Thursday, November 3, 2016

Midweek Roundup: "Absolutely more-ish"


Photo by Catherine
Phyllis Caroline Blog

What's not to like about brioche, chocolate, and caramel?  There were very few criticisms to be found as we ate our way through petite balls of this bread.  And that is the only way to get the word "petite" into the description of this bread, which is otherwise a Don't Step on the Scale for at Least Two Days kind of treat.

Catherine found it "delicious, time-consuming and very sweet," and that was without the caramel sauce, which would have made it even sweeter.  Next time she would omit the chocolate because "it didn't need it."  With or without caramel, with or without chocolate, even the generous Catherine was not sure she'd share it at work.

Katya also preferred a more simple version of this bread, the plainer monkey without the caramel pour-over and the chocolate filling.  That said, however, she admitted that when she told her colleagues what it was supposed to be like, she saw their "eyes glaze over with desire."  So next time she thought she'd take the version that would satisfy the most insatiable sweet tooth.

To Nicola, who nicknamed her bread "Resistance is Futile," this bread/cake was a reminder of why she had stopped baking for a year:  the recipes that are "totally amazing" and make "blood sugar spike."  She gave one to her son Isaac as a bedtime snack, and, after declaring it to be "totally amazing," he promptly went for more.  (Remember, Catherine warned that they were "more-ish.")

Raymond somehow "worked this in" along with some other kitchen projects (I have enough trouble doing one a week!), and found it "delish."  He also promised to either take his "weekend baking projects to work or share them with the neighbors....  I am sure that everyone is going to be wanting seconds."

Vicki, who loves the smell that baking brings to her kitchen, knew from "the lovely aroma" that the monkey bread was going to be something special.  And tasting it made her even more sure.  "This is definitely going to be a family favorite for years to come."

When I read Rachel's blog, I thought, for probably the 100th time, that doing a bake-through of Rose's recipes really does make you a better baker.  She recalls first hearing of monkey bread on a Martha Stewart show and thinking it looked good but complicated.  Then she bought a few versions, but they were disappointing.  So finally she made her own, and was not disappointed at all.  "This bread was so good!"  And, although it took a while, "the 'fiddle factor' was negligible" and "many tummies were happy."

Like Raymond, Kristina, playing catch-up, had a busy and productive weekend in the kitchen:  "2 loaves of bread, monkey dunkey brioche dough, and all of the components of cannoli."  With all that baking, though, when it came time to finish the monkey dunkey, she "looked at the instructions for filling the dough balls with chocolate, said 'No way!' and just made [it] without the chocolate, without the caramel sauce, and without gilding the lily with chocolate drizzle."  Still "plenty gilded" for a "great breakfast"!

Jen remembered making this monkey bread as a Beta Baker, at which time her tube pan leaked, making the predictable mess, so this time she made it in a bundt pan.  She didn't roll the dough--just pressed it into shape, and used chocolate chunks instead of chocolate perles, but otherwise, the monkey bread was pretty much as directed.  When Eliot tasted it, he said, "We are eating cake." When Mark tasted it, he said it might be his favorite Baking Bible project yet.  And when Jen tasted it, she said she was sure she would be making this for years to come.  I think we can all see this bread becoming a family tradition.

Rosa dropped the chocolate and the dunking sauce, fearing that it would be too sweet.  Instead, she added toasted pecans, as well as the caramel sauce.  Still "monkey," but not as "dunkey."  And still delicious.

Next week:  The Prune Preserves and Caramel Cream Cake Roll.  It's a lot of words, so you may just end up calling it that prune-y thing.

The countdown:  How has this happened?  Only six more baking projects left!


















7 comments:

  1. Marie, I was going to post my around 9:00. M.

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  3. I so loved the 🐒 dunkee bread. Sigh. Thanks for the round up Marie. What are you going to do with all your spare time in a few weeks?

    I do confess to loving a prune, especially since passing on sugar...

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  4. I love this monkey donkey bread, it’s delicious, here is my post Marie. .

    http://maggiggie55.blogspot.ca/2016/11/monkey-dunkey-bread.html?m=1

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  5. Well, This fabulous creation has caused a sensation. All love it. I still cannot manage to get my blog to work so I wrote a short blurb and took pictures so when I get it working I can post. Am moving on to the cake roll now.

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