Pizza Monkey Bread

Pizza Monkey Bread

This past Saturday I told Shawn that I don’t think I’ll be blogging much anymore. He said to wait for the winter before I do anything rash…like deactivate my website. So I’ll leave it live for now but much has changed since my last post and frankly I don’t really feel like posting recipes anymore.

I’m still baking all our bread, trying out new, fun recipes for dinners and desserts and loading up my cellar with cases upon cases of Ball jars for the upcoming canning season.

That’s all the same so what’s changed you ask?

1)      We bought a house June 9^th!

2)      We repainted the entire interior and exterior and did extensive yard remodeling to said 3000 square foot house.

3)      I built a website and basically helped start a business for Shawn. It’s a vacation rental business. He has three condos for rent now and is super busy managing them. I’m super busy updating the website and teaching him how to use our paypal merchant account.

4)      I got a full time job with benefits!

5)      We have an herb garden! And a kitty named Kiki that comes and visits me in the evenings when she goes out to hunt quail.

So we’re busy. J

I started the blog as a way to fill my days with something productive back when I wasn’t working. I really enjoyed it and I made a bit of cash off it too!

But now my life has changed for the better and I’m not sure where blogging fits into the mix. I know a lot of you enjoyed reading the blog posts so I’m going to try to add a really great recipe to the site whenever I can but I’m thinking once or twice a month instead of once or twice a week.

And because all of you read this for the recipes and not my personal musings I’ve included a recipe in this post for you….

Pizza Monkey Bread.

Little balls of dough coated in an herb butter mixture and topped with parmesean cheese. It’s like bite sized mini garlic bread! We ate a third of the batch in one sitting. Then I biked to work every day for a week and ate broccoli for lunch to make up for it ;)

This was the first new recipe I baked in my new supersized kitchen. For our 1 year anniversary we received a brand new set of the Williams Sonoma Gold Touch bakeware including the anniversary bundt pan. I barely needed to grease the pan and the bread just popped right out! All of the bakeware is the best I’ve ever worked with however the loaf pans are AMAZING! If you are an avid baker this line is so worth the extra cash.

Pizza Monkey Bread

From What’s Gabby Cooking

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 cups Bread flour
• 1 cup AP flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup Butter, melted
• 2/3 cup Pecorino Romano cheese, grated
• 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 5 Scallions, chopped
• 10 Basil Leaves, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 cup Marinara or Pizza sauce

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the Bread flour, AP flour and salt. Set aside.
3. Combine the active yeast and water in a mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook. Let it sit for a few minutes to make sure your yeast is working. Add the sugar and mix for a quick second. Add the flour mixture in batches, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Let the dough hook work its magic for 5-6 minutes until the dough has come together into a large mass. Remove the dough to an oiled bowl and let rise for 60 minutes.
4. After an hour, remove the dough from the bowl and cut into small 1/2 inch cubes. Dust with flour to prevent them from sticking together. Set aside.
5. Butter and flour 6 small bundt pans. (You could also use a large bundt pan)
6. Melt the butter in a small bowl.
7. Combine the cheese, herbs, salt/pepper and garlic in a large bowl. Add the melted butter and mix together with a spoon. Toss in the cut dough and make sure it all gets a coat of the butter mixture. Start layering the cubes into the bundt pans until they are 3/4 of the way full. Let sit for 30 minutes for the dough to rise a little more.
8. Place bundt pans into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until the bread and cheese is golden brown. Serve with warmed marinara sauce or pizza sauce.

Hot Cross Buns with Cardamom

Hot Cross Buns with Cardamom

Wondering what I've been up to lately?

I've been biking, hiking, baking, canning, trying out new recipes for pitas, English muffins and naan, and looking at houses....lots and lots of houses. 

The past few weeks have been stressful. I officially hate house shopping. I used to love it. Now shady banks and real estate agents have ruined it for me. This is supposed to be the fun part...its not, and by a long shot. I daydream about sore muscles from painting all day, aching backs from scrubbing floors and moving furniture and headaches from setting up our current home into a vacation rental. Yes, that's weird but at least all that discomfort means we'll be settled in our new home. And settled there for the next 30 years at least cause it's going to be at least that long for Shawn to convince me to do this again.

Know what else is weird? Posting a recipe for Hot Cross Buns in June. It's more of an Easter recipe but hot cross buns are MY FAVOURITE. And I think I deserve one of my favourites right about now. ;-)

Hot Cross Buns with Cardamom - lower fat recipe!

This recipe is amazing! Soft, perfectly spiced warm pillows of slightly sweet happiness!

Hot Cross Buns with Cardamom
by Kaitlyn McFadden


Ingredients :

•  2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar (I reduced to 1/4 cup)
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 1/4 cups lukewarm soy milk
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup craisins

Icing:
 *use more sugar or less milk to make the frosting more thicker if you like a 'piped look' to your buns.

• 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

Directions

1. Place warm water in the bowl of your stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast over the water. Let stand until dissolved and frothy, about 5 minutes.
2. Add sugar, cardamom, 1 1/4 cups of milk, applesauce and egg to the yeast mixture. Stir with the paddle attachment on medium to combine. Add 1 cup whole wheat flour and 2 cups all purpose flour while speed is on low until a ball is formed. Switch attachment to the dough hook and add raisins and craisins. Knead on low for 8-10 minutes adding remaining flour by the 1/4 cup if needed. ie. if the dough is too sticky. Dough should be smooth, supple, and elastic when properly kneaded.
3. Form into a bowl and place in a large oiled bowl. Cover and let rest until doubled, about 45mins to 1 hour.
4. Punch dough down, divide into 12 portions and shape into balls pinching tightly at the bottom to make a taunt surface area. Place them into a greased 9x13 inch baking dish evenly spaced out; 4 rows 3 across. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rest and rise again. Approximately 30 to 40 minutes. 
5. Preheat the oven to 350F. Remove the plastic wrap from the rolls. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. 
6. Make frosting by whisking together the confectioners' sugar, 1/4 cup of milk and extract until smooth. I used a little extra powdered sugar to make my frosting more paste like. When the buns are cool, pipe frosting over them in a cross shape.