Scrambled eggs and cereal are fine workaday breakfasts, but the holidays (and the visitors that come knocking) demand something a little more special. Sweet or savory, just give us something festive to wake up to: stratas, waffles, shirred eggs, coffee cake, panettone!
These are not your usual contests. We have a slightly nutty system but it works. Together, the Food52 community has created two cookbooks this way -- there’s no stopping us now. Read about it
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A simple set of ingredients: butter, cornmeal, cream, vanilla, egg, flour, milk and nutmeg.
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Amanda goes it alone for this spoon bread, first mixing together the dry ingredients.
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Sand jar!
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Once the dry ingredients are whisked together, Amanda moves onto the wet ingredients.
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Milk, eggs, nutmeg melted butter, vanilla and a dash of white vinegar (trust us, it works!) mingle happily.
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Then, it's a slow, steady stir to combine the wet with the dry.
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A little more butter goes into a hot baking pan, which melts it and makes it easy to spread.
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In goes the batter, which starts to cook around the edges immediately because of the hot pan.
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The final touch: a puddle of cream poured slowly and steadily right into the center before baking.
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It puffs beautifully, doesn't it?
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There are no special ingredients for monkey bread -- you probably have most of them in your pantry already: cloves, yeast, nutmeg, sugar, milk, ginger, cinnamon, molasses, brown sugar, flour, and butter.
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The yeast proofs (center) while Amanda assembles the liquids: milk, butter and molasses.
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Well-behaved yeast (fluffy!) confiding in the spices.
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The dip-and-sweep method for measuring flour.
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The flour and spices go right into the mixer -- if you don't have a mixer, just use a bowl and a wooden spoon.
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Pouring the molasses mixture into the dry ingredients.
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The earth brown dough forming.
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Next, the yeast is added.
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Amanda likes to caress the mixer.
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After kneading in the mixer, you want to knead it by hand for a minute just to bring it together into a smooth ball.
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Isn't she pretty?
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You drop it into the oiled bowl, then turn it so both sides are coated with oil.
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After rising.
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Winding up the for the punch-down.
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Deflation!
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After shaping and flattening, you cut the dough into strips. Amanda likes using a simple plastic dough scraper.
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You then cut the strips into small lumps. 64(ish) of them. Don't get too worked up about getting the number right.
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Shaping the lumps into balls.
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You dip the balls one at a time into melted butter, then brown sugar. The balls are then dropped into a well-buttered bundt pan. Don't over crowd them -- you want to give them room to breathe.
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After baking, you need to invert the monkey bread onto a plate. The moment of truth...
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... and spazzing out.
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Peeking under the hood.
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Delight/insanity.
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