Make coffee! Sometimes I'll make Zhena's tea in the coconut chai form, to wake myself up a bit. I should not be having coffee, as it gives me the shakes a bit. Today, however, it is the french press, with the real deal.

Today is New Years Eve, and the start of my primarily baking blog. I hadn't thought of it before now, but to start something on the last day of the year doesn't usually happen. What good would come from me waiting one more day? When it is time, it is time. And right now, it is time to push down the french press...

Today, I shall be baking some bread. It is a plain loaf of white bread. Well, two plain loaves in fact (since that is what the recipe says). From the joy of Cooking, an essential kitchen reference. Starting simple with what I've done before, as to not disappoint myself on this glorious first day of blogging. This idea originated (to me) from my mother back on Long Island when I was probably 8 years old or so. What she did, and I now do, with this magnificent bread... is get it all ready in the dough form, then roll it our like a thick pizza dough. Then you make pizza on it, yes that's right, make pizza as what turns out to be INSIDE the bread. Insert picture here... No no, nevermind, it's up on the top of the page (ha!). So that's the pizza bread. Today, however I am going to make a sweeter version rather than this savory masterpiece (I say masterpiece not because I believe I am that good, but because this bread is that friggin good, Thanks Mom!). Today, I will roll out the bread dough and spread some blueberry preserves over as if it were tomato sauce. Well, maybe not that much of it, but i'll take pictures and show you. Ok... here we go! I'll be back later with more.