Day 28: Monkeyin' Around

Monkey Bread, Bubble Loaf, Hungarian Coffee cake, Golden Crown, Pinch-me Cake, or whatever name pleases your fancy can be summed up in three simple words: gooey, sticky, and yummy! (Unhealthy can be added to that list too...) First appearing in recipe magazines in the 1930s, monkey bread is a simple breakfast pastry generally composed of biscuit dough, cinnamon, and sugar. Additional ingredients may include chocolate chips, caramel, and nuts of some sort. The best thing about this delicious treat are the theories developed to explain its name. First, there is the theory that this bread resembles the Monkey Puzzle Tree. A second theory believes the name originates due to the fact that the act of people pulling at the bread is reminiscent of monkey behavior. (I of course prefer the second of the two.) Whatever the reason behind the name it is an undeniable fact that monkey bread is one of the most scrumptious and simple baked goods that a person with an IQ of 10 should be able to make. You simply purchase a can of biscuit dough and cut the dough into squares or square-like shapes. You can either roll them into a ball at this stage or fill them with caramels or chocolate chips or M&Ms or whatever candy comes to mind. Then roll the dough balls into a 4:1 mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Take a baking pan of some sort (any will do but the most common is a bundt pan), grease it, arrange the dough, melt a stick of butter, pour on top, and bake at 375 degrees till golden, brown, and delicious. Simple as that!

Here's a recipe for a savory version...courtesy allrecipes.com...

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons finely chopped green onions
3 tablespoons parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs
2 (1 pound) loaves frozen bread dough, thawed
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS
Grease a 10 inch Bundt pan or tube pan.

In a medium bowl, mix together the green onion, parsley, garlic powder, salt, butter and eggs until well blended. Break the bread dough off in walnut-sized pieces, and dip each piece into the egg mixture.

Place coated dough balls into the prepared pan. Once there is a layer of balls covering the bottom of the pan, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Repeat, sprinkling each layer with cheese until everything is in the pan. Cover loosely, and let rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.


Ok...that puzzle tree theory has got to be bogus...that looks nothing like monkey bread....