Sweet Breakfast - 4/13/08

My lab was having a day to work on some special recipes for patients on a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, so I went ahead and made some carb-tastic breakfast treats for everyone to enjoy. For avid readers, you may remember my banana bread trio was for a very similar event.


Monkey pull-apart bread is a wonderful treat and quite easy to make. The only drawback is you have to let it sit for a while before you can do anything with it. First, buy frozen bread dough. Thaw one loaf of dough and rip it into balls about three-quarters to half the size of a golf ball. Melt half of a stick of butter and set it aside. Mix together three-quarters cup of sugar with 1.5 tsp of cinnamon and one-half cup of chopped nuts (walnut, pecan or another softer nut). Grease a Bundt or other round pan with a hole in it. Dip each bread dough ball into the butter and then into the cinnamon-sugar-nut mix. Place the balls into the greased pan in an even manner. I find the best way to do all of this is to have one hand grab the dough ball, dip it in butter and toss it into the cinnamon-sugar-nut mix bowl. Have the other hand cover the ball in the mix and place it in the pan. You can use this same method for breading meats with an egg wash/buttermilk and breadcrumbs/cornflakes. Next, you have to let the dough balls rise for 3-6 hours in a warm, draft-free location until they are doubled in size. After the dough has risen, you can refrigerate it until you are ready to bake it and the dough will remain raised. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. When you remove it from the oven, invert it onto a serving plate. Allow this to cool for a few minutes then eat it by pulling the balls out by hand. This is a very communal food, so germophobes need not attempt it unless they want it all for themselves.


I also made some muffins for breakfast. The first ones are cranberry-orange muffins that turned out a little dry (probably my fault). The other ones are apple-raisin-walnut mini- and regular-sized muffins. The second batch made so much batter that I made the minis, upgraded to the regulars and still had enough batter left over to make a muffin cake. I greased a 9" baking pan and filled it with what I had. I baked it until it was just done (it turned out very moist). To add insult to injury, I made a confectioner's sugar icing, flavored it with vanilla extract and drizzled it over the top of the sectioned pieces. Everyone raved about the food and devoured it quickly, which probably means I did something right.